Where we choose to be—that is no simple thing. To belong somewhere feels like it should be ours to decide, and yet, how often has that choice been taken from us? In a world heavy with virtual connections, driven by displacement, and life’s re-routed paths, the effort to simply be—physically, wholly—is both precious and rare. This Alserkal Art Week, we honour that preciousness.

A research exhibition, Made Present: Biographies of Artworks Defying the Ongoing Nakba, curated by Faris Shomali and Zaina Zarour showcases artworks–each a memory-bearer and testament to survival, inviting you to stand with the narratives that defy attempts of erasure. In public spaces, newly commissioned artworks presented by Alserkal Arts Foundation, appear and disappear, urging us to slow down, to observe, and let our surroundings teach us. In this season’s Majlis Talks, curated by Charlotte Ashamu, voices from Africa tell stories of challenging and reshaping agency, claiming it anew.

With exhibitions, conversations, workshops, and slow art walks, we gather, paying tribute to the simple, fleeting, yet revolutionary act of being here.