Project Title: 

Metal Doors from the Gulf - Compositions

 

Background: 

Camille Zakharia's interest in documenting the changes in the landscape taking place in the GCC countries started soon after his return to Bahrain in late 1999.

 

Nowhere else in the world has such a transformation been witnessed in such a short period.

 

Over the last 25 years, he has created in depth photographic archives, many commissioned for international exhibitions, including the "Coastal Promenade" of Reclaim project for the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2010 for Bahrain's Pavilion, winner of the Golden Lion Award, and most recently "The Mountain My Neighbor" commissioned by Saudi's Diriyah Biennale Foundation, exhibited at the Diriyah Art Biennale in 2024, which will serve at some point as valuable visual references for researchers and academics.

 

Included in these archives are thorough documentation of metal doors decorated in the most tasteful ways that he has encountered in different GCC countries, including Oman, Sharjah and Bahrain.

 

His early documentation for the metal doors started in 2007 when he was commissioned by the British Council to do a project about Omanis and their relationship to water. During his visits to different locations of Oman, he has encountered elegant metal doors, mostly decorated with mosques, and painted with vivid colors that stand out within their surrounding environment. He started photographing all the doors in different villages that came in his way during his 1 month stay in Oman. 

 

The year 2008, supported by Sharjah Art Foundation, he did a documentary project titled "Sharjah History Images" reflecting on the changes in the landscape. During his stay, he managed to document over 250 metal doors in older neighborhoods of Sharjah, on the verge of being removed. The decorations on these doors were different from those encountered in Oman, they were mostly representations of daily life objects, including teapots and palm trees.

 

As for the metal doors of Bahrain, where he resides, he documented over one thousand doors, spread all over the island, particularly the old districts of Manama and Muharraq. Bahrain's metal doors are mostly decorated with geometric designs.

 

 Riyadh Art Week Artworks:

 

For the Riyadh Art Week, Albareh Arts Space is showing 108  Photo montages, placed in a grid form, 4 rows x 30 columns, composed from different metal doors taken in Oman, Sharjah and Bahrain.

 

Each montage reflects on the rich decorative elements we see on these doors and the rich craft behind their making.