AAP WEB: IN LIEU OF WHAT WAS - Alia Farid

As teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg sailed across the North Atlantic Ocean to the United Nations Climate Action summit on a zero-emissions yacht, and the burning Amazon forest dominated news headlines in August, the climate crisis loomed large in global political and social arenas. A small exhibition at Portikus, in Frankfurt, offered another glimpse into the dire environmental consequences of unchecked human activity in a different corner of the world. “In Lieu of What Was” showcased Alia Farid’s recent sculpture series, and marked the beginning of the artist’s research project, in cooperation with Portikus and Frankfurt’s Städelschule, on the exploitation of the remaining natural resources in the Arabian Gulf.