DNA
Hamburg, Germany. In parallel with When the Leaves Speak, Farrah Mahmood Rana’s exhibition at MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Kunst und Kulturen der Welt, MOM Art Space presents DOING EARTH, a group exhibition featuring works by Pakistani women artists as part of Ecology of Trust, a German–Pakistani artistic and cultural exchange. Featuring 21 works by artists from Pakistan and Iran, the exhibition brings together miniature painting, drawing, painting, mixed media, objects, and film. Through diverse artistic approaches, the exhibition explores the relationship between humanity, culture, memory, and the Earth, with particular attention to ecological and climatic change. Doing Earth
The title DOING EARTH draws on Judith Butler’s concept of performativity, which understands reality as continuously produced through human actions, social relations, and cultural practices. Extending this idea to our relationship with the Earth, the exhibition asks how we shape, inhabit, transform, care for, and assign meaning to the environments and landscapes we share.
The participating artists draw on personal experiences and cultural histories to reflect on memory, identity, belonging, care, coexistence, displacement, and environmental change. Their works transform intimate observations and lived experiences into broader reflections on how we inhabit and shape a changing planet. Miniature as a Contemporary Language
Speaking on this occasion, co-curator Farrah Mahmood Rana emphasized the importance of miniature painting within the exhibition, explaining that the practice is no longer confined to historical subjects or traditional formats. Contemporary miniature artists are engaging with diverse themes—including climate change, ecology, identity, memory, displacement, and cultural belonging—using a visual language that connects inherited knowledge with the concerns of the present.
The exhibition highlights how the distinctive techniques of South Asian miniature painting can speak to the contemporary world. Meticulous linework, fine brushwork, layered pigments, intricate detail, and the use of handmade Wasli paper create ways to observe, construct, and reinterpret landscapes and lived experiences. These methods can evoke the fragility of ecosystems, the accumulation of memory, and the complex relationships between people and their environments. When combined with contemporary subjects and, in some works, mixed media, miniature becomes an evolving artistic language rather than a fixed tradition.
For audiences in Germany who may be encountering this art form and its techniques for the first time, the exhibition offers an opportunity to discover the depth, precision, and contemporary relevance of miniature painting. By bringing this practice into dialogue with urgent global questions, DOING EARTH demonstrates how traditional artistic knowledge can cross cultural boundaries and contribute to conversations about our shared ecological future.
This exhibition is more like A Dialogue Between Cultures
Conceived as an artist-curated initiative, Ecology of Trust seeks to build a dialogue between Pakistan and Germany through art, bringing different cultural perspectives and lived experiences into conversation around climate change and our shared responsibility towards the Earth. At its core, the project proposes art as a space for cross-cultural exchange, reflection, and collective awareness. DOING EARTH invites audiences to reconsider their relationship with nature and the landscapes they inhabit, asking not only what world we have inherited, but what kind of world we are continuously creating through the ways we live, act, remember, and care.
Participating Artists are Amna Hashmi · Farida Fatima · Farrah Mahmood Rana · Suriyya Choudhary · Samreen Rehman · Ufaq Ehsan · Sara Rahanjam. The group Show presents 21 works by artists from Pakistan and Iran, spanning miniature painting, drawing, painting, mixed media, objects, and film.
Exhibition: 8–10 October Venue: MOM Art Space, Hamburg
Curators: Dagmar Rauwald and Farrah Mahmood Rana
Presented as part of Ecology of Trust, DOING EARTH takes place in parallel with When the Leaves Speak, Farrah Mahmood Rana’s exhibition at MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Kunst und Kulturen der Welt, Hamburg.
