Souvenirs from the Future

A speculative fiction presented as an ethnographic museum within the Arab American National Museum.

Artists Dahlia Elsayed and Andrew Demirjian have created a fictive survey of artifacts from an undated future that tell the story of Mustaqbaaaahpolis (future-breath-city), a city built on the interchange of ideas, aesthetics and knowledge in a system liberated of chrononormativity and extractive economic systems.

The exhibition presents the material culture and rituals of this thriving SWANA imaginary, which values sensory experiences, creativity, post-commodity exchanges and a deep connection to the natural world.

Souvenirs from the Future uses the familiar experience of engaging with traditional institutional presentations that look back in linear time, but here Elsayed and Demirjian invite visitors to look forward and envision the possibilities of a future history.