MARWAN BASSIOUNI – NEW WESTERN VIEWS
2025-09-29Each image centres on a window, an aperture onto the outside world, rarely found in purpose-built mosques. Through these portals, we glimpse familiar Western landscapes: traffic junctions, supermarkets, apartment blocks, sports fields. But these views are not neutral. They are framed by interiors shaped by Islamic visual culture: patterned tiles, rugs, wooden minbars, and other architectural elements drawn from the diverse communities building mosques across the West. Originating from places such as Bosnia, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Morocco, and Indonesia, these communities transform everyday suburban spaces into makeshift prayer rooms. The result is a distinctly Western scene viewed through a distinctly Islamic frame.
The works on view are large in scale, and composed with a deliberate attention to balance and spatial clarity. While photographic in medium, they depart from traditional documentary approaches. Each image is constructed with precise control over lighting, capturing both interior and exterior spaces within a single frame. This careful calibration preserves architectural and atmospheric detail, resulting in compositions that are immersive rather than descriptive.
Opposite – New Dutch Views #10, The Netherlands, 2018
Exhibition runs through to November 5th, 2025
Lawrie Shabibi
Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Al-Quoz 1
Dubai
UAE
