When leading Saudi artist Ahmed Mater debuted his solo show at UCCA Edge, Shanghai, as part of Saudi-Chinese Cultural Year 2025, it signified more than soft power guised as a cultural milestone. His artistic foray into China hinted at a centuries-old tradition of Eastward curiosity, now resurfacing in a rapidly multipolar world.

During times of extreme crises and collapse, it is inevitable, imperative even, to focus on individual and collective experiences of war, colonialism, refugee systems, and intergenerational trauma. At the same time, there are vital stories woven in between these overarching narratives.

During his 1933 inaugural address, during the depths of The Great Depression, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”