Rand Abdul Jabbar Showcases 'May It Be Remembered' at 'Proximities'

Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA)
As part of Abu Dhabi Festival, the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) and Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) present Proximities, a major exhibition concluding 2025 and opening into 2026. Among the participating artists, Rand Abdul Jabbar presents May it be Remembered (2023), a multimedia installation that examines land, memory, and historical continuity.
 
The work is rooted in archival family footage from a visit to the ancient city of Hatra in Iraq, also known as the City of the Sun. From this starting point, Abdul Jabbar constructs a narrative that moves between personal memory and broader historical time. The installation is structured around three recurring elements—earth, salt, and the sun—which function as both witnesses to history and active forces shaping it.
 
The narrative unfolds through a series of texts written by the artist and translated from English by Deema Alghunaim. These texts reference key moments that have shaped the land and its histories. Sculptural works, presented both within the installation and in the accompanying film, respond directly to the text through material engagement with earth, anchoring language in physical form.
 
Curated by Maya El Khalil and Eunju Kim, Proximities features over 110 works by 47 UAE-based artists, including 33 Emiratis, and represents the largest presentation of contemporary art from the United Arab Emirates to date in Korea. The exhibition explores how artistic practices register proximity to social, cultural, and geopolitical change, highlighting shared conditions between the UAE and Korea shaped by rapid modernisation.
 
Within this framework, May it be Remembered positions land as an active archive—one that holds memory through material, narrative, and form.
 
Proximities at Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) runs from December 16, 2025, to February 22, 2026.
 
 
December 15, 2025