Jameel Arts Centre continues its exploration of water, folklore and collective storytelling with a new iteration of artist Jumana Emil Abboud’s ongoing Water Diviners practice. On Sunday 14 June, join us for a spoken word performance marking the culmination of Respiriting the Water Diviners, a workshop series bringing together UAE-based participants to locate stories of spirited water sources across the region and beyond.

First developed in the village of ‘Ein Qiniya in the Occupied West Bank in 2020, The Water Diviners is a long-term practice rooted in the Palestinian tradition of collective storytelling, tracing our relationship with water through memory, folklore, fantasy and hope. Following a series of workshops with UAE-based participants, the group will come together to perform a collectively authored work weaving personal stories and endangered knowledge into myth-made, water-worked tales of resilience and renewal.

Participants of the Respiriting the Water Diviners Workshops are:
Dima Abou Zannad
Fatema Alafaliq
Maha Alasaker
Azim Al Ghussein
Hala El Abora
Anna Escobar
Aroma Joshi
Monique Naval
Andrew Riad
Tooba Shaikh
Divya Walia

Join us for this free public performance, presented in conjunction with Jumana Emil Abboud’s solo exhibition ‘The Storyteller and the Obedient Tide’, curated by Indranjan Banerjee, on view at Jameel Arts Centre through 28 June 2026.

Jumana Emil Abboud’s creative practice re-spirits storytelling processes across spoken word, drawing, video, and Water Diviners gatherings and collaborations — where stories are living entities, carried through water and relation, connecting memory with futures of possibility amid ongoing loss and dispossessions. Abboud’s work has been included in several exhibitions and biennials, including the Aomori Contemporary Art Center (2024), the 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022), documenta 15 (2022), the Jerusalem Show (2009, 2018), the Venice Biennale (2009, 2015) and the Sharjah Biennial (2005, 2011). Solo exhibitions include Cample Line (2023), TAVROS (2022), Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation (2017), Bildmuseet (2017) and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (2016). Recognitions include the Jameel Fellowship at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, in collaboration with the International Glass and Visual Arts Research Centre (Cirva), Marseille (2024-2025) as well as being shortlisted for the Joan Miró Prize (2025) and Artes Mundi 11 Prize (2025-2026).

Jumana holds a PhD in Fine Art and is currently based in London.