The collaboration between Bayt AlMamzar (BAM) and Mo Reda Projects culminates in two interconnected solo exhibitions by artist Habeeb M Abu-Futtaim, marking the conclusion of a two-month residency developed through their shared commitment to creating the conditions for sustained artistic research, dialogue and production. Opening at Bayt Al Mamzar in Dubai, the exhibitions also mark the fifth edition of The Indian Ocean Artists Exchange, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2026.
Conceived over several years of dialogue between artist and curator, the residency provided the time and space for two distinct yet interconnected bodies of work to unfold. Rather than functioning as separate exhibitions, The Ongoing Performance of Melancholia and Songs in Solitude form two complementary chapters of a single artistic inquiry. While one reflects on the inherited performances of collective identity and the burden of unrealised political futures, the other turns inward to reclaim solitude, imagination and play as essential conditions for artistic practice.
Working across painting, installation, performance, video and writing, Abu-Futtaim investigates the relationship between individual experience and collective aspiration, examining how inherited symbols, political imaginaries and cultural narratives become internalised as expressions of belonging. Through deeply personal yet universally resonant works, the exhibitions move between the intimate and the political, revealing how memory, solitude and collective imagination continually shape one another.
The residency forms part of The Indian Ocean Artists Exchange, an ongoing curatorial platform conceived and initiated by Mo Reda in 2015. Through residencies, exhibitions and long-term institutional collaborations, the project reconnects artists and communities across the historically intertwined geographies of the Arabian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the wider Indian Ocean, exploring how centuries of mobility, migration, trade and cultural exchange continue to shape contemporary artistic practice.
Abu-Futtaim’s life and work embody many of these interconnected histories. Descending from a Yemeni family whose movements formed part of the wider maritime networks of the Indian Ocean and born and raised in Qatar, his multidisciplinary practice offers a contemporary artistic response to enduring histories of movement, cultural encounter and belonging.
The residency and exhibitions were made possible through Bayt Al Mamzar’s Residency Programme and the generous support of the Department of Painting and Printmaking at VCUarts Qatar.
Press release from Mo Reda Projects
Image: Installation view from Habeeb M Abu-Futtaim’s The Ongoing Performance of Melancholia and Songs in Solitude at Bayt AlMamzar, 2026. Photography by Yousef Bahzad. Image courtesy of the curator
