The Artist on Site
CASMINA MAGDALENA HAAS
“TRACES OF SILENCE – EMBODIED BEAUTY”
Art Exhibition from the Objects of Essence Series
Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara
Liwa Desert · United Arab Emirates
18 October 2026 – 9 January 2027
From October 18, 2026, through January 9, 2027, Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara presents the exhibition
“Traces of Silence – Embodied Beauty”, offering the opportunity to encounter the work of Casmina in the very place where, seventeen years ago, a vision revealed itself to her – one that would profoundly shape the course of her artistic process.
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For Casmina, whose artistic pathway spans more than three decades, that experience in the Liwa Desert became a moment of creative genesis. Surrounded by the endless landscape of dunes, silence, and elemental presence, she experienced something that has since remained at the very heart of her creative process:
Her desire to move beyond the visible, revealing the essence within matter – a silent presence that connects physical embodiment to what lies beyond – and, through this, to honour the profound beauty and mystery of creation.
This experience marked the beginning of a profound new period in her artistic evolution, which she calls “The Golden Age”, giving rise to an enduring artistic language of essence, metamorphosis, materiality, and the sacred within it -one that has resonated through her work ever since.
The Desert: A Presence Beyond Time
The desert has become a profound part of Casmina’s life and work. Although her artistic journey has taken her to more than forty countries and some of the world’s most extraordinary and remote places – from Antarctica and Mount Everest to the Serengeti – the desert holds a singular place in her life and artistic practice.
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She is drawn to its vastness, its silence, its radical simplicity, and the extraordinary sense of presence and eternity it evokes. In the desert, everything superfluous seems to fall away, opening a possible pathway to the essence from which all existence emerges.
| Objects of Essence – Traces of Silence | 2026 | created in UAE
Art Born on Site
The exhibited artworks are part of Casmina’s series “Objects of Essence” and were all created in the United Arab Emirates – in the Liwa Desert, Hatta, and Abu Dhabi – over the past nine months. They are the result of her direct physical and contemplative engagement with the region’s landscapes, materiality, atmospheres, and inherent potential.
The Essence of Matter
Central to Casmina’s work is an exploration of the nature of matter itself. Through processes of reduction, refinement, and transformation, she seeks to move beyond material appearance and uncover what it may contain: an inherent force, a silent presence, a trace of something that cannot be perceived through the visible alone.
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Gold, platinum, and palladium are not employed merely for their preciousness. In dialogue with earth, sand, minerals, and water, they become part of a process of becoming – a union of raw matter and refinement, origin and transcendence. Matter becomes both a medium and a field of inquiry.
Qasr Al Sarab Holds a Unique Place Within Casmina’s Body of Work
It was here in the Liwa Desert, during Casmina’s stay at Qasr Al Sarab seventeen years ago, that the original impulse for this new direction in her work emerged.
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Rising from the dunes and held in the silence of Liwa, Qasr Al Sarab became inseparable from that formative experience – a place where the grandeur of its architecture enters into dialogue with the vastness of the desert, shifting one’s perception of space, time, and presence.
Presenting Her Art Here Seventeen Years Later Closes a Circle
Artworks created on the land of the Emirates now find their way into the landscape from which their first impulse emerged. What began here as an inner revelation takes physical form.
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Yet this is not simply a return. It is an encounter between origin and artistic presence: between the landscape that initiated the vision and the artistic language that has evolved from it over seventeen years. Here, art, landscape, and origin converge in a constellation inseparable from this place.
Completion Becomes Beginning
Spanning the threshold between 2026 and 2027, “Traces of Silence – Embodied Beauty” occupies a space between completion and emergence, between what has taken form and what is yet to unfold. At the same time, the circle does not simply close. It opens again.
What began in Liwa returns to Liwa – and from there, something new will be born from the silence.
Casmina’s art is a language, not a style.
It is a presence.
A quiet force shaped by matter and eternaty.
Each artwork holds what cannot be said.
A stillness that endures.
A truth beyond time.
Visit the Exhibition
Hotel guests and visitors are invited to experience this unique dialogue between art, stillness, and the timeless beauty of the Liwa Desert. Open daily, the exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to explore the artworks in this extraordinary setting.
Address:
Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara
Qasr Al Sarab Road
Liwa Desert, United Arab Emirates
We look forward to your visit.
Objects on Site
United Arab Emirates and Antarctica
Where Art Meets the Essence of Earth
Over the coming weeks, I will be working on site in the United Arab Emirates, continuing her artistic exploration of the profound connection between land and the essence of place.
As part of her artistic body of work the “OBJECTS OF ESSENCE – ON SITE”, I immerses myrself in the unique atmosphere, intrinsic force, and natural substance of a location.
Drawing on her experiences in the vast ice wilderness of Antarctica, I have the intention to weave together the essence of two seemingly contrasting landscapes – the sublime silence of Antarctica’s boundless realms of eternal ice and the majestic stillness of the United Arab Emirates’ ancient desert landscapes, shaped by the elemental forces of nature and the passage of time,
Through this artistic encounter, I aim to reveal the profound dialogue between these seemingly opposing worlds, tracing the invisible threads that unite them through the timeless presence and primordial forces of nature.
Private, curatorial, and institutional commissions are considered selectively.
Explore & Enquire
Objects on Site