Shahid: A Message from the artist

This exhibition features an installation by Sudanese political artist and cartoonist Khalid Albaih.

Share with a friend

TBC

A sketch by the artist of the initial idea for the recording mechanism, enabling visitors to record themselves reading the names of the first 6,747 victims of the attacks on Gaza. Image courtesy of Khalid Albaih.

Artist's letter

We are all aware of Sudan's neglect by western media, particularly during the simultaneous devastations in Gaza and Sudan over the past year. This disregard of Sudan can largely be attributed to western media's struggle to simplify the country’s multifaceted issues into black-and-white narratives, overlooking its interconnectedness with the same regional powers. Additionally, practical challenges like limited internet access on the ground in Sudan contribute to the scarcity of footage available for use by the media.

Amidst my constant search for news on Sudan online, like many around the world, I became a firsthand witness to Gazans documenting their own genocide. However, even with Gaza's situation being unequivocal and with a steady stream of video and images, this material remains ignored by western media.

In my interactive installation Shahid, which means 'witness' in Arabic, I aim to highlight a few of the early viral images from Gaza, which were quickly forgotten as the world witnessed wave after wave of horrific imagery from the ongoing massacres. This normalisation of nameless and increasingly numerous victims further underscores the urgency for collective witnessing and taking a stand.

I implore you, as witnesses, to confront these images, to immerse yourselves in them, and to honour the memory of the first 6,747 victims of the attacks on Gaza by reading out as many of their names as you can. Through this act of solidarity with Gaza, I also stand in solidarity with Sudan and other overlooked countries in conflict in the Global South. I firmly believe that only when the world sees the well-documented genocide in Gaza, will it see us all.

Khalid Albaih
15 July 2024

TBC

Khalid Albaih: Shahid opening night and conversation on May 6th 2024. Hamad Al Hamar, courtesy of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art ©2024

TBC

Artist-led tour on the opening of Shahid on May 6th 2024. Hamad Al Hamar, courtesy of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art ©2024

TBC

Zeina Arida, director of Mathaf, introducing Khalid Albaih and Ghada Al-Khater on the opening date May 6th 2024. Hamad Al Hamar, courtesy of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art ©2024

Artist's bio

A Sudanese political cartoonist and artist based in Doha, Khalid Albaih is known for his advocacy of human rights and freedom of expression. His cartoons and written commentary raise questions and spark conversations that have transcended geographical borders and languages. Born in Bucharest in 1980, Albaih graduated with a degree in Interior Architecture from Ajman University in 2005.

His cartoons rose to prominence in 2011 during the Arab Spring and in 2023, he was named one of the top ten cartoonists in the world by Asian Times. In 2018, he published Khartoon!, a collection of his works, and during the 2018 Sudanese revolution, he published Sudan Retold (2019) featuring 31 Sudanese artists. Albaih was a Human Rights Fellow at Colby College in Maine in 2016, a resident artist of the International Cities of Refuge Network in Copenhagen in 2017 and again in 2019.

He has won multiple awards such as the Moleskine Foundation Creativity Pioneers Award (2023) and the Kindle Project: Makers Muse Award (2020). Albaih is the founder/co-founder of multiple institutions including the Sudan Artist Fund, the Sudan Art and Design Library, and the Khartoum Art and Design Center. He has established several online initiatives including Khartoon!, Doha Fashion Fridays, Fadaa and more recently KhartoonMag.com.

Some of his solo exhibitions include Stumbling is not Falling, Edge of Arabia (New York, 2019), Following Handala: Khalid Albaih in Tokyo, Asakusa Art Space (Tokyo, 2017), #Khartoon! - @khalidalbaih at Harvard, Harvard Center of Middle Eastern Studies (Boston, 2016), @tlas, Virginia Commonwealth University (Doha, 2016), and It's Not Funny, Political Cartoons by Khalid Albaih, the Arab American National Museum (Michigan, 2015).

Albaih has taken part in group exhibitions such as Gagged, Westminster Library (London, 2017), The Khartoum School, Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah, 2016), and RE: LIGION // RE: BELLION // RE: FORM - Artistic Action in Times of Crisis, Max-Pechstein-Museum (Zwickau, 2015). More recently in 2020, he was featured in the UN75 exhibition The Future Is Unwritten and in 2022 he contributed to Documenta 15 in Kassel with The Walls Have Ears.

Back to the exhibition