Fatima Al Qadiri
Photo: Lane Stewart
Al Qadiri is also a member of the Gulf-based collective GCC, whose work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Fridericianum, Berlin Biennale, Whitney Museum, and Sharjah Art Foundation. Her writing has appeared in “Bidoun,” “frieze,” and “DIS” magazines. In 2019 Al Qadiri scored the debut feature film by Mati Diop, “Atlantics.” The film won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival in 2019, while Al Qadiri also received a Cesar nomination for Best Original Score.
In the first half of 2021, as well as working on further soundtrack work, Al Qadiri releases her third album on Hyperdub called “Medieval Femme” which expands on ideas instilled from “Atlantics” to capture a fully realized, dreamlike setting, shaded with color and subtle friction. The theme of the album is the state of melancholic longing exemplified by the poetry of Arab women from the medieval period. It is an album of reverie and desolation, which questions the line between two seemingly opposite states and rejoices in celestial sorrow.