Ras Al Khaimah Art2027 Festival

For the Ras Al Khaimah Art 2027 Festival, we invite you to submit your proposals around the theme of “Lost in Translation.” Inspired by Sofia Coppola’s iconic film (2003), the festival takes “translation” as a central idea and metaphor. It is not only about language but also about emotions, culture, and the experience of being in a place where you do not fully belong. It is about the distance between people, quiet loneliness, and the deep human desire to transform and connect even when understanding seems incomplete.

This theme becomes a framework for thinking about transformation and adaptation in our contemporary world. Many people move between countries, cultures, and identities, adapting to new environments, new expectations, and new ways of life — but what does this process require emotionally? What does it mean to search for your place in a world that feels foreign? When does adaptation empower you, and when does it make you feel marginalized?

This exhibition invites artists to explore the experience of being “in between.” In between languages, cultures, past and present. It encourages works that reflect miscommunication, emotional distance, or the quiet effort it takes to feel understood.

Artists may reflect on migration, memory, belonging, or the tension between personal identity and public roles. They may explore how meaning shifts when it moves from one context to another, or how places and landscapes can create connection or isolation.

Lost in Translation is about discovery. It suggests that moments of uncertainty can lead to deeper self-understanding. Through the experience of difference and adaptation, new forms of connection, strength, and identity can emerge.