Tales of Nostalgia

A wide-ranging exhibition featuring immersive digital soundscapes of traditional poetry and lost landscapes brought to life through computation.

4:00 – 10:00 p.m. 

Click here to view the virtual exhibition 

Click here to view (and download) the exhibition catalog. 

12 Saudi and international artists reflect upon notions of time, memory, and nostalgia, exploring new possibilities and alternate narratives with the aid of emergent technologies. On October 2, 2022, Misk Art Institute presents “Tales of Nostalgia,” an exhibition curated by Marnie Benney and Misk Art Institute assistant curator Alia Ahmad Alsaud. 

Inside each of us exists an ever-shifting landscape of past, present, and future. Though outwardly static and immutable, under the weight of collective historiographical narratives, the past continuously rewrites itself through the individual life, constructing itself anew. The future, though hazy, takes on different inflections when lit by the same, flickering light. Our very understanding of time, in turn, lays down new foundations, structures, and paradigms for future generations and narratives to come. As our notions of time become ever more complex, so too do the innovative technologies with which we try to make sense of it. 
 
The works explore, critique, and blur the boundaries between our philosophies of memory and the enmeshed contexts of the present and the future. "Tales of Nostalgia" is both a reflection upon and a conversation about where we are, as a species, in our endless, intertwined relationship with time and technology. Providing no firm answers, the exhibition offers its viewers questions for consideration that might, in some small way, shape new perspectives.

The exhibition will be accompanied multiple days of talks, workshops, and opportunities to listen and engage with participating artists. You may find the programming schedule on our Public Programs page.