Dom Art Projects presents a group exhibition, curated by Alexander Burenkov, entitled Time That Grows Slowly. The exhibition is inspired by ideas attuned to vegetal temporalities of being in the world, reflecting on philosophical reflections of time as growth rather than movement. The exhibition features works by cross-regional artists—many of whom have never been shown in Dubai before.
Time, as humans experience it, is inseparable from the vegetal. The oxygen we breathe, the food we consume, the rhythms of agriculture and settlement — all are shaped by plant life. Yet this dependency remains largely invisible. Time That Grows Slowly seeks to render it perceptible, exploring whether it is possible to inhabit, even momentarily, the ‘umwelt’ of plants: to perceive the world from a vegetal perspective. Grouped around site-specific installations attentive to care and interspecies communication, the exhibition engages ecological, feminist, philosophical, and postcolonial concerns.
Alexander Burenkov, curator of the exhibition, says: “Against the backdrop of Dubai’s fast-paced urban environment, Time That Grows Slowly proposes a tool kit for slowing down, a reorientation of our sensorium to the rhythms of plants, the creation of space for vegetal attunement, reflection and contemplation in dynamic urban conditions, and the raising of questions about how duration, memory, and lived experience are produced within such environments. Plants grow, decay, regenerate, and coexist according to rhythms that defy linear progress and instrumental efficiency. Vegetal being is not oriented toward goals, optimization, or dominance. It persists through exposure, vulnerability, and repetition. In this sense, the contemporary artists are interested in exploring vegetal time because it introduces an ethics of non-acceleration: a way of inhabiting the world that neither conquers time nor seeks to escape it.”
Dom Art Projects Co-Founder and Chief Curator Alisa Bagdonaite says: “This season, Dom Art Projects continues its reflection on digital, space and time through the group exhibition Time That Grows Slowly and a solo presentation by Petr Kirusha whose practice reconsiders painting through the conditions of the screen. Our digital-focused booth in Art Dubai will be part of the same curatorial position: we do not see digital art as separate, but as fully embedded in contemporary reality. Our programme is about expanding the conditions of artistic production, fostering dialogue, and situating Dubai as a place where these temporalities and practices can unfold.”
Participating Artists:
Maha Alasaker
Srijon Chowdhury
Odonchimeg Davaadorj
Patricia Domínguez
Louis Guillaume
Mevlana Lipp
Sulafa Mohammed
Tabita Rezaire
Shaima Shamsi
Farah Soltani
Antoine Renard
Nadia Waheed
Press release from Dom Art Projects
Image: Nadia Waheed. Four Flags III. 2024. Oil on canvas. 55.9 × 76.2 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Dom Art Projects
