Personal Narratives: Object & Emotion at World Expo, 2025

Working alongside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture, DDX produced a rich programme of exhibitions and residencies within the Saudi Pavilion at World Expo 2025, showcasing the breadth of Saudi creativity to a global audience. Among the highlights, the group exhibition Personal Narratives: Object & Emotion invited visitors to explore the power of memory and emotion embedded in everyday objects, asking what we hold onto and why.

The show featured five emerging Saudi artists: Hayfa Algwaiz, Asaad Badawi, Badr Ali, Joud Fahmy, and Bashaer Hawsawi, who showcased completed works exploring memory, emotion, and identity through absence, repetition and symbolism.

In the Cultural Arts Studio, Hayfa Algwaiz blended nostalgia and futurism in Depths of Field House; Asaad Badawi reimagined the ordinary through Discrete Cosmology, drawing on his background in medicine and philosophy; Badr Ali traced gratitude and human experience through gestural drawings transformed into printmaking and painting; and Joud Fahmy sculpted women’s stories through wool and spatial installation, exploring family dynamics and gender roles.

Bashaer Hawsawi was present in the Pavilion throughout the exhibition, creating new works in real time, engaging directly with visitors, and leading workshops. Her practice reflects on identity, ritual and cultural memory. In the Pavilion, Bashaer presented The Heart that Becomes a Garden from her Cleansing series, exploring repetition and ritual through broom arrangements. The work drew on her family’s Mutawwifin legacy as Hajj guides and childhood memories of Makkah, where her grandmother’s sweeping inspired her interest in cleansing as both a physical and spiritual practice. Fabrics for the work came from Jeddah’s al-Balad district, featuring wax-printed cottons sourced globally. Bashaer also gifted some pieces to visitors, creating an interactive and culturally immersive experience.

Through the curated interplay of exhibited works and live creation, Personal Narratives: Object & Emotion transformed the Pavilion into a contemplative space where visitors could reflect on the intimate connections between memory, emotion and the material world.