Being Borrowed:
On Egyptian Migration to the Gulf
Being Borrowed: On Egyptian Migration to the Gulf is the result of an interdisciplinary and transnational collaboration. Curated by Farah Hallaba, Farida Youssef, and Ali Zaaray, the exhibition was first presented in Cairo in 2022, and featured twenty-one Egyptian artists. It is brought to NYUAD within the framework of the Research Kitchen “Al Mashhad” with the aim of reflecting on the new meanings taken by the artworks and narratives in this context—that of the host, rather than the home country.
For Farah Hallaba, the exploration of migration from Egypt to the Gulf first started out of personal experience, and a feeling of empathy and helplessness towards her father who, until today, is still in the Gulf. She couldn’t help but see her familial and personal experience as part of a larger, widely occurring phenomenon, one that weighs on many Egyptians. She shared this experience with many others through a series of collaborative workshops: Being Borrowed is an outcome of these conversations. In turn, Farida Youssef mapped the experience of living in the Gulf onto the space of the gallery, combining philosophical and artistic approach. The temporal nature of this curatorial proposal lays out the themes pertaining to migration, such as arriving to, growing up in but also getting out of the Gulf. The theme of Arab migration to the Gulf brings the authors of this project together with NYUAD faculty Laure Assaf’s research. Assaf studies second-generation Arab migrants who were born and grew up in Abu Dhabi, and their relationships with Emirati youth in an urban society shaped by migration. The second thread which connects the different approaches of the actors involved in this project is the commitment to engage with anthropological questions and inquiries in a creative fashion. Being Borrowed is part of a larger aim to produce accessible knowledge that invites people to question and to feel. Migration and its effects–on families, affects, homes–is a widely shared experience; there is much to gain by opening the doors of knowledge production beyond academia, and inviting the public to take part in this process.
This project is funded by the NYUAD Arts and Humanities Research Kitchen “Al Mashhad.” An initiative of the NYUAD Arts and Humanities Division, Research Kitchens are thematic hubs for building communities of researchers across disciplinary boundaries. “Al Mashhad” roughly translates to “The Scene,” giving emphasis to place not only in its geographical sense, but also in its social, cultural, and artistic dimensions. The kitchen fosters research that engages substantially with Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the region.
Related Content
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 11, 5:30 PM
Curators
Farah Hallaba
Farah Hallaba obtained her MA in Social Anthropology and Visual Ethnography from University of Kent. She started @anthropology_bel3araby انثروبولوجي بالعربي in 2019, aiming to publicize anthropology in an accessible way and in Arabic. She has been doing short engaging online videos and collaborative workshops since then; mainly Visual Anthropology workshops and Collaborative Anthropology workshops about social class and migration to the Gulf; which gave way to the “Being Borrowed” multi-media exhibition and publication in 2022. Farah was a resident teaching fellow at CILAS (Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences) teaching Ethnographic Studies in 2021-2022. She also shares a creative space in downtown Cairo, where she collaborates with artists to offer spaces for creative discussion-based knowledge production.
Farida Youssef
Farida Youssef is a critic and curator based in Cairo. She received an MA in European Philosophy from University College London. She is interested in the value of spatial theory for artistic inquiries. In 2018, she was a Merut Fellow at the British Museum researching the Egyptian collection through the lens of contemporary philosophy. In 2021-2022 she was a residential fellow at CILAS where she developed a project on stupidity as a tool to observe critical and creative thinking. Last year, she curated the “Being Borrowed” exhibition with Anthropology bel Arabi, hosted by the CIC. Recently, she received the 2023 apexart’s International Open Call for the proposal “The Valley of Walls” to be exhibited this fall. As a writer, she has published academic chapters, articles and exhibition catalogues on twentieth and contemporary visual culture.
Laure Assaf
Laure Assaf is an Assistant Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies, Anthropology, and Social Research and Public Policy at New York University Abu Dhabi. She was trained in anthropology at Paris Nanterre University and in Arabic at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO). Her research interests focus on youth, urbanity, and migration in the contemporary Emirati society and the broader Gulf region.