After two years of Covid-induced postponement, Sikka is back … and different. Some things remain the same, of course, including the location. The Festival again takes over Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood for its 10th edition, running from 15 – 24 March with the theme ‘Celebrating Art, Celebrating Growth’ and a packed programme of visual arts, film, live music and “authentic home-grown food concepts”. As usual, many of the alleyways of Al Fahidi will be transformed into an open air gallery.
The keen-eyed will have noticed that there is a theme at all (past editions just seemed to happen without one); the name has been stretched to include ‘design’ as well as ‘art’ (there ought to be some way to include ‘performance’ as well); and this time it’s a festival rather than a fair. The difference isn’t immediately obvious, but presumably a fair is just fun while a festival is fun associated with some kind of overarching purpose. Which in this case is promotion for the city’s creatives and its creative scene; the organisation certainly seems to have shed some of the engagingly ad hoc setups of past years. Instead the festival is being held under the new umbrella identity of Sikka Art and Design Platform, “which seeks to support the professional growth journey of emerging creative talent” (elsewhere we noted the addition of “under the supervision of experts”, which apparently means a team of Emirati curators, namely Maitha Al Zaffin, Kamla AlOlama and Shamma Almheiri, “supported by” curator/artist Giuseppe Moscatello from The Foundry Downtown).
As part of its new direction, the Sikka Art and Design Festival seems to have acquired an educative function. The press release says it “aims to foster an integrated ecosystem that supports emerging creatives and provides a platform for them to embark on their journey to become professional artists”. It’s also becoming a tad prescriptive: “the artworks featured this year were chosen to create a compelling narrative about the Festival’s journey over the past decade”.
We have a few details of the festival’s content (the website is only slowly being populated, especially for the Main Stage programme, but it’s getting there: check back frequently, or try to keep up to date). We do know that more than 250 artists in total will be participating, either physically or virtually; and that many of the Al Fahidi tenants are opening up for workshops, demos and open studios.
Tashkeel’s permanent Al Fahidi base, House 10, has Sowing Seeds – works by Dubai-based artists eL Seed, Wissam Shawkat, Areen Hassan and Nora Zeid, Lana El Samman, and Nuhayr Zein – as well as drop-in workshops, artist demonstrations, and open studios including those of fine artists Victor Sitali, Chie Nakano and Mike Arnold; illustrators Abdalla Lutfi and Asma Baker; and jeweller Lia Staehlin. There will also be a drop-in an artist-led workshop to create an ‘art canopy’ for the House 10 courtyard, which will be installed during the course of the Festival.
There’s the interesting Halim al Karim exhibition at XVA Gallery, House 15; and the group show at AKAAS visual arts (House 17) features Jassim Al Awadhi, Faisal Al Rais, Ahmed Al Dosari, Mai Majdy, Moza AlFalasi, Rashid AlMulla, Ali Jamal, Mousa Mohamed Alraeesi, Mohamed Abdulla Almarzooqi and Jassim Al Awadhi.
There’s also an exhibition at House 13, the Al Fahidi Arts and Culture Center, and one at the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum Centre, House 47.
Seven of the Al Fahidi houses have been designated for particular exhibitions. One of them them – House 12 – is given over to explaining the theory behind converting ‘Sikka the festival’ to ‘Sikka the platform’. “Various programmes will be organised to provide visitors a memorable experience,” says the press release.
House 9 offers “a self-guided journey through time, art and jewellery” though work by UAE-based jewellers; there’s an exhibition but also workshops and talks. House 11, the Khaleeji House by the Khaleeji Art Museum, is showing five GCC artists in an exhibition curated by Sumayyah Al Suwaidi: Ahmad Al Rifaii (Kuwait), Ahmed Mohammed (UAE), Hamood Al Maqbali (Oman), (Bahrain), Shahad Nazer (Saudi Arabia), and Wild Arab West – Iman Almidfa & Hessa Al-Ali (UAE). There are more group shows in the three ‘artist showcase’ houses – 16.31, 40 – but these appear to be unthemed.
The Design and New Media House (28) features an interactive installations (including Swalef By Modu, Emirati designer Omar Al Gurg’s recreation of a traditional Emirati household in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.)
Elsewhere there will be mural art from local artists like Saggaf Alhashemi, Gary Yong (aka Enforce One), and Perry El-Ashmawi, plus the Bahrain-based Huvil. The Festival will also feature NFT Space, a digital art exhibition curated by Giuseppe Moscatello. And there will be lots of installations dotted around – we particularly like the sound of Color Experiments in Motion by Lina Younes and Azim Al Ghussein from the Animation Chamber collective (“as the colour changes, so does the visibility of the layers, bringing to focus a different scene with every shift”) and Jassim Al Awadhi’s Contact Anonymous (“sound is an invisible state that moves with feelings, when two bodies converge it rings, groans, longing, whistles, and sings …”).
Film gets a good chunk of attention. There will be a cinema and animation courtyard for three days of screenings by the Locomotion Community Cinema for home-grown talent. The courtyard will also dedicate two days to films from the generally excellent Beirut Animated festival; and there will be workshops and other activities conducted by the Animation Chamber. Other workshops will include sessions on visual arts, design and new media.
The result? It’s all getting organised. Let’s see if that kills the slightly amateurish but very accessible hey-let’s-do-it-right-here atmosphere of past Sikkas.
The Festival will be open 6pm to 11pm on weekdays, 2pm to midnight on Saturday, and 2pm to 11pm on Sunday. Access all areas will be free, we think.
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