"In The Night", the New Exhibition At SAMoCA

by Hala Shah

"In The Night", the New Exhibition At SAMoCA

16 Mar 2024

"In The Night", a new exhibition of over 30 artists, is now on view through May 20 at the recently inaugurated Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA) in Jax District.

At night, in the absence of the motion of the day, we may "see" more about ourselves and humanity than we do in the daylight. The body remains bound to and by visible realities, but the mind and soul are free to foray into realms known only to oneself. The diverse international and regional artists presented at SAMoCA’s “In The Night” manifest these private realms into tangible works. It is an experience of mutual vulnerability; the artists offer the intimacy of their inner worlds to visitors who accept this invitation into the unknown.

“Night for me is a friend, is a shelter,” says Geraldine Bloch, curator of “In the Night,” in a social media post about the exhibition. The world is never in total darkness nor in total light; day and night exist concurrently. “So it’s a question of cycle and rhythm, and we can not go against that. It’s stronger than anything,” she adds. The exhibition explores this question not only thematically, but also literally in the timing of the day as it coincides with the month of Ramadan. For people in the region who observe the daytime fast, time feels inverted and evening hours after sunset overflow with festivities and religious activities. The exhibition’s open evening hours accommodate visitors’ practical needs while also offering an opportunity to experience art at a time of day that may be opposite of what they are used to. Our nighttime psyche contrasts our daytime persona, so one’s condition — physical, mental, spiritual — naturally affects the conversation with the art.

SAMoCA is steadily featuring the exhibition’s artists through social media, with more content to come as the exhibition continues. Here are some highlights.

“The night is like an echo of the day, with its memories and ghosts, the ghosts of thoughts we experience,” says Mohammad Al Faraj, in a SAMoCA social media post about his work “Did you hear that?” A signature of Al Faraj’s ephemeral works is their ability to invest the viewer in the details and amplify quiet nuance. Though the artists Bloch curated for the exhibition create their “poetry” through disparate mediums, he finds that all the works affirm the universality of humanity’s dreams, disappointments, and loves.

“Design of the World”, “Porta Celeste”, and “The Body” by Sophie Ko

Sophie Ko’s works “Porta Celeste,” “Design of the World,” and “The Body” — selections from her series Temporal Geography — exemplify a rigorous line of inquiry around time and image. “The Temporal Geographies may thus be conceived as drawings of time that settle in a place, spatial images of the dialectic relationship we engage in with time,” she elaborates.

"Song of Silence" by Muhannad Shono

Muhannad Shono’s "Song of Silence" is a massive sculpture composed of 400 black palm stems gathered together into the form of an arcing horn that pierces the space. “The work is a subversion of entrenched narratives. Familiar yet divergent. Parallel narratives that reclaim ways of thinking,” he says. Shono is the contemporary art curator of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, and also has a solo show “The Ground Day Breaks” currently on view at ATHR Gallery in JAX District.

Claudia Tennant’s “experiential” work “I’m Sorry” prompts an awareness of how the physical self interacts with the emotional self. “There’s a link between what we see and the spaces that we move through and our emotional body internally, and how they intertwine,” she explains in a SAMoCA social media post. Artist Khalid Binafif, who presents his work “Connected,” echoes this sentiment that the interaction between the art and viewer is central to its purpose.

Saad Qureshi’s works “Night That Witness” and “Shadow of the Night” are inspired by the Saudi landscape that left a deep and lasting impression on him during his first visit to the country in 2014. Vladimir Skoda’s “From Within / De L'interieur” shapes the landscape of the gallery with a sculptural ellipse of 21 notched spheres arranged in a series progression/regression of scale. Stability is in question. Like Saudi’s shifting natural landscapes, Skoda’s spatial landscape feels constant only at the moment, with the potential to change at any second.

"From Within / De L'interieur" by Vladimir Skoda

Immerse yourself in the night at the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art. Tickets are here

by Hala Shah