Announcing the Recipients of the 2025–27 Research Grants

Alserkal Arts Foundation announces the recipients of the third cycle of their Research Grants, awarded to EcoRove, Rouzbeh Akhbari and Working Group: Non-Aligned Constellations.

Their projects engage with pressing ecological, geopolitical, and cultural questions through documentary, archival investigations, and participatory methodologies. They examine the role of political and ecological forces in shaping communities, trade networks, and artistic legacies, offering critical insights into the significance of transnational exchanges.

EcoRove, with Jumanah Abbas, Iyad Abou Gaida, and Em Joseph, is a collaborative, multimedia research initiative examining ecological devastation—termed “green colonialism”—in the Levant. Their project, Land Keepers, is a documentary film and multimedia installation exploring how acts of environmental destruction, such as soil theft and military buffer zones, impact local communities. Through historical analysis and documentary, the project highlights the resilience of farmers, shepherds, and activists struggling for environmental justice in South Lebanon, and in occupied territories of Southern Syria and Palestine.

Artist and human geographer Rouzbeh Akhbari investigates the evolving economic and social landscapes along the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC). Through ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, the project sheds light on the maritime borderscapes of the Musandam Peninsula in the Gulf of Oman and Astara in Azerbaijan, examining how transnational infrastructures reshape economic and social life while intersecting with long-standing informal frameworks of trade and labour.

Curators Angelina Radaković, Bojana Piškur, and Natalija Vujošević—forming the Working Group: Non-Aligned Constellations—revisit the cultural exchanges fostered by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Following the paths of connection, initially intertwined through the Southern Constellations project at Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, and their collaboration with The Art Collection of Non-Aligned Countries Laboratory at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro which was also on display at The Mosaic Rooms in London, they now expand their research on the connections of the Gallery of Art of the Non-Aligned Countries Josip Broz Tito (Titograd, 1981–95). Through a constellation-based methodology, their research invites critical Global South perspectives, aiming to renew the international communications and exchanges nurtured by the collection itself. By employing participatory approaches, the project seeks to reestablish links with cultural practitioners from these networks, offering new interpretations of artistic solidarity and political engagement.

The selection committee for this cycle of grants included Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Maya El Khalil, Rupali Gupte, and Shandana Khan Mohmand.

Since 2019, Alserkal Arts Foundation has supported independent artists, writers, researchers and collectives in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, focusing on projects in South Asia, West Asia, and Africa. Awarded for a two-year period, the research grants support experimental research that challenges conventional modes of practice and representation. The cycle culminates in the Foundation hosting a public presentation of their projects through a convening in Dubai.

Previous research grant recipients have included Léa Morin, Manar Moursi, Shahana Rajani, Jeanne Penjan Lassus, Zainab Gaafar, Khalda El Jack, Natasha Maru, Rhea Shah, Lubnah Ansari and Maitha AlSuwaidi.

Follow alserkal.online/foundation to stay updated as the projects unfold.