Roger Grasas

‘INSHALLAH’ (2009-2016) In the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region, any remark about the future tends to be appended with the expression ‘In sha Allah,’ which denotes hope and desire for something to happen, God willing. The huge influx of capital thanks to natural resources, economic globalization and tourism and the corresponding arrival of new technology have combined to bring new ways of living to these countries, customs that belong more to the digital era than to the austere nomadic culture of the Bedouins that populated the Arabian Peninsula. As a result, countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrein, United Arab Emirates and Oman have undergone a radical process of transformation, not just of their societies and cultures, but also of their landscapes and aesthetics. The photographic project ‘Inshallah’ documents this urban and interurban mutation. The traditional customs of Islam exist alongside postmodern spaces, while historic landscapes are influenced by new technologies. Roger Grasas presents a conceptual vision of contemporary spaces in order to explore ideas of what is “strange” and what is “sophisticated” in this new Arab landscape, where the past and the future fuse together to wipe out the present.