The Fifth Wife explored how folklore, mythology, and inherited cultural narratives continue to shape contemporary identity across the MENA region. Through conversations around the exhibition, curators Ali Cha'aban and Celine Azem reflected on the idea of the “fifth wife” as a symbolic figure representing marginalization, projection, desire, fear, and collective imagination. Rather than focusing on a literal narrative, the exhibition examined how myths evolve across generations and become embedded within social structures, memory, and personal experience.
Bringing together artists from diverse backgrounds, the exhibition presented mythology as something fluid and continuously reconstructed through migration, conflict, oral histories, religion, and contemporary life. The works moved between personal storytelling and broader cultural archetypes, exploring themes of femininity, power, ritual, belonging, and psychological inheritance through painting, sculpture, installation, and mixed media.
The exhibition also reflected Firetti Contemporary’s interest in creating exhibitions rooted in dialogue and regional narratives, positioning contemporary art as a space where collective memory and cultural identity can be questioned, reinterpreted, and transformed.
