About

Mohamed Sleiman Labat is a Sahrawi multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and writer born and raised in the Sahrawi refugee camps. He is the founder of Motif Art Studio, a small contemporary art space built from discarded materials. His art draws upon the past and present life of the Sahrawi people, experimenting with photography, films, writing, and community-based art. His works challenge our perception of the desert, bringing forth perspectives rooted in his local context. Fish in the Desert challenges the conventional notions of what one might encounter in the desert. His works have been presented at various venues, including the Helsinki Biennial 2023 (Finland), Culturescapes 2023 (Switzerland), Luleå Biennial 2024 (Sweden), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Long Island (NY, USA), and recently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee, Scotland, in 2025.