Over five hundred years ago, Sir Thomas More wrote ‘Utopia’; a novel proposing an ideal form of human organisation. The word ‘utopia’ translates as ‘no place’, existing only as an unreachable state of perfection. Yet ‘no place’ is exactly how this generation feels about the idea of belonging. Instead, we live in a world where the majority of citizens have lost their hope in the existence of a system able to accommodate all of its inhabitants.

you + topia touches on cultural, social, and geo-political problems of contemporary Middle- Eastern artists. These artists use art as a battleground to reflect on anxiety and optimism, while offering a place of resistance in a climate where we co-exist between war and terror. In order to maintain identity within the ever-changing landscape between real and ideal, the artists depict their true tones through images of collapsing worlds and places of tension. In the meanwhile, the desire and expectations of a true ‘utopia’ reside on the borderline; a place of obstruction.

Featured in this exhibition are works by the artists Samia Halaby, Ginane Makki Bacho, Nadim Karam, Sadik Alfraji, Safwan Dahoul, Rula Halawani, Shurooq Amin, Thaier Helal, Farzad Kohan, Abdul-Karim Majdal al-Beik, Sama Alshaibi, Afshin Pirhashemi, Mouteea Murad, Ousama Diab, Tammam Azzam, and Athier.