SAF presents live performances at Art Dubai Special Edition

Rooted in the transformative potential of refusing to stay still in one’s circumstances, Against Stillness features performances by Muhanad Kareem, Safa Baluchi and Astral LXXXII, created in collaboration with fellow practitioners across sound, music, movement and interdisciplinary practice.

Lawrence by Muhanad Kareem

In collaboration with Mohamad Ali Yousef Salama and Abdulla Ali Khameis Alkhadeim

15 May 2026

4:45 pm and 7:45 pm

Muhanad Kareem’s Lawrence stages a direct confrontation with the colonial narratives around T. E. Lawrence and the Great Arab Revolt (1916–1918), as codified in the latter’s autobiography Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922). Kareem draws on his own family history as well as archival records and artificial intelligence to question the motivations behind how this particular history was written.

Body as a Witness by Safa Baluchi

In collaboration with Amro Zidan and rayane haddad

16 May 2026

2:30 pm and 7:45 pm

In Body as a Witness, Safa Baluchi collaborates with Amro Zidan and rayane haddad in a performance engaging the body as an archive of lived experience, memory and resistance.

Tears Through the Soul by Astral LXXXII

17 May 2026

12:30 pm and 4:45 pm

Astral LXXXII’s musical performance Tears Through the Soul uses sonic frequencies tinged with grief and loss to guide the audience through the resonances of memory, capable of enduring through times of siege.