Spring Opening at Kunstinstituut Melly: Hajra Waheed, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou‑Rahme

This spring, Kunstinstituut Melly presents two solo exhibitions opening on Saturday, 18 April 2026.

Featuring newly commissioned works, the exhibitions are presented as part of our ongoing series Call & Response, highlighting our commitment to supporting artists whose practices resonate with current geopolitical demands while imagining new possibilities.

There Is a Fountain Even If Pale That Flows Beneath Us All

Hajra Waheed extends the voices of leaders of liberation struggles under incarceration through the language of sound, drawing, and painting.

Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme compose a poetics of resistance, layering songs, testimonies, and sonic fragments as a means of moving through and unsettling repressive structures.

Opening Day Program

12:00 PM

Doors open

1:30 PM

Welcome and opening words
Rosa de Graaf, Curator of Exhibitions and Commissions, and Hera Chan, Guest Curator

2:00 PM

Listening session by Hajra Waheed

3:00 PM

Drinks, food (in collaboration with Koken Met Status), and music in MELLY

3:30 PM

Dance activity for kids

6:00 PM

End

Join us in celebrating these exhibitions together with the artists!

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom, is co-commissioned by Kunstinstituut Melly in collaboration with The Bell / Brown Arts Institute, Brown University, MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, and Nottingham Contemporary.