{"id":44860,"date":"2022-11-23T18:45:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T14:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=44860"},"modified":"2022-11-23T18:47:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T14:47:31","slug":"no-more-warehouse-in-warehouse421","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/no-more-warehouse-in-warehouse421\/","title":{"rendered":"No more Warehouse in Warehouse421"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abu Dhabi\u2019s Warehouse421 has a new name (farewell Warehouse421, hello 421) and a new brand identity<\/a>. Originally it aimed to provide \u201ca dynamic space that could be home to exhibitions and events that our community sorely needed at the time\u201d; but the thinking is that \u201cthe contours of our cultural landscape have shifted\u201d and \u201cwe have become so much more than just a warehouse \u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warehouse421 was a real breath of fresh air when it opened its doors back in 2015. True, the physical space had been reworked at some cost by a big-name architectural studio (which actually was BIG); but it was a real<\/em> warehouse in an industrial part of town, so the vibe was right for an alternative arts venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a year or two to find its feet, but then did start to justified its ambitions. The official line at the time was that Warehouse421 \u201cis committed to showcasing the work of local and regional creative professionals and to being a place where creatives formally and informally convene\u201d, which is a bit of a portmanteau description: but it started holding exhibitions that reflected\u00ad the local arts community (for instance via an ongoing connection with the SEAF fellowships) and moved into commissioned shows like the impressive Architecture of Loneliness. The al fresco cinema screenings run by Cinema Akil, an early addition to the programme, have always been successful. And gradually W421 expanded to take a more active role in aspects of the creative process, offering more learning opportunities and workshops, running pop-up selling shows for locally made art, providing self-service studio spaces \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An excellent idea, and a success from the start: open-air cinema in 421’s courtyard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And now its management feels that it\u2019s time for a \u201cre-imagining\u201d. So what is 421 doing now that it wasn\u2019t doing (or wasn\u2019t able to do) six or seven years ago? How have the needs evolved? We asked Faisal Al Hassan, manager of 421, who has been with the organisation from the start, and he said the new brand identity is the result of an assessment that started early in 2020 \u201cwhen we decided to rethink and reassess our purpose as a platform that supports the work of emerging artists and creative practitioners\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His conclusion: \u201cSeven years ago, the cultural landscape in the UAE was quite different, and our purpose at the time was to serve as a community space that hosted exhibitions and workshops. Today, our programming is focused on offering emerging practitioners support through learning, research, and commissions, and on engaging the wider community in critical dialogue and exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days many of the exhibitions are the result of the capacity building programmes that have been developed in the last couple of years, like the Curatorial Development Exhibition programme \u2013 a structured six-month exercise in developing a specific exhibition on a preset topic. This is highly practical, involving rigorous study, selecting artists and works, and producing a written analysis to accompany the final exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More publishing is another addition to the original mix. Says Al Hassan: \u201cWe publish literary and academic writing through a variety of our programmes, such as the Artistic Research Grant, which also offer artists the opportunity to present and pose questions that are relevant to our creative ecosystem and the region at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are a site for experimentation and a space where artists can expand the boundaries of their work, confronting new perspectives and ways of working as they explore and try new things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dukkan421 is a design and book store within the centre, promising “a unique, curated selection of designs by regional creatives”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That broader view of the operation accounts for the dropping of \u2018Warehouse\u2019 from the name: \u201cwe\u2019re no longer just an exhibition or events space \u2013 we see ourselves as catalysts for the UAE\u2019s emerging creative community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So is 421 more like an arts centre, like The Arts Center at NYUAD or the Jameel? Faisal Al Hassan makes the point that he\u2019s not in competition with other institutions: \u201cin fact we see them as collaborators and partners\u201d. But in any case 421 views itself as focussing on emergent creative practices locally \u2013 \u201cour mandate is to support and help facilitate the work of young artists and creative practitioners who want to harness the arts as an agent for social inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see a real need for institutions, organisations and spaces dedicated specifically for them, and we also see a need for platforms that champion process over final or finished work. Many of our programs \u2013 our Homebound Residency<\/a> for example \u2013 don\u2019t require artists to produce a completed or polished project. Rather we see the process of learning, trial and error, experimentation as the priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example: the Teen Studio<\/a>, an educational programme that gives UAE students knowledge and skills required to pursue various creative disciplines at university level (applications for the first cycle have just closed). And this was developed as by two students on the annual Internship Program<\/a>, which gives interns an insight into the running of an arts organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So 421 is not an arts centre then, more a centre for developing people who will become part of the arts scene locally. That sounds like an important (and indeed necessary) addition to the UAE\u2019s arts ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abu Dhabi\u2019s Warehouse421 has a new name (farewell Warehouse421, hello 421) and a new brand identity. Originally it aimed to provide \u201ca dynamic space that could be home to exhibitions and events that our community sorely needed at the time\u201d; [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}