The exhibition will act as a meeting point between the Emirati and Spanish cultures, with works by four artists from the United Arab Emirates and Spain: Alanood Mubarak, Berta Vicente, Mohammed Al Kaabi and Pilar Albarracín. Through a set of 36 photographs and videos, the exhibition reflects on universal concepts such as love, death and friendship in order to bring together two cultural viewpoints, including their differences and similarities.

Alanood Mubarak (Dubai, 1991) is a self-taught photographer with an eye for detail and creativity. Alanood is passionate about exploring her country and what she refers to as the “wandering culture,” mostly photographing landscapes. Alanood has run photography workshops at the Emirates Youth Academy and has shot campaigns for Apple, Noon and Timberland. When not chasing after sunrises and sunsets, Alanood can be found working on digital transformation projects as a part of her full-time job at a government entity in Dubai. Her background in technology also led her to take part in the first National Artificial Intelligence Program, which resulted from cooperation between the UAE State Ministry for Artificial Intelligence and Oxford University.

Berta Vicente (Barcelona, 1994) is a self-taught photographer who discovered photography at the age of sixteen. Since then, it is the medium which has allowed her to meet the people and see the places that she aspires to understand. Berta has exhibited in Barcelona, London and New York and was one of the twenty photographers that Flickr selected for the New York exhibition “20 under 20.” She has also won awards like that given to youths at the Sony World Photography Awards. Now, after spending four years in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where she collaborated with social projects, she is especially interested in photography and documentary films and hopes to continue discovering and documenting new realities.

Mohammed Al Kaabi (Al Ain, 1993) is an Emirati film director, editor and camera operator. Mohammed earned a degree in Accounting and now lives and works in Abu Dhabi. He took up his work with digital content creation at the age of seventeen, mainly drawing from his surrounding environment with portraiture and landscape, in addition to other photographic styles. In recent years, he has expanded the scope of his work, from freelancing with small local clients to collaborations with large international companies, including Apple, Nikon and DJI.

Pilar Albarracín (Seville, 1968) is one of the most important artists in the contemporary Spanish art scene. With a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville, she currently lives between Seville and Madrid. Her productions have focused on analysis of the dominant narratives and, specifically, of the clichés that represent the Andalusian and Spanish identity, through an emotional and subversive immersion in the anthropology of everyday life. Popular traditions, folklore, eating rituals, religion, myths and the role of women in the distribution of power are some of the recurring themes in her work. She has exhibited at international art centers including MoMA (USA), the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art (Japan) and the Musée National Picasso-Paris (France), as well as participating in biennials such as the Venice Biennale in Italy, the Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art in Russia, and the Busan Biennial in South Korea.  

This exhibition will be on display as of Thursday, April 8 and until Sunday, May 9 in the Hall of Columns at Casa Árabe in Madrid Open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every Monday through Sunday, including holidays. The exhibition will be held in accordance with all of the safety protocols required for COVID19.