WELCOME TO THE DESERT III: HU/هو

Audiovisual installation, 2025: speaker stack, multi-channel 16mm projection transferred to digital, color and sound, 18΄

HU/هُوَ is an installation conceived by Oliver Laxe for the Museo Reina Sofía and presented for the first time outside Spain, configured for the space of the MOMUS–Experimental Center for the Arts in dialogue with the tribute “Welcome to the Desert,” featuring films selected by the Galician filmmaker. The work is anchored in the creative process, research and recordings that culminated in Sirāt, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2025. In the Islamic tradition, sirāt is the bridge that crosses hell toward paradise, an image of spiritual transit; HU/هُوَ, “He,” is regarded as the first sonic manifestation of the deity, a divine breath that gives rise to creation. Built upon these symbols, the installation guides us into a spiritual universe where the search for transcendence begins with the dancing, remembering body and with the appearance of the sacred within the natural, architectural and sonic landscape. Immanence, all that is here, material and mundane, becomes a vehicle toward transcendence. The result is a physical, sensorial and synesthetic experience that gestures toward a re-enchantment of the world.

Direction Oliver Laxe
Production Xavi Font
Music Kangding Ray
Cinematography Mauro Herce, Oliver Laxe
Editing Cristóbal Fernández
Post-production Pablo Lamosa, CUBE

Conceived by Oliver Laxe
Sound design Kangding Ray
Organized by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Thessaloniki Film Festival
Curated by Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga, Chema González
In dialogue with the tribute “Welcome to the Desert,” curated by Orestis Andreadakis
General coordination Xavi Font, Alexandros Diakosavvas
Exhibition design Irini-Dafni Sapka
Production Danis Kokkinos
Audiovisual management Akis Stavropoulos
Sound System Juan Antonio Ramiro Lanzarote – Z.Y.T Sonor Systems
Graphic design Menelaos Georgiou
Font design Yannis Karlopoulos