Building monuments to the end of oil

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7 • 219 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Monira Al Qadiri says she is pre-empting the end of oil and building monuments to it. As one of the most important contemporary artists of the Middle East, her work — spanning sculptures, films and performances — throws new light on humanity’s deep interdependent relationship with fossil fuels. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks Al Qadiri how art can help make sense of the current moment.

Explore further:

Monira’s website: https://www.moniraalqadiri.com/
Her exhibit in Berlin: https://berlinischegalerie.de/en/exhibitions/current/monira-al-qadiri/

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On his podcast Chasing Life, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
0:04.1	CNN's chief medical correspondent brings you the secrets of the happiest and healthiest people on the planet so that you can live your best life.
0:13.2	Are some people just born happier than others?
0:15.9	And what might they be doing that the rest of us aren't?
0:19.9	Follow Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Apple, Spotify, IHeard podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.9	Welcome to Zero. I am Akshadrati. This week, Art and Oil.
0:45.4	Thank you. This week, art and oil. A few weeks I was in Helsinki for vacation and I stumbled across an exhibition by an artist named
0:50.7	Munira Al-Kadiri.
0:52.8	The exhibition was titled Deep Fate,
0:55.1	referring to the origins of oil that come from deep inside the earth,
0:58.9	but also to how our fate is dependent on oil
1:02.9	and how we break away from our dependence on oil.
1:06.9	Monira is a Kuwaiti visual artist who was born in Senegal,
1:10.5	grew up in Kuwait and studied
1:12.3	art in Japan.
1:13.8	She's combined influences from all those cultures but focused her attention on the Gulf
1:18.9	region and its intimate relationship to oil.
1:23.0	I was fascinated by the exhibition, partly also because she made chemistry look interesting and beautiful
1:28.6	and strange, which I hadn't seen before. So I wanted to have her on the show and ask her
1:34.1	how she thinks about the interrelationship between art, climate and fossil fuels.
1:42.2	Monira, welcome to the show. Hello, thanks for having me.
1:45.3	A few weeks ago, I was in Helsinki for vacation and I came across your exhibition in
	...

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