Between Two Shores - Solo Exhibition in the Netherlands
My exhibition Between Two Shores recently took place at The Balcony in The Hague, marking my first solo presentation in the Netherlands. The show brought together work from my projects Shaabi Beaches (Egypt) and Marseille Le Métissage (France), exploring how people relate to the sea across different geographies and cultures. Showing this work in The Hague also serves as a bridge to my upcoming project, Between Two Seas, which will explore the North Sea.
The exhibition opened successfully and attracted a vibrant and diverse audience from The Hague’s artistic community، including artists, students, scientists, cultural organizers, and the general public. Visitors engaged with the work, sharing personal impressions and reflections which was so nice and it opened my eye to some details i personally didn’t notice before in the photos.
What truly was joyful the reach and engagement. Over the exhibition period, around 100 visitors came to see the show, which I didn’t expect at all, some traveling from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, and Eindhoven, and even from Belgium and France. One visitor came all the way from Lille, France, specifically to see the exhibition.
On Sunday, 12th of October, I had my first Sea Circle, a set of gatherings that I plan to continue which can be a space for sharing our stories, memories and emotions about the sea.
It was really nice and small circle of people where everyone shared a story with the sea and the main stories that we have was from Me, Fatima and Nienke. while Fatima, from Syria and Palestine, shared her story of crossing the sea from Turkey to Europe as a teenager, accompanied by three photographs taken by her sister, Neinke read an excerpt from her thesis about the North Sea and reflected on how her writing evolved since graduation and I read my text Thank You God, for the Sea Today, a personal reflection on my connection to the sea.
Afterward, six more participants spontaneously shared their own sea stories, creating an atmosphere of intimacy, empathy, and collective reflection.
