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More than 100 artists from across the kingdom came together to pay homage to the foliage of one of Bahrain’s most photogenic spots and paint a vision of its future, during a recently held four-day art festival.
Held at the Karzakan forest along the western coast of the kingdom, the Rise of the Future art festival kicked off last Friday and ended yesterday.
It was organised by renowned artist Abbas Almosawi, Colours of the East gallery and the Northern Governorate, with support from the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry.
“We have worked for nearly two months getting this space ready after we came up with the idea of creating an outdoor space to inspire artists’ creativity,” explained co-organiser and artist Mahdi Al Jallawi.
“We cleaned up the forest and cleared the bush, which ended up revealing an inlet from the Arabian Sea underneath!
“Throughout the four-day festival we have seen 120 artists create in this space, drawing inspiration from the trees, the water and the fresh air.”
During the weekend, parents and children also visited the forest, which has been making guest appearances in Instagram feeds with increasing frequency especially during the pandemic.
Artistic duo Aseel Khalil Adeeb, 36, (Instagram: @aseel_adeeb_art) and her seven-year-old daughter, Jawaher Alsayegh, visited the festival during the weekend, and Aseel fell in love with the ambiance.
“My daughter painted during our first day here and I decided to come on my own during the weekday so I can also create – with some peace of mind!” she confessed as she showed off her stunning Arabic typographic work.
The Art Tag Krew (ATK) and its growing family of artists (Instagram: @art.attack.krew) created more than two dozen art pieces as part of the initiative – with most of their works started and finished in a two-day span.
As an added treat, the tree specialist who originally planted the trees in Karzakan also visited the forest festival on Sunday.
Redha Mandeel may be 85 today, but he vividly remembered the tale of how he came to plant the forest nearly 58 years ago. The forest, borne out of his love for his wife, came to be after a trip to Kerala, India where he fell in love, both with nature and his wife-to-be.
Having planted orchards and trees across Kerala, Sri Lanka and Bahrain, specifically in Awali, Redha knew he wanted to do something similar to transform his own village.
Redha’s love for foliage is seemingly infectious, with artists like Sayed Ali Abbas and Mariam Mansoor Saleh (Instagram: @ali_art1998 and @ mohamed_ali_artcorner) infusing it in their art pieces.
While many like Abbas Almosawi have decades of artistic experience under their belt, some, like 23-year-old Sayed from Karana, had just started pyrography – the art of scorching wood to create beautiful intricate pieces - seven months ago.
Others like 60-year-old Saleh Almahoozi (Instagram: @salehart14) were inspired to revisit memory lane and paint of simpler times. And some, like Nasreen Nasser, 44, (Instagram: nasreen.arts) found the fresh air to be a respite from the Covid-19 restrictions of the past 19 months, and took the time to finish her painting, encapsulating her observations of various mask-wearing behaviours during the past year.
The festival also drew wood carvers, as the Third Annual Wood Carving Forum kicked off, drawing professional woodworkers from across the GCC.
The forum will run until Sunday, and will include workshops, live wood carving demonstrations and a sculpture forum.
For more details, follow @coebahrain on Instagram.
