The last stretch of January: Where to be this weekend in the Middle East

January gets a bad rep for feeling like the longest month of the year, which I find unfair. Why are we obsessed with time passing by softly, idly?

For this month's last weekend, we hope to change your mind about January with a lineup of exhibitions and events that will make you want to linger.

Every Thursday, L’Orient Today, in partnership with The MYM Agenda, guides you through events across the Middle East that are more than worth your time.

What to do this weekend in Beirut:

Longtime photographers Fouad Elkoury and Jeremy Peacock present their latest exhibition at Galerie Tanit in Mar Mikhael, opening this Thursday.

With over four decades of experience, their lenses have witnessed and captured every major event in the region. "Le Cerf-Volant" is a time capsule of their time in Gaza in 1994 and 1995. Made for history, photography and journalism buffs, the work and reputations of these two artists speak for themselves.

For more information, click here.

What to do this weekend in Dubai:

Anahita Razmi questions everyday symbols through the lens of Roland Barthes. Showing "The Task of the Mythologist" at CARBON 12, she builds on Barthes' theory of symbols birthing myths to explore global power structures in our lives.

The fingers-crossed emoji, the Turkish talismanic shirt, the ‘90s Britpop emblem all have volatile meanings that shift depending on context and use. Because they're so embedded in our everyday lives, their meanings only reveal themselves when you peel the layers away and question each one.

For more information, click here.

What to do this weekend in Medina:

Home to centuries of history and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Saudi Arabia's Al-Ula desert will host Desert X Al-Ula for its fourth edition.

Artists were inspired by Lebanese poet and philosopher Gebran Khalil Gebran’s meditations on possibility and perception to transform a desert into an open-air gallery that's not just a heat stroke hallucination.

For more information, click here.

What to do this weekend in Doha:

Mathaf: Arab Museum for Modern Art brings together 15 artists who refuse to be censored.

Its group exhibition, "we refuse_d" was curated as a response to two-years of international censorship of artists who dared to speak up against Israel's war on Gaza.

How do you create art under conditions of silencing, censorship, and displacement? And is there ever an option not to create?

The artists' work delves into the necessity of creation as a form of collective care, built on persistence and resistance.

For more information, click here.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Stay up to date with all these events and more everywhere in the Arab world through the MYM Agenda, available on our website here.