Maraya Art Centre proudly announces the opening of SILA. All That Is Left to You, a landmark exhibition dedicated to the cultural language of Palestinian embroidery (tatreez). The exhibition was inaugurated on 21 September 2025 at 11:00 am by HE Ahmed Al Qaseer, Chief Executive Officer of Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), in the presence of Samar Abu Sultan, a delegate of the Palestinian Embassy in the UAE, Khalil Abdulwahid, Director Of Fine Arts Department at Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, and HE Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation.
Curated collaboratively by Cima Azzam (Maraya Art Centre), Noor Suhail (1971 – Design Space), and Rula Alami, founder of the SILA exhibition series, the exhibition brings together twenty-five contemporary artists and designers who reimagine tatreez as both an act of cultural preservation and a language of resistance and persistence.
The Arabic word sila means “connection,” and the exhibition highlights the threads that bind past to present, heritage to innovation, and personal stories to collective identity. By transforming traditional motifs into contemporary artworks across diverse media, the exhibition underscores tatreez as a living practice that continues to inspire creativity and solidarity. Several works were developed in collaboration with embroiderers from the Inaash Association in Lebanon, underscoring the project’s commitment to intergenerational knowledge and cultural resilience.
Participating artists included:
Amer Shomali – Abdel Rahman Katanani – Areen Hassan – Aya Haidar – Bokja – Cristiana de Marchi – Dahouk Chamsi-Pasha – Farah Behbehani – Hazem Harb – Katya Traboulsi – Joanna Barakat – Leila Jabre Jureidini – Liane Al Ghusain – Maysaloun Faraj – Nada Debs – Naima Almajdobah – naqsh collective – Nour Hage – Omarvis – Sama Alshaibi – Samar Hejazi – Samia Halaby – Tala Hammoud Atrouni – Steve Sabella – Zaid Farouki
Rula Alami, founder of the SILA exhibition series, reflected on the significance of the project:
“SILA is a tribute to Palestinian tatreez as a powerful language of resistance and persistence, connecting past and present, craft and art, tradition and modernity. It is my way of honoring tatreez as a transformative force, linking personal stories to collective identity. In a world of disruption and erasure, SILA becomes a strand in the web of affiliations that tie us to our identity and to each other, a living archive where intimacy meets universality, and inherited skill meets contemporary vision.”
Curators Cima Azzam and Noor Suhail added:
“With SILA. All That Is Left to You, we wanted to present tatreez not only as a practice rooted in Palestinian heritage, but also as a contemporary design language that continues to evolve. The works in this exhibition reveal tatreez as a dynamic form of cultural expression, one that bridges craft and art, resilience and creativity, and the past with a reimagined future.”
Through SILA, Maraya Art Centre reaffirmed its commitment to preserving and presenting cultural practices that hold space for identity, resistance, and renewal. The exhibition stood as a platform for stories that cannot be silenced, and for an art form that continues to endure, even under the most difficult of circumstances.
Press release from Maraya Art Centre
Image: Areen Hassan. Weaving The Land Back. 2025. Installation view from SILA. All That is Left to You, Maraya Art Centre. Image courtesy of the artist
