Friday, October 2, 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
1h
€60
From 16 years old
ENGLISH
Faissal El-Malak & Jessica Cerasi
Join The Heart’s Desire curator Jessica Cerasi in conversation with exhibiting artist Faissal El-Malak for an exploration of El-Malak’s artistic practice and his work created for the exhibition.
Through a multidisciplinary approach that brings together painting, sculpture, architecture, and craftsmanship, El-Malak explores the intersections of geometry, symbolism, and spirituality, creating works that draw from both historical traditions and contemporary artistic languages.
Drawing on the themes of the exhibition, the conversation offers a unique opportunity to gain insight into El-Malak’s artistic vision while exploring the role of contemporary art in engaging with history, tradition, and the human condition. Audience questions will conclude the event.
This discussion is conducted in English.
Faissal El-Malak, born in 1988 in Windsor, lives in London and Dubai
A Palestinian artist, singer, and designer, Faissal El-Malak has exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and has collaborated with Hermès. His work, at the intersection of visual arts, textiles, performance, and care, explores memory, identity, and healing. He presents a reading-room installation interweaving Islamic garden and Parisian decorative references, united around the Sufi concept, ‘Healing of the hearts is meeting the Beloved’.
Jessica Cerasi, guest curator
Jessica Cerasi is an independent curator, and Head of Programme at the Bagri Foundation. Most recently, she curated Shezad Dawood’s midcareer retrospective Skin of Dreams at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation (8 April–20 September 2026). She was co-curator of the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Venice Biennale in 2024, and a curator for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation from 2020-2024. Previously held curatorial roles include at the UK Government Art Collection, Carroll / Fletcher gallery, and the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre. She was also Assistant Curator for the Venice Biennale in 2019, and Assistant Curator for the Biennale of Sydney in 2016.
With a strong interest in fostering contemporary art appreciation among new audiences, she led a popular course on “Demystifying Contemporary Art” at Tate Modern (2017-2019), and is author of Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? (2017, with Kyung An) and Contemporary Art Decoded (2021). She has contributed to numerous exhibition publications, including the 2026 Venice Biennale and Halil Altındere’s MOTHERLAND, and was a juror for the Artist of the Year Award (2025), and Mamüt Art Project (2024).
Faissal El-Malak. ©Carmen Gray. Jessica Cerasi ©Tash Nellist, Courtesy of the Ministry of culture Saudi Arabia
