Please don’t leave me yet, we know so little about each other

Aidha Badr’s Please don’t leave me yet, we know so little about each other (2023) is a newly-commissioned immersive art installation that draws inspiration from Alexandria’s vibrant tapestries and the interplay of light on the city’s streets. According to the artist, the installation, which consists of luminous strings of light, delves into the concepts of ‘being’ and ‘non-being.’ Badr says “[the artwork] serves as a mirror reflecting our own experiences, beckoning us to explore the questions of being and non-being, of presence and absence, and of the interconnectedness of all things.”

Like the Arabic term yuqal, which distinguishes hearsay from firsthand experiences, the strings of light become conduits of transient recollections, bearing witness to memory’s delicate fragility, its capacity to distort and transform, all while enveloping us with a profound sense of belonging.