Concert in the assembly hall

Sawsan Al Bahar was born in Damascus, in 1990, and raised in the UAE. She received a bachelor's in Architecture from the American University of Sharjah in 2013 and later studied academic drawing at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence. As an artist, architect and researcher, Sawsan takes the foundation of drawing and incorporates it into new forms, from installation to sound, bridging the three disciplines. Through her studio practice, Sawsan asks questions about the qualities of time and place as they occur to people in the Middle East, often centering on her personal family history, and delving into uncomfortable memories and narratives of displacement and loss. Sawsan was awarded the Massimiliano Galliani Prize for Drawing under 35 in 2022 and shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize in 2023. She has held solo exhibitions “33 songs, 99 words”, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah (2023); “Knocking on Doors”, Casa Cavezzi, Montecchio Emilia (2023); and “Talaliya”, Firetti Contemporary (2022). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, most recently Art Here (2023) at Louvre Abu Dhabi; Abu Dhabi Art (2023), “Breaking Boundaries”, Firetti Contemporary (2023), “Wood You Rather Be Happy?” Firetti Contemporary (2023), and “The Continuous Line”, Firetti Contemporary| Art Verona, (2022).