San Francisco Asian Art Museum brings together the vibrant energy of women and queer artists from the West Asian diaspora this fall with Rave into the Future: Art in Motion. The exhibition celebrates the transformative power of music and dance as spaces for imagination and connection.
On view from October 24, 2025, to January 12, 2026, the show is curated by Naz Cuguoğlu, the museum’s Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art. Cuguoğlu aims to explore how underground music and dance culture can open up new realms of creativity and possibility.
The exhibition features works by ten artists of West Asian heritage who currently live in Europe and the United States, including :mentalKLINIK, Morehshin Allahyari, Sophia al Maria, Fatima Al Qadiri, Farah Al Qasimi, Meriem Bennani, Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Sahar Khoury, Joe Namy, and Maryam Yousif.
Among the highlights of the exhibition is “Puff Out,” an installation by the artist duo :mentalKLINIK. In her New York Times article, Joy and Pathos, Gods and Glitter Meet at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, writer Bonnie Tsui describes the work as the piece that best captures the exuberant spirit of the show and writes:
As I watched the eight robot vacuums take turns spinning blindly around the room — diligently pushing and puffing the pink glitter in swirling patterns, occasionally bumping into berms and one another — the whirring white noise and sparkling debris trails brought on a kind of meditative state. The sensory experience conjured up the fun and fabulousness of a rave, the shapes created by dance, the inevitable comedown. The effect was strangely moving, equal parts disco and drudgery.
Glitter is anathema to a museum, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who has ever observed small children crafting. And if the mess feels galvanizingly naughty, that is precisely the point."
At the end of her article, Tsui returns to :mentalKLINIK’s "Puff Out," as if completing a full circle, and concludes her piece with the following words:
"At the end of my visit to the museum, I circled back to the glitter Roombas. The artists behind 'Puff Out,' Yasemin Baydar and Birol Demir, told me that they met and fell in love at a celebrated club in Istanbul — in fact, their collaborative art practice as :mentalKLINIK was birthed there. They have become known for seductive, ever-evolving projects that explore this relationship with the dance floor and how technology enters the human sphere (and vice versa).
'This is our genre — the techno, the high-energy intensity — and it’s very much a therapy session,' Baydar said in a video interview from Brussels. 'You live it, leave it and can’t forget it.'
Like glitter, the experience follows you home."
In recent years, Asian artists, DJs, and communities have been at the forefront of a global resurgence of electronic music–based dance parties. During the same period, music from West Asia has gained worldwide popularity, introducing new audiences to the region’s rich musical traditions and the ongoing dialogue between heritage and innovation.
Rave into the Future offers a joyful space for connection and community through video, sculpture, photography, and immersive installations inspired by music and dance. The exhibition will have a special preview on October 23, open to the public on October 24, 2025, and remain on view at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum through January 12, 2026.
