3 October 2026 – 12 September 2027
Jessica Cerasi
Inaugurated on 28 September 2024, the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO (MACS MTO) is the only museum in the world dedicated to the principles and artistic expressions of Sufism. A spiritual path within Islam, Sufism is explored at the museum through its universal values, embodied by a collection of artworks and objects spanning from the Achaemenid period to the present day.
The museum is distinguished by its annual exhibitions, which bring contemporary artistic creation into dialogue with its Sufi collection.
The fourth exhibition at the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, The Heart’s Desire, explores longing in all its forms, a felt sense that runs deeply through Sufi thought. Rather than something to suppress or overcome, this deeply human quality can become a creative force in artistic, emotional and spiritual realms. Bringing together new works by six artists in dialogue with the museum’s collection, the exhibition considers what it means to live with absence, to sustain hope across distance, and to allow longing to become a means of connection, transformation, and spiritual depth.
“The exhibition hopes to tap into something fundamental and deeply relatable: the perseverance and hopefulness of the human spirit, held within this state of yearning.”
Jessica Cerasi, exhibition curator
The concept of longing (shawq in Arabic) permeates Sufi thought, notably through the poetry of Rūmī, Ibn Arabī and Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya, as well as stories such as Leyli and Majnûn and the allegory of the Rose and the Nightingale. Rūmī’s parable of the ney—the reed flute torn from its reed bed and yearning to return, personified in the opening verses of the Masnavi—illustrates the Sufi understanding of separation as the condition that awakens love.
Far from being a state of melancholy, shawq is described by Sufi masters as a fire that consumes attachment and illusion, fuelling the quest for union with the Divine.
Spanning the Achaemenid period to the present day, MACS MTO’s permanent collection comprises more than 300 objects reflecting the artistic and cultural expressions of Sufism across the centuries. It includes sculptures and monumental works, ceramics, carpets, textiles, calligraphy, ancient manuscripts, as well as everyday objects imbued with meaning. Far from being limited to “Sufi objects” in the historical or religious sense, the collection brings heritage, material culture and contemporary creation into dialogue.
It is from this collection that The Heart’s Desire draws some of its key pieces, including a Qajar-period prayer tunic (19th century), embroidered with Qur’anic verses, and a Safavid padlock (16th century), which resonates with the Sufi metaphor of the heart as a locked space that can only be accessed through inner transformation.
Because spiritual reflection cannot be reduced to objects alone, the exhibition is conceived as a sensory journey rather than a historical narrative. The objects are invited to “speak”: the kashkūl, canes and prayer beads become witnesses to an inner quest. Punctuated by sound and immersive installations accompanying visitors through the galleries, the exhibition privileges emotion and experience, creating an encounter that is both aesthetic and spiritual.
Finally, as a true living work within the collection, the garden and its central fountain extend this experience into a place of tranquillity, where nature and spirituality meet.
Jessica Cerasi is an independent curator and Head of Programme at the Bagri Foundation. Her recent exhibitions include Shezad Dawood: Skin of Dreams at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation (2026) and the Saudi Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2024. From 2020 to 2024, she worked as a curator on the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project, following key roles at the UK Government Art Collection, 2019 Venice Biennale, and the Hayward Gallery.
Artists : Rand Abdul Jabbar, Burçak Bingöl, Sarah Brahim, Faissal El-Malak, Han Mengyun and Haroon Mirza.
Curated by Jessica Cerasi.
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