In just a few decades, the Arab countries in the Gulf region have witnessed how their urban and natural landscapes have undergone mutation because of the influence of phenomena like the increase in income produced by natural resources, globalization and mass tourism. For instance, in a very short period of time, the population has gone from being nomadic to living in an ultra-technological society, factors which still persist in time, creating a landscape of contrasts and paradoxes. In Min Turab, an Arabic expression that can literally be translated as “from the earth,” Roger Grasas meticulously documents this transformation, shifting from a traditional, austere culture to a post-modern society highly influenced by technology and a society of consumerism.

Based on the idea of travel as a form of art, his photographs are a reflection of the duality between nature and technology, in which the old and the new intermix and get watered down together. This tension is reproduced in both the vast landscapes of the desert and his images of cities, where past and future get compressed all into one whole in the present moment. Landscapes like those in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar mimic a natural-yet-surreal pairing which makes up this series of contemporary landscapes.

The selection of photographs that can be seen at Casa Árabe was curated by Roser Cambray.