Hayy Arts | Global Positioning System

What visitors need at a glance

Program overview

Opening May 20, 2026, ‘Global Positioning System’ is an upcoming exhibition curated by Indranjan Banerjee and Lucas Morin. Global Positioning System is an exhibition dedicated to mapping and navigation systems. It tells stories of fast cars and slow trains, street barriers and trembling grounds, warping highways and broken bridges. Gathering over forty artists across Art Jameel’s two centres in Jeddah and Dubai, the exhibition presents a wide range of artistic practices—from research-based engagements with infrastructure projects to conceptual works that question the very perception of distance. Maps, remaining the dominant representation space, carry a heavy weight. Far from reflecting geography objectively, they are instruments of power that embody specific worldviews. Though based on mapping, navigation systems like GPS render traditional maps redundant; they reduce navigation to an abstract exercise and remove the need to comprehend the physical space one moves through.