“TELLING TALES – A Visual Reading of a Literary Text”

13 February – 17 April 2025

Telling Tales invites viewers into a realm where storytelling transcends language, unfolding in brushstrokes, textures, and symbols. The exhibition explores the infinite ways narratives take form—written, painted, or imagined—blurring the lines between words and visual expression.

Featuring works by:

Work by: Hassan Manasrah

White flowers glowing at the night,
Wild lilies, Rhododendrons,
Snowdrops
Bleeding hearts announcing themselves silently,
Bright light in the dark

-by Caroline Bauer

Work by: Reem Al Askari

Fear had inhabited my body for years. I tried to resist it, or so I thought I did.
I sat in a dark corner waiting for a helping hand that never will show
and will never show because I realized that I am invisible.
I began to swallow the darkness that surrounded me, thinking that it would end, but the more I swallowed the darkness, the more it grew and became darker. I stayed trying regardless of my bloated feeling, and before I realized, my skin began to stretch to accommodate the huge amount of darkness I had swallowed.
I felt sharp pain, it was oddly comforting as I firmly believed that I had deserved the pain and punishment.
I surrendered to the darkness that began to seep from the pores of my skin until it completely wrapped around me. I was filled with it and it was filled with me.
And it no longer mattered to know who swallowed the other.

Work by: Lina Alaali

The sea before me embraces with me its silence,overflowing with meaning.
My bare feet sank into warm sand, and its waves whispered to me longingly: "Come...cleanse your soul from burdens of the years."
The sun gently disappeared, leaving behind a final peace in my hands.
I closed my eyes, feeling the earth's heartbeat ease my pan.
The night there is not frightening; it is tender, like a mother cradling her child.
What strange feeling it is when darkness becomes more compassionate than human hearts.

-by: Lina Alali

Work by: Salem Mathkour

Iraqi poet, short story writer and journalist - born in Baghdad 1969.
Winned third place in the Sharjah Creativity Award “12th session” for the year 2009 in children’s literature for his collection of short stories “Tales of the Dirham Who Sang”.
His fourth collection “The Musician’s Chair” published by Dar Adnan in Baghdad won one of the prizes of the Athir Poetry Competition in the Omani capital Muscat.
He has published poetry collections: “Third Lung”, “Closed Lamp”, “What the Runner Did Not See”, and “When I Saw You, I Made a Grammar Mistake”.
He published his fifth poetry collection “When I Saw You, I Made a Grammar Mistake” by Dar Al Ain in Cairo in 2015.

-by: Qasim Saudi