Maydan: A Living Agora

Dubai, UAE – Leila Heller Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming collaborative exhibition with Zaal Art Gallery, Toronto, titled Maydan: A Living Agora, opening on April 14, 2025 at A1 Space, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.

The exhibition explores Maydan- a space of gathering, exchange, and dialogue, both as a physical site and as a symbolic structure embedded in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and global cultures. Like the Greek Agora, the Maydan has historically functioned as a civic space, but in today’s context, it embodies evolving notions of collectivism, identity, and shared presence.

Maydan: A Living Agora brings together artists from diverse backgrounds who engage with the social, spatial, and conceptual dimensions of communal space. Their works reflect the multifaceted nature of Maydan as a platform for negotiation, memory, and storytelling within today’s shifting cultural landscapes.

Set within Alserkal Avenue, a former industrial zone turned vibrant cultural hub, the exhibition mirrors its setting: an Agora within an Agora. Here, artists, thinkers, and publics converge, not in isolation, but in active exchange. Unlike Foucault’s heterotopia, Maydan is not a space of "otherness," but one of togetherness, a participatory arena where overlapping narratives and identities intersect.

The exhibition unfolds across three interwoven modes:

Geometry & Spatial Constructs – Artworks exploring the architectural and conceptual design of communal spaces.

Monumentality & Collective Memory – Sculptural works that anchor shared experiences and histories.

Cultural Narratives & Figurative Storytelling – Pieces drawing from mythology, heritage, and lived experiences to animate the human fabric of Maydan.

Together, these threads invite the viewer to inhabit a living, breathing Maydan, an ever-evolving agora of voices, visions, and encounters.

ARTISTS: Marcos Grigorian, Reza Aramesh, Sudarshan Shetty, Katya Traboulsi, Lorenzo Quinn, Aref Montazeri, Zeinab Alhashemi, Anton Bakker, Azza Al Qubaisi, Sofia Yeganeh, Farideh Lashai, Parinaz Eleish, Arash Nazari, Mehdi Farhadian, Behrang Samadzadegan, Soraya Sharghi, Shirin Neshat, Wassef Boutros Ghali, Y.Z. Kami, Marwan Sahmarani, Jehangir Vazifdar, Ali Beheshti, Sahand Hesamiyan, Andisheh Avini, Mehrdad Mohebali, Farah Ossouli, Fereydoun Ave, Ashkan Abdoli, Mohammad Hossein Maher, Shahryar Hatami, Yousha Bashir, Kiarash Alimi, Ali Akbar Sadeghi.

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April 14 – 22, 2025

Press Release