Alaa Edris

Alaa Edris uses photography, film and performance to enact experimental mappings and manipulations of her social and urban environment. Acting as anthropologist, cartographer and sci-fi voyager, she contends with dominant issues from the field of Arab artistic research, including the construction of gender, the relationship between tradition and progress, and language as a medium for identifying, shaping and articulating a culture.

Edris’ work has been presented in exhibitions across the region and internationally, including From Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Works from the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA in dialogue with the Emirates), Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2018); Is Old Gold?, Dubai Community Theatre and Art Centre (DUCTAC), Dubai (2017); Al Haraka Baraka, Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah (2016); Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, touring exhibition to Washington, DC and six US states (2014–2016); In the Absence of Script, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2014) and Moving Image Art Fair, London (2013).

She completed the year-long Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship programme, organised in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design (2015), and participated in a residency at Fondazione Cini in Venice through an award from the Emirates Foundation (2011). She received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a concentration in electronic media from the University of Sharjah (2009).