What does a Muslim future look like? This Philly exhibit explores the possibilities

Tucked away in an unassuming pocket of Old City is an invitation to dream of a Muslim future.

An immersive art installation, “The Mirage,” asks the viewer: What would a world rooted in the egalitarian values of Islam look like? And what do those experiencing the exhibit want to contribute to make that world a reality?

The installation is part of the exhibit ALHAMDU | Muslim Futurism, a project by the national arts and culture collective MIPSTERZ, and will be on exhibit at Twelve Gates Arts gallery through Feb. 24. There are tentative plans for the exhibit to travel to Iowa City this summer, and Colorado Springs in the fall.

Inspired by schools of thought such as Afrofuturism and the teachings of people like Malcolm X, the installation transports viewers to a world where no one experiences oppression and asks them to reflect on their ability to create that world.

“We wanted to extract some theoretical principles and themes, and that’s how we came up with community, identity, imagination, liberation, and resistance,” said Boston-based Abbas Rattani, founder of MIPSTERZ. “There’s something about the idea of the flourishing of a marginalized population that resonates with people.”

When Atif Sheikh and Aisha Khan, Philly residents who cofounded Twelve Gates Arts in 2011, learned about the installation through an artist connected with MIPSTERZ, they knew they had to display it at their gallery, a nonprofit that exhibits contemporary art from South and West Asian and North African artists.

Khan said they thought it would be an installation that would speak to Philly’s large and diverse Muslim population, while creating a safe space for them.

While “The Mirage” is rooted in the theory of Muslim Futurism, the space it creates is meant to serve all communities. It’s already drawn in nonMuslims who are curious about the faith and about Muslim communities.

“Twelve Gates Arts is not a place for religion. But with this exhibition, it’s more about resistance movements around the world and solidarity with them,” Sheikh said.

Step into Twelve Gates Arts, and you’ll be greeted by the hum of a whirring fan and dreamscape sounds. Three transparent, gauzelike white sheets hang from the ceiling to the floor, staggered and layered as they softly blow back and forth with the wind.

Video footage is projected onto the sheets: Black Americans, Arabs, Malaysian, Indonesian, East Africans, Latinos, queer people — Muslims of all races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations walking the empty streets of New York City or roaming the deserts of Joshua Tree in California.

Occasionally, they pause to strike a regal pose — an appropriation, Rattani said — of the old portraits of European kings and dukes that celebrated the colonization of these very communities.

Their outfits are a fusion of traditional cultural clothing — Tunisian Chechia caps, Palestinian keffiyehs, Malaysian sarongs — with global street fashion. Air Force One jackets are adorned with intricate South Asian patterns, a turquoise kurta sherwani is paired with pink, heart-shaped sunglasses, a hijab with Nike high-tops.

“It highlights the cosmopolitanism that is Islam … and there’s this amalgamation of different communities and cultures that represent Muslims,” Rattani said. “There is no border of where one identity begins and another one ends. We are the people of Planet Earth.”

When attendees walk into the gallery, there is a QR code to scan to submit an answer to this question: What would you like to contribute to a Muslim future? Preset options pop up: Harmony? Beauty? Perhaps nothing?

Upon submitting their chosen answer, visitors step into a blue square adhered to the floor, centered in front of the projection. Everything slows. Kaleidoscope imagery dances on the fluttering sheets before unveiling a verse from the Qur’an in response to the submitted answer.

Justice, for example, yields the phrase, “Be custodians of justice.” Another answer reveals, “Time doesn’t change, time rewards.”

“My hope is that folks would … see some of the beauty that’s represented there.”

“‘The Mirage’ is not just an environment, but rather something that you converse with,” said Shimul Chowdhury, an art director with MIPSTERZ. “Not only are we immersing our viewers into a vision of a Muslim future that could be possible, but also we’re giving them an opportunity to get some guidance from it as well.”

Ultimately, the creators of the installation say they want people to walk away with a sense of joy, pride, and inspiration.

“My hope is that folks would … see some of the beauty that’s represented there and feel motivated and inspired to help make that a reality,” Chowdhury said.

Twelve Gates Arts is located at 106 N. Second St., Philadelphia, 19106. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. “The Mirage” will be on display through Feb. 24.