Sophia Al-Maria, The Future was Desert I and II

Bar Laika is pleased to present a screening of short video works by Sophia Al-Maria, organized by Vdrome.

“Deserts possess a particular magic, since they have exhausted their own futures, and are thus free of time.” J.G. Ballard’s commentary opens and sets the tone for Sophia Al-Maria’s The Future was Desert I and II (2016), two videos that pursue the artist’s interest in exploring the visual and aural aesthetics of deep time and post-human time in the Gulf Region. Depicting the intricacy between fossil-fuel dependency, wealth, and environmental devastation, Al-Maria creates a set of delirious, post-apocalyptic dreamscapes in which past and future appear as arbitrary temporal references within a complex geopolitical landscape.

The screening will be introduced by Andrea Lissoni and will feature a surprise video. Vdrome is an online platform curated by Edoardo Bonaspetti, Andrea Lissoni, and Filipa Ramos, which offers programming of films and videos directed by artists and filmmakers whose practice is situated between cinema and contemporary art.

Sophia Al-Maria  is a Qatari-American artist, writer, and filmmaker. Her work has been exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale, the New Museum and Whitney Museum in New York, and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, e-flux journal, Five Dials, Triple Canopy, and Bidoun.

For more information, contact laika@e-flux.com.