A number of art exhibitions by Arab and local artists open in Amman this week. Iraqi Artist Omar Shahabi is exhibiting his collection titled “Survival of the Fittest” at the Foresight32 art gallery. The young artist describes his collection as a depiction of the clashing forces of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. His paintings combine abstract and expressionist styles.

Saleh Barakat, gallerist and curator and founder of the renowned Agial art gallery in Beirut, will be giving a lecture on contemporary Middle Eastern art this evening, Feb. 5. The talk, titled “Middle Eastern Art at the Age of Globalization” will discuss the art scene in the the Arab world, the changes it has undergone at the dawn of the 21st century and the challenges that lie ahead.

The Rainbow Film Club hosts two screenings daily; of foreign films, documentaries, classics, and theme nights. This Thursday is dedicated to documentaries; the first, starting at 7:00 pm, Born into Brothels, is a documentary about a photographer’s (Briski) work with the children of India’s red line district. Briski befriends the children of women who work as prostitutes in Calcutta’s brothels and gives them camera in attempt to empower them and possibly improve their lives.

The second film, Baraka, is an unconventional movie with no plot, no storyline, no main characters, no dialogue and no narrative. It simply views edited raw footage of various landscapes. The movie is a documentation of human life on earth and is filmed in twenty-five countries over the span of five years using a seventy-millimetre film.

Local Ammani band, Zaman Al Zaatar is performing at the Rainbow Theatre this Friday Feb. 8. The band’s latest album is released exclusively online and downloadable for free. Their music is characterised by a fusion of Arabic and Western styles of music, mostly evident in their use of different Western and Middle Eastern instruments.

For details on these events and many more, check out 7iber’s event calendar.