This week’s editorial musings from magpie’s nest
The quote Try to stay passionate, leave your cool to constellations. Passion, above all, is a remedy against boredom Joseph Brodsky
Dubai’s the place to be That’s because it’s Art Dubai time, of course, and much of the cultural ecosystem is surfing on that vibe. The fair itself is at Madinat Jumeirah from Friday to Sunday – more than 120 exhibitors in the fair itself, lots of not-for-sale sideshows.
Like Mohammed Kazem’s digital installation Directions (Merging) showing at the Julius Baer Lounge. Part of an ongoing series that incorporates GPS co-ordinates with animations of water, the work appears in a purpose-built space with Dubai occupying its centre …
Dubai Collection is all about making privately owned contemporary UAE art available to a wider audience, and for Art Dubai it is presenting Common Grounds, an exhibition curated by three ZU students – Shamsa Al Qubaisi, Maryam Al Zaabi, Sara Al Sulaimani – as part of a course (Communities, Curatorial Practices, and Collections) taught by Moya Goosen at CACE. As part of their final project, students used the Dubai Collection as a case study and curatorial resource, each proposing an exhibition concept grounded in their research. Practical, and loaded with potential.
We hear Myrna Ayad’s summary of the UAE’s cultural landscape +971: 50 Emirati Creatives Shaping the UAE will be launched at Art Dubai (though it won’t be available to the rest of us till September). Myrna Ayad says the book “explores the minds and workspaces of Emiratis who take the creative pulse of the country”; the 50 in question work across design, art, film, architecture, performing and visual arts, music and writing, and we’ll be interested to see who’s included (modesty naturally forbids any comparison with our own 50 to Follow from a few years ago …)
And more or less on the commercial side, Abu Dhabi’s newish contemporary art gallery Iris Projects is showing a new large-scale, site-specific installation by Saudi artist Abdulla Al Othman in the Bawwaba section. We’re keen to see this because Al Othman is midway through a project that looks for a visual language from the Middle East’s urban environments; fascinating stuff. There’s more by him at Iris’s MiZa space …
Elsewhere … Alserkal Avenue always hits the right notes for art week; this year’s programme carries the title A Wild Stitch and is “a public programme that gathers voices challenging the single grand narrative, carefully threading space for multiplicity, hybridity, and alternative perspectives that refuse to be neatly stitched into place”. In fact it’s basically the gallery shows plus some extras, but those extras are pretty good – like Imran Qureshi’s show at Concrete (and associated talks and guided tours); Adelita Husni Bey’s ‘lecture performance’ of her recent research on water infrastructure, drawing from her Sharjah Biennial 16 work Like a Flood (2025); and a majlis talks programme (always good). Details here …
And over in Sharjah SAF has April Acts: to carry new formations to highlight different aspects of SB16’s curatorial framework (the Biennial closes 15 June). Running 18-20 April, April Acts offers panel discussions, artist talks, workshops, film screenings and live music that “brings together conversations, art, cultural expression and activist ideas. More information here.
More Francofilm Cinema Akil’s Franco Film Week (to 17 April) has some great screenings, but there’s another francophone (with subtitles) film festival running from this weekend … and this one is free. Five top titles at SUAD in Abu Dhabi, starting tonight with En Fanfare (The Marching Band) …
Hunger games For your next world trip, how about a tour of the Top 15 International Restaurants (“according to the experts”) – and conveniently, none are in the UAE. Copenhagen to New Zealand, via Rwanda and Almaty: the list is here …
Something for the weekend Could Notepad replace Ableton? No, but it will fun trying to make it work here…
Things we didn’t know no.94 Radiohead took their name from the track on the Talking Heads album True Stories that the band considered the least annoying …
Earworm of the week Al Barry & The Cimarons : Morning Sun
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