Moath Alofi is an artist and researcher whose video and photographic work often responds to the cultural, commercial, and religious complexity of Madina, his birthplace. The holy city is both...
Moath Alofi is an artist and researcher whose video and photographic work often responds to the cultural, commercial, and religious complexity of Madina, his birthplace. The holy city is both his inspiration and his studio as he documents the blending of nature and increased urbanization. In both images, the barren desert landscape gives way to signs of human occupation and the invasion of modernity through an empty prayer rug and a hillside of dilapidated cars, respectively. Alofi’s work implies the presence of people, but their obvious absence frames the objects as cultural artifacts that retain the memory of a place and a culture. These images are strikingly relevant during the pandemic with globally increasing death tolls, forcing the viewer to consider what has been left behind by the victims of the virus.
Alofi is currently the director of Cultural Programs at the Madina Development Authority. In addition to managing the Madina Arts Center, he is the founder of the artistic studio Al-Mthba, and the co-founder of Erth Team, a production group trained and specialized in safari trips and travel documentation. He received a BA in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development from Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia. Alofi has exhibited internationally, most recently in The Place I Call Home, a commissioned exhibition by the British Council to be exhibited throughout the Gulf and the UK (2020). Moath was also commissioned by Ithra to curate Bridges to Seoul, an cultural initiative to strengthen Saudi Arabian and Korean ties (2019).