POWER OF 15 THE ARTISTS BEHIND A BRAND-NEW EXHIBITION TO HIT MUHARRAQ AND MANAMA

By KATY GILLET, TIMEOUT BAHRAIN 30 November 2016 August 27th, 2019 Press

Since 2002, more than three hundred poets, musicians, artists and speakers have showcased work and debated issues at Muharraq and Manama’s historical houses, thanks to the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohamed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research. The island’s leading cultural centre has spent the last 15 years saving these houses from decay, restoring them in order to preserve and celebrate Bahrain’s heritage. Now, the centre has commissioned 15 of the nation’s best and most promising local artists to create site-specific projects in 15 of these buildings. And the exclusive works will be unveiled at the launch of an exhibition, called 15/15, on Thursday December 15.

The whole idea has been conceptualised and curated by Melissa Enders-Bhatia, curator and head of art and exhibitions at the centre. She explains: “Located in traditional urban conglomerations of Muharraq and Manama, the houses of the Shaikh Ebrahim Centre present a unique point of departure for examining the interplay between traditions and heritage.

“A meeting of traditions, which root us and form the bedrock of our identity and contemporary practise, which probes, questions and looks into the future, forms the core of 15/15.”

Rashid Al Khalifa Bait Khalaf, Manama