The Desert Was Future // The Past Will Rain

Join us for a screening of The Future Was Desert (Part I and II) (2016) by Sophia Al-Maria followed by a past life regression sound bath, The Past Will Rain by Naoco Wowsugi. This programs coincides with the final day of the exhibition, 93 Fragments, organized by Mojdeh Rezaeipour.

“Deserts possess a particular magic, since they have exhausted their own futures, and are thus free of time” (J.G. Ballard). This quote opens and sets the tone for Sophia Al-Maria’s film, which pursues the artist’s interest in exploring the visual and aural aesthetics of deep time and post-human time in the Gulf Region. Depicting the intricacy between fossil fuel dependency, wealth, and environmental devastation, Al Maria creates a set of delirious, post-apocalyptic dreamscapes in which past and future appear as arbitrary temporal references within a complex geopolitical landscape.

Responding to the film, The Past Will Rain offers a meditative past-life regression sound bath, hydrated by vibrations, imagination, and relaxation. Drawing inspiration from the sincerity and peculiarity found in spiritual rituals from cultural traditions —such as rainmaking—this collective healing experience weaves these elements in, seeking to traverse dimensions beyond the inner and outer, spiritual and physical, visible and invisible, the online and IRL, as well as the past, present and future, unlocking the fluidity of time.