The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery is announcing its next show at The Project Space. Opening to the public on February 4, Markazi is a collaboration between award-winning French-Algerian photographer Nadia Benchallal and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New York University Abu Dhabi Nathalie Peutz.
Markazi’s photographs provide insight into Peutz’s research on forced migration, displacement and immobility, identity and heritage — themes perfectly showcased by Benchallal’s documentary work.
Benchallal’s photographs were taken during several extended visits to Markazi, a UN Refugee Agency camp in Djibouti currently home to around 1500 individuals displaced by conflict from Yemen’s Red Sea coast, Aden, Taiz, and Sanaa.
Markazi will cast light on the conditions of mobility and immobility in Yemen and the Horn of Africa through its focus on households and everyday life in the Markazi camp. The photographs depict camp residents navigating a state of increasingly permanent suspension. Household portraits attest to the diversity and dignity of Markazi’s and Yemen’s population.
In addition to Benchallal’s black-and-white and color photographs, the exhibition will feature the work of nine Markazi residents who collaborated with Benchallal and Peutz over the course of a year. These nine individuals, originating from various regions of Yemen with varying levels of education, were selected to document their everyday encounters and concerns.
Each of the participants was given a camera and met repeatedly with Benchallal in individual and group meetings to discuss photographic methods and approaches. The participants selected which images they wished to have exhibited, as Peutz and Benchallal utilize their photographic and ethnographic lenses to amplify the Markazi residents’ perspectives.
Markazi opens to public at 5.30 pm on Sunday, February 4 with a reception in The Project Space.
Location The Project Space, NYU Abu Dhabi (inside the Arts Center) Cost Free Timings February 4 to 27, 2018 from Saturday to Thursday from 3pm to 10pm
