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Youth Takeover 2025
2025-05-10 - 2025-06-02 | Jameel Arts Centre, Al Jaddaf, Dubai
The Jameel’s annual Youth Takeover is the manifestation of the Assembly, an experimental learning programme designed to foster creative leaders aged 18 to 24 in the UAE, “inviting the creation and curation of projects reflective of their generation’s areas of interest”. The Assembly 2024-2025 cohort comprises multimedia graphic designer Abrar Kebaili, visual artist and designer Ayesha Fernandes, multimedia designer and writer Desirée Barreto, literary artist Ioanna Orphanide, poet Jared Maxilom, researcher and writer Manal Nadeem, architect and researcher Omar Darwish, exhibition designer Sanjushrree Subash, and poet Syed Haider.
This year’s theme for the Youth Takeover – a physical takeover of spaces on the Jameel’s ground floor – is titled ‘Spoon Spade Shovel’. It covers experiments in how the Assembly members dig, sift and stir through the world, “offering a network of creative experiences as tools for excavation, reflection and play … The exhibition presents a range of interdisciplinary works that use tools – literal and metaphorical – to question how we make and remake meaning”. These works sit uneasily beside one another, but their differences are invitations rather than obstacles “whether you sift or stir, extract or excavate, your experience will be shaped by the tool you reach for: its size, scale, heft and intent. You are invited to inhabit this instability and co-compose the meanings that emerge … What you take from this exhibition depends on what you bring to it”.
The artists are:
Ayesha Fernandes with Svabhu Kohli
Desirée Barreto with Angie Pais and Mouza Al Hamrani
Ioanna Orphanide with Danae Orphanide and Ilya Akimov
Jared Maxilom with Halo-Halo Experiment, Vinyl Souk and memoryall
Manal Nadeem with Khaled Esguerra and Jed Bacason
Omar Darwish with Fatma Al Ali and Maitha Ali
Sanjushrree Subash with Danutė Vaitekūnaitė and Farheen Fatima
Syed Haider with Hessa Lootah, Souldier and Aqib Anwar
Besides the commissioned artworks, the Youth Takeover 2025 features a public programme. These are all free, but re-registration is required:
10 May 10
– Opening Preview and panel discussion with the Assembly 2024-2025 members and programme curators Abhirami Suresh and Nabeeha Sajjad
– Musical Activation: Translating Oscillations by artist Mckie Alvarez
– Musical Performance: ABRI
11 May
– Workshop: Synthesising Landscapes (Part 1) with Assembly members Ayesha Fernandes and Ioanna Orphanide
17 May
– Tour: Assembly-led exhibition tour
– Workshop: Portable Beats – DIY Music with Pocket Operators. Music production workshop by artist PHO, in collaboration with Vinyl Souk
– Gathering: Storytelling – The Journey of Design by graphic designer Poorvaja Subramanian and Assembly member Abrar Kebaili
– Musical Activation: Translating Oscillations by Madam Void
18 May
– Workshop: You may now sleep? by artist Henry Tan
– Themed activation: me.me con by artist Fatima Raza and Assembly member Desiree Barreto
24 May
– Performance Tour: And the Tools Begin to Speak – Poets in Response to Spoon Spade Shovel by poets Ahmed Gihad Hamad, Dania Dawn, Jared Maxilom, Malavika Suresh, Pankaj Kanchandani, Sarah Afaneh, Shania Laude and Syed Haider
– Performance: lorem ipsum 9-to-5 by Andres Ugartechea
– Musical activation: Translating Oscillations by Joe Najm
25 May
– Tour: Assembly-led Youth Takeover 2025 tour
– Workshop: Between the Gesture and the Ground by artists Aya Afaneh and Yoonsik Chico Park
– Workshop: Dwelling in the In-between: A Workshop of Waiting, Devotion and Movement by writer and performance artist Faraz Ali
31 May
– Tour and workshop: Family Saturdays at the Jameel by Assembly member Ayesha Fernandes
– Workshop: Monuments and Enchantment – Inhabiting Urban Space by artist-researcher Maitha Ali
– Musical activation: Translating Oscillations by PHO
1 June
– Interactive performance: Synthesising Landscapes (Part 2) by artists Aakarsh Singh and Ahmed Bilal
– Musical activation: Feedback Loops: A Sunset Sound Gathering by artists Cyrill Reaidy and Kirill Zhan of Moist Paper Party

Open Culture Workshop
2025-05-13 18:30 - 20:00 (Asia/Dubai) | Alserkal Arts Foundation, Warehouse 50/51, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Inspired in part by the Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) movement – which promotes open access, reuse, and sharing of cultural collections in digital spaces – the Open Culture project seeks a local context for such ideas; organiser and host Engage101 has been actively exploring the potential of participatory practices and infrastructures in the UAE, and says the project’s launch marks the beginning of a long-term initiative aimed at encouraging collaborative thinking and reflection on the present and future of the region’s cultural commons.
This inaugural meeting takes the form of an interactive workshop session with participants invited to contribute personal and professional insights on topics such as …
> What happens when we begin to view art and culture as a public good?
> How does this idea extend into digital realms?
> Does greater access lead to the emancipation of knowledge?
> What does “digital commons” really mean – and are there more fitting alternatives?
> How might the UAE’s cultural ecosystem benefit from embracing digital commons?
> What value, challenges, or possibilities arise when we begin to share our individual data, research, image-making, and projects?
That’s a lot of meaty, interesting questions to consider. The event is organised by Aliaa Shaaban, who researches cultural heritage policy, participatory practices, and the role of emerging technologies and innovation within cultural institutions; and Engage101, a platform that exhibits and supports independent Gulf-based artists and also produces original academic research on the arts in the region.

Piano Appassionato: A Night of Virtuosity – Ioannis Potamousis
2025-05-13 19:30 - 2025-05-14 21:00 | The Arts Center @ NYUAD, NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
An evening of piano brilliance, showcasing the instrument’s dramatic power and profound emotional depth with two of the classic masterpieces of the repertoire, both of which make great demands of the pianist – Beethoven’s “Appassionata” and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor. The soloist is Ioannis Potamousis, NYUAD Professor of Piano and a Steinway Artist; he’s joined for other parts of the programme by two talented students, Je-Luen (James) Chang and Stanford Yu
The programme:
Scarlatti Sonata in F minor
Scarlatti Sonata in F minor
Scarlatti Sonata in D minor
Saint-Saëns Allegro Appassionato op.70
Piano: James Chang
Liszt “Mazeppa” from the 12 Transcendental Études
Piano: Stanford Yu
Beethoven Sonata in F minor no.23 op.57 “Appassionata”
Piano: Ioannis Potamousis
Liszt Sonata in b minor
Piano: Ioannis Potamousis
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 (arr for one piano four hands by F. Bendel)
Piano: Ioannis Potamousis and Stanford Yu

La Cité de la peur / Fear City: dir Alain Berberian (1993)
2025-05-13 20:00 - 21:40 | Alliance Française Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Odile Deray, a small time public relations executive, has her work cut out for her – getting some exposure for a pretty terrible small-budget horror movie called Red is Dead. Then she gets a break: the projectionist is murdered, just as in the film … and more follow, identical to those in Red is Dead, and taking place at the Cannes Festival ! Add in a corrupt politician, a bodyguard for the lead actor who is more interested in girls than his client, a police superintendent who can’t handle the press … Full of insider references, this zany satire about the world of cinema and the Festival de Cannes in particular should make for a fun evening. In French, with English subtitles; and AF members get in free, while the rest of us pay AED 35.
