Exhibitions

Index / Activities / Exhibitions / What Lies in Between / Lo que queda entremedias

What Lies in Between / Lo que queda entremedias

From June 06, 2025 until October 12, 2025Every Monday through Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

MADRID

Casa Árabe Hall of Columns (at Calle Alcalá, 62, basement level). Every Monday through Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.

In Spanish.

At the fifth edition of the NUR call held with the cooperation of PHotoESPAÑA, Casa Árabe is exhibiting the work of Taysir Batniji, Tamara Kalo and Tanya Traboulsi, in a project presented and curated by Ana Belén García Mula. The exhibition will be on display at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid from June 6 to October 12, 2025.

In a region marked by historical conflict and persistent instability, three artists with different backgrounds and approaches, but united by a shared history, will be giving us a glimpse us, through a straightforward and uncontrived yet poetic gaze, upon the reality of a small part of the Arab world now immersed in a process of resilience, loss, reconstruction and resistance. Their works shed light on scars from the past and challenges in the present.

Through the representation and creation of images—a transformative and, in many cases, therapeutic act—these artists redefine narratives about a hostile environment, guided by their personal experiences and professional journeys. It is a gesture of symbolic reappropriation to deal with fragmented landscapes and truncated biographies.

Far from limiting itself to a merely testimonial viewpoint, this exhibition aims to reveal what is hidden beyond the headlines, tearing down the barriers that keep us from understanding post-war and conflict realities, as well as the people who inhabit these places.

Taysir Batniji, using everyday objects as simple as a set of keys, he evokes the experience of displaced people. These keys, silent witnesses to lost homes and interrupted lives, immerse the viewer within the intimate stories of those portrayed, who are approached by the artist with deep respect and sensitivity.

Tamara Kalo, with a remarkable awareness about the memory of the land, Kalo pays tribute to the olive tree, an ancestral symbol of continuity and co-existence across the generations. She also places the spotlight on one of the city’s tallest buildings in Beirut, which was used as a detention center, having become home to hundreds of birds today. Its demolition is too costly, leaving a bitter memory behind in the city, despite having been taken over by nature.

As for Tanya Traboulsi, she takes us on a profound journey with a humanistic vision of Beirut before the latest outbreak of conflict, through her memories and a close encounter with the vibrant city, after years of living in Europe. With a transparent, sensitive gaze, Traboulsi invites us to discover a calm and serene side of Beirut, and to become more aware of its inhabitants’ resilience. All this is riddled with traces of nostalgia.

Through their works, Taysir Batniji, Tanya Traboulsi and Tamara Kalo have created spaces for reflection on memory, identity and transformation, in which photography stands strong as a fundamental witness to what is happening now and to the people we are.

The project was selected among 17 entries from different countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, Europe and the Americas. The purpose of NUR نور (Light) is to increase visibility and awareness about a project which allows people to see one or more aspects of Arab societies. At its 2025 edition, in line with the objectives of PhotoEspaña, the call for entries invited applicants to focus on the notion “After All,” with a critical approach in terms of the dynamics of post-conflict, post-colonialism, post-nature, transhumanism and post-photography.