Saraab

What is the relationship between movement and memory, reflection and refraction, the invisible and the visible?

The 2022 edition of the Misk Art Grant offers artists and designers from the Middle East and North Africa the opportunity to improve their artistic practices, work closely with a selection of curators and mentors, and increase creative production. The Grant facilitates and provides technical and financial support to the selected applicants with a fund of 1,000,000 Saudi Riyals (USD 266,632) that will be distributed among the Grant recipients. 

Theme: Saraab

Why is it that when we look towards the future, we tend to cling to the past? We are held in nostalgia’s saccharine grip, longing to belong, to share collective memories in this fragmented world. Nostalgia is an evolution of memory that does not exist in real life but lives in our interpretation, thoughts, and imagination—a mirage, Saraab. Reflecting on the past evokes memories, ideas, and personal perceptions that elicits a feeling of familiarity infused with surreal and fantastical elements. This year the Misk Art Grant theme, Saraab, invites artists from the Middle East and North Africa to reflect on the past and explore the relationship between movement and memory, reflection and refraction, the invisible and the visible. 

A mirage, Saraab, is an optical phenomenon caused by atmospheric refractions; it is the idea of a displaced image taking shape. For multidisciplinary practitioners, Saraab challenges artists to reflect, re-envision, and reimagine. It asks artists to focus on recollecting memories and reimagine them within a defragmented setting, an optical illusion, to romanticize the past through a visual echo chamber of endless dreams and memories.

Who’s it for?

• Emerging and mid-career creatives from the Middle East and North Africa.
• Groups or individual creatives practicing visual art, digital art, sculpture, photography, and multidisciplinary art.

What we offer:

• 1,000,000 Saudi Riyals (USD 266,632) that will be distributed among the Grant recipients.
• Mentorship and support from Misk Art Grant Committee members.
• Technical support.
• The Artworks will be showcased in Misk Art Grant’s annual exhibition in December.

For enquiry: 

[email protected]