Over the past five weeks, participants in the 2025 Summer Academy have developed individual projects through observation, experimentation, and dialogue. Guided by primary mentor artist Raeda Saadeh and workshops with Khaldoun Hijazin, Basel Naouri, Sanabel Al Far, Raed Ibrahim, and Nadia Bseiso, students considered how materials carry embodied narratives, the dynamics of digital and physical contexts, and how forms of sensing and seeing inform artistic practice. These reflections became the ground from which each student’s practice unfolded.

The resulting installations and interventions are dispersed across Darat al Funun’s campus, inhabiting courtyards, stairways, interiors, and in-between spaces. Each work proposes a temporary encounter, shaped by the student’s own inquiry and engagement with the site.

A map of the installations is available at The Lab to guide visitors through the campus. The Lab also hosts selected process materials developed over the course of the program.

This Open Studio is not a conclusion, but a moment within an ongoing process. The works on view are rehearsals, provisional gestures that reflect on the role art can play in engaging with place, time, and the wider conditions from which they emerge.

Participants: Abeer Aref, Abdullah Tabaza, Ashwaq Maree, Awad Hamad, Bissan Zayyad, Delal Alsoub, Farah Al Maaita, Ghayda Abduljalil, Hashem Al-Souob, Mayar Alamleh, Nada Bashtawi, Raghad Resres, Rania Lardjane, Sadiq Al-Harasi.