This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote: Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Huxley …
Art Dubai intro info Art Dubai’s 20th anniversary edition (17–19 Apr) – the first under new Fair Director Dunja Gottweis – gets two new curatorial sections (Zamaniyyat for Modernism, Bawwaba Extended for “immersive installations that might not fit in the conventional format”) alongside the existing Bawwaba (solo presentations of new works by emerging to mid-career artists), the Art Dubai Digital, and the main Art Dubai Galleries section. Total is 100+ participants from 35+ countries – a bit down on last year, which had over 120 exhibitors. The full list of confirmed 2026 galleries is here …
Venetian cookery The National Pavilion UAE wound up its sixth participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale – Azza Aboualam’s Pressure Cooker – with a total of 74,000 visitors since its 8 May opening. The Biennale Architettura as a whole was the best-attended ever, with 298,000 tickets sold (+5% over 2023). More than a quarter of attendees were under the age of 26.
Incidentally, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio and the Architecture Dept at the China Academy of Art have been named curators of the 2027 Biennale Architettura …
Nature on Saadiyat The Natural History Museum is open, and by all accounts it’s pretty stunning (a good museum shop too). Two T-Rexs fighting over a triceratops, the Murchison meteorite (contains the oldest material ever dated – 7bn years old), a herd of five sauropods greeting visitors in the museum atrium … Many stories well told, plus a sensible awareness of climate change. Tickets are AED 70, under-18s free. Coming next:
Zayed National Museum, opens 3 Dec …
Hold the phone GymNation, one of the largest fitness centres chains in the Emirates, has been advertising in London for anyone “sick of phone theft” to fly out to the Gulf Nation for a “self-defence retreat” (aka course) in Dubai. Phone snatching is indeed an issue in London, and apparently GymNation has had more than 600 sign-ups. The not dissimilarly named Gym Nation in your actual London has apparently benefitted too …
Big deals in Abu Dhabi … Sotheby’s Collectors’ Week in Abu Dhabi – “the first ever luxury auction series and the most valuable to be staged in the Middle East” – sees $150m worth of jewellery, watches, handbags (inc Jane Birkin’s Birkin bag), cars (inc a 2026 McLaren F1 car, to be delivered in 2028), Colnago performance bikes, lots of diamonds, and two luxury homes, all going under the hammer on 5 Dec. Also on public show are $1bn worth of luxury items for private sale, “the most valuable fine art exhibition ever staged in the region”, including a Rembrandt, Klimt’s Lady with a Fan (probably his final portrait), and Banksy’s shredded Girl Without Balloon. It’s all on view 2-5 Dec at the St Regis Saadiyat Island …
… and in New York Sotheby’s was also involved in selling the most expensive work of modern art ever bought at auction, and so was Klimt – his Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer went to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby’s New York for $236m, a sale price only surpassed by (of course) the da Vinci (or not) Salvator Mundi. In the same auction Maurizio Cattelan’s solid gold toilet attracted only a single bid at the $10m asking price. Better than nothing at all …
SFP8 awards The eighth Sharjah Film Platform has just finished, with awards handed out in four categories – Best Documentary Feature went to Marching in the Dark (dir Kinshuk Surjan, 2024); Best Documentary Short was Morgenkreis (Morning Circle) (dir Basma Al-Sharif, 2025); Best Fiction Feature was On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (dir Rungano Nyoni, 2024); Best Fiction Short was Le Diable et la Bicyclette (The Devil and the Bicycle) (dir Sharon Hakim, 2024). More info here …
True tickets Dubai Opera is warning that there are a number of fraudulent pages and resellers promoting counterfeit ticket links, presumably a phishing operation of some kind. The only official ticketing platforms are DubaiOpera.com and PlatinumList.net; the only official social media account is @Dubaiopera …
Dune action Liwa Festival returns to Al Dhafra, and more specifically Tal Moreeb, from 12 Dec to 3 Jan. Much pistonhead action as usual – racing, drifting, stunts, dune driving (the big one, the Dunes Cars Championship, is 29-31 Dec) for both pros and amateurs – but also shooting, falconry and other testosterone-fuelled stuff; plus more family entertainment, performances, shops, F&B and other goodies in the pop-up Liwa Village, camping and glamping for overnighters. Loads of fun, and general admission is free …
Top song GEMS Premier Music Academy’s Festive Song Competition, open to GEMS school students aged 14–18, attracted 120+ entries; the winners, The Six Amigos, get a term’s tuition at GEMS Premier Music Academy, a professionally produced music video, the chance to do their original song GEMS of the Night in public at Shangri La Dubai’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on 9 Dec (6.30pm on) …
Awful user interfaces Bad UX is an enjoyable contest to find terrible UX ideas. This year: find out who made the worst date picker (and it really is bad, a Tinder-swipe date selector) …
First Folio revisited We hear that the Shakespeare First Folio on sale for £4.5m at Abu Dhabi Art has found a buyer. Seems it might be an individual collector rather than an institution …
Useful app of the week Stop typing “thanks!” and “got it!” for routine acknowledgments – DadReply adds a one-click thumbs-up emoji next to your standard Gmail reply button. Works only with Gmail, sadly, and only in Chrome (or variants like Brave) but otherwise excellent …
Something for the weekend Learn Cryptic teaches you how to do the cryptic clues in crosswords. One cryptic clue per day, up to two hints to help you get there; try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 Dull in Scotland is twinned with Boring, Oregon. Every 9 Aug they celebrate Dull and Boring Day, now renamed Bland, Dull and Boring Day because Bland, New South Wales, has joined in …
Earworm of the week Lankum : Ghost Town
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