Jumairy's 'BRZ5' Transforms Milan Space into Arab Limbo

Dubai-based artist Jumairy (b. 1992) presents 'BRZ5' at FARE in the Frigoriferi Milanesi, Milan, a site-specific installation that reimagines the Arabic concept of barzakh—a liminal space between life and death. The exhibition, which runs through an undetermined date in 2016, transforms the apartment-like gallery into a dark, labyrinthine environment illuminated only by dim torches. Visitors navigate corridors and rooms filled with objects, scents, soundscapes, poetic texts written by the artist's grandfather, and performative rituals inspired by Emirati funerary traditions and horror film codes. Jumairy, who holds a degree in psychology, often reworks personal and collective traumas; a previous project commissioned by Art Dubai and the Delfina Foundation in London explored insomnia as a symptom of anxiety through sound frequencies in a sleep disorder clinic. 'BRZ5' is the final outcome of an AIR (artinresidence) residency created by FARE in 2010, realized in collaboration with the non-profit Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah. The exhibition also features cameo works by other artists who participated in the residency. The title 'BRZ5' abbreviates 'barzakh,' meaning 'limbo' in Arabic—a purgatorial waiting place for souls before Judgment Day. Jumairy describes the space as 'a labyrinthine antechamber where to celebrate a vigil, waiting for the passage between childhood and adulthood, memory and loss of memory, insomnia and lucid dream.'