Layered Dialogues: Proximities brings contemporary visual art from the United Arab Emirates into dialogue with the Korean context. Conceived as a critical companion to the exhibition PROXIMITIES, curated by Maya El Khalil and Eunju Kim, the volume features more than 110 works by 47 artists across three generations. With contributions from UAE-based artists and Korean writers, it gathers perspectives formed through relation and difference, pairing artistic practices shaped by the UAE’s rapidly transforming social landscape with reflections from Korean voices responding from their historical and cultural vantage points.
The second in a pair of companion publications produced by the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) and Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF), the book extends an
ongoing exchange around contemporary practice in globalised contexts.
Including full-colour reproductions, installation views, and artist information, the publication is organised across three interconnected sections developed in dialogue with artist-curators. Each proposes a perspective on how individuals navigate a changing world.
A Place for Turning, anchored by photographer Farah Al Qasimi, explores domestic and psychological space. Recording Distance, Not Topography, conceived with Mohammed Kazem and Cristiana de Marchi, approaches space as relational rather than fixed, moving through maps, borders, and systems of measurement. That Thing, Amphibian, developed with Rokni Haerizadeh, Ramin Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian, turns to elemental materials such as oil and desert ecologies, proposing hybridity as an active mode of inhabiting multiple environments at once.
Published in Korean and English, the volume opens new comparative conversations between Gulf and East Asian contemporary art.