Deema Alghunaim

Deema Alghunaim (b. Kuwait, 1984) is an artist, architect, and writer based in Kuwait. She focuses on the tension between language and land in contemporary settings and forms of movement. Her recent projects include Sayyarah, a collaborative audible performance at Failaka Island as part of the FIKAR residency, and Naktub, an Arabic creative writing program for children at the Promenade Cultural Centre.

Deema holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Kuwait University (2008) and an MFA from The Ruskin School of Art (2024). She has contributed to the fields of critical conservation, placemaking, and local knowledge production through several initiatives, including Madeenah, en.v, and Loyac.


Artist Statement

I live in Kuwait, a country situated between the sea and the desert. It was a resting place for bedouins, seafarers, poets, and migratory birds. The transiency of where I live gives me a sense of urgency to narrate and document where I stand from my immediate surroundings: my room, family, familiar faces, and landscapes. I am attentive to the common words we use and fascinated by what meets the ground, whether it’s a foot, rock, shell, carpet, or tire.

My interdisciplinary, site-specific practice involves etymological and mythological contemplation through improvised methods such as raw footage, performance, and watercolor. I look for nodes of resistance and decay in the contemporary systems built in the last few centuries, and I make imaginary modes of living and moving. Unable to attain the fleeting present, I try to collect cocoons I deem to hold in the future.


www.deemaalghunaim.com