The question of how we navigate space is often answered by the myriad GPS applications found on our smartphones. Yet, we often forget that the way we map our surroundings is a reflection of how we perceive the world at large. From the pace of traditional transport to the modern inventions that promote higher velocity, and the structural motifs of our daily lives – the barricades, the borders, the peripheries – we interpret existence through systems that dictate our social organisation.
In alignment with this concept, Art Jameel debuts a two-part group exhibition titled Global Positioning Systems. This cross-border project will be staged at Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai and Hayy Jameel in Jeddah, marking a first for the institution’s dual-city presence. “Global Positioning System extends Art Jameel’s ongoing curatorial research and engagements, bringing together more than 40 artists across two distinct chapters at Jameel Arts Centre and Hayy Jameel,” explains curator Indranjan Banerjee. “The exhibition examines how infrastructures, technologies and routes structure the conditions through which movement is enabled, directed and experienced. Rather than being fixed or neutral, these systems emerge as partial and negotiated, opening space for more situated and alternative ways of mapping the world through artistic practice,” she explains to MOJEH.
The opening chapter unfolds at the Jameel Arts Centre from 9 May to 4 October. This ambitious showcase assembles the works of over 40 international artists, each investigating the digital tools and physical infrastructures that govern movement and global trade. Curated by Indranjan Banerjee and Lucas Morin, the galleries will house a dialogue of media, featuring large-scale video installations, site-specific commissions and archival pieces from the Art Jameel Collection.
The exhibition examines the friction between digital cartography and the raw reality of lived experience, highlighting how porous borders and shifting landscapes expose the fragility of our global mobility. By bringing together creators from more than 20 countries, the project fosters a cross-regional discourse on how we choose to orient ourselves within an interconnected, yet perpetually contested, world. Global Positioning Systems will be on show at Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai from 9 May to 4 October and at Hayy Jameel in Jeddah from 20 May to 26 October 26. Learn more
