The Evaporating Suns exhibition deals with contemporary myths from the Arabian Gulf region, which are presented using eleven artistic positions. The tension between myths and reality is at the center of the show. Social functions are reflected in myths, time and place can be read. They also play an important role in our understanding of societal change. Myths allow us to emotionally appropriate belief systems instead of relying on objective information. Thus the suggestive reference to a truth is more powerful than a mere statistic, especially when a society is to be influenced.

The artists presented here have dealt with the folklore and myths of the Arabian Gulf (Khaleej). In doing so, they open up new dimensions in the themes of environment, gender and power structures in society and confront the factual with the mythical – as two sides of the same coin. The factual here becomes recognizable as the solidification of the myth, a process that deprives the mythical of its magic and sacredness: Reality thus becomes the framework, it dissolves and demystifies.

This exhibition features the works of artists from the Arabian Gulf who create their own universes and rewrite the history of their societies. They use cynicism, satire, fiction and specialist literature to confront the obvious facts, the alleged truth and the consequences to be drawn from them.

Referencing a “Recipe for Making A Human” by the eighth-century Muslim polymath Jabir Ibn Hayyan, the artists Asma Belhamar and Mays Albaik explore the connection between creation and place by studying and recording planetary relationships to the Sun and the repetition of the rotations around it. The artists reflect on the idea of place being a significant marker of personhood, in a time when physical mobility is being confronted with digital mobility, and the latter’s presence is becoming second nature.

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