Dubai cultural hub Alserkal Avenue has revealed its summer programme, featuring three weekends of workshops, panel discussions, live interactive performances, film screenings and exhibitions.
More Than Human, which runs from August 13 to 28, will examine how human lives intersect with other materials that occupy their spaces, organisers said.
The programme was curated by artist and researcher Fatema Al Fardan, interdisciplinary artist Zuhoor Al Sayegh, artist and researcher Lubnah Ansari, filmmaker and poet Arthur De Oliveira, and arts and culture writer and photographer Vamika Sinha.
Each weekend will explore a specific sub-theme under the overarching one of More Than Human, to be held at Jossa within the arts district.
Under-Ground: August 13 - 14
The first weekend will explore the idea of what lies beneath the surface, both in a literal and metaphorical sense — from roots and ant tunnels in the earth, veins under the skin or complex emotions behind unreadable expressions.
The programme will include Tracing Paper, a papermaking workshop. There will also be Secret Underground Networks, a talk by Dima Al Srouri, a city strategist and a creative thought leader, along with Lara Hussein and Ceylan Uren, co-founders of The Waste Lab, a start-up that is working to reduce food waste in the UAE; and Yazen Al Kodmani, farm manager at Emirates Bio Farm, where he has developed a method of large-scale organic farming.
Performance artists Maitha AlSuwaidi and playwright and theatre artist Reem Almenhali will also present a multimedia performance titled Amulets of Palm, followed by a discussion around the narratives associated with palm trees.
The Lebanese film Panoptic will be screening at Cinema Akil. Directed by Rana Eid, the film explores Lebanon's many juxtapositions as a nation struggling to be modern while fighting the many obstacles standing in its way.
Ground: August 20 - 21
Grounds explores how materials that come from the earth are used in the structures and homes that we occupy and live in.
The programme includes a screening of The Outside In, a film by Indian director Hansa Thapliyal, that documents the work of two women who use everyday materials to make dolls. The screening will be followed by a discussion, led by filmmaker and researcher Iram Ghufran.
Moving Mountains is a workshop led by sound artist Safeya Alblooshi, in collaboration with the physical therapy clinic Joint Space. It will use movement, audio and live sound-mixing to take participants on a journey to study their own physicality and connection to the ground.
Cinema Akil will also be screening the 1971 documentary Fata Morgana, directed by Werner Herzog, known as the pioneer of New German Cinema. Fata Morgana is a documentary that takes a surreal look at the Sahara desert and its otherworldly mirages.
Beyond Ground: August 27 - 28
The last weekend of the programme will explore ideas of how, through different mediums, we can transcend earth's conventional boundaries. From words on the page, the subconscious, and the digital realm, how does the human experience exist in non-traditional spaces?
The programme includes Generative Human, a performance at Sima Performing Arts, influenced by NFT artworks. The performance will be followed by a discussion led by cultural journalist Anna Seaman and arts and culture writer and photographer Sinha.
Two workshops will conclude the final weekend of summer events at Alserkal Avenue. The Coffee Cup Reading Workshop at Kave will examine cosmological narratives as read in materials from the earth, such as coffee. While in Fantastical Body, a magical realism and fiction-writing workshop at Crank, participants will delve into how the physical body and world can exist in otherworldly spaces in stories.
More information is available at www.alserkal.online
Dubai exhibition Eyes Wide Shut explores female trauma and healing - in pictures
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Firetti Contemporary gallery at Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue has is holding its first all-female exhibition titled Eyes Wide Shut. Curated by Celine Azem, Mara Firetti and Oceane Sailly, the show features 10 women artists of different generations and levels. All photos: Firetti Contemporary -
Firetti Contemporary is known primarily for its displays of digital and abstract art. -
The exhibition's 10 artists are from the UAE, Iran, Armenia, Ukraine, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Kuwait. -
Artist Negin Fallah next to her works. -
Artist Amina Yahia with her work 'Ya Aghla Ism Fi El Wogood'. -
The centrepiece of Eyes Wide Shut is Kuwaiti artist Alymamah Rashed’s 'My eye splits your love to hold us closer to our depths (I will meet you there)', a floor-to-ceiling watercolour occupying the gallery’s back wall. -
Emirati artist Khawla Almarzooqi’s canvases are surreal meditations on the emotions that are caused by the constrictions placed on the female mind and body. -
'The clothed Maja' by Emirati artist Khawla Almarzooqi. -
Lebanese-Armenian artist Annie Kurkdjian was inspired by her experiences of civil war in Beirut and her grandmother’s traumatic memories of the Armenian genocide. -
An untitled work by Lebanese-Armenian artist Annie Kurkdjian. -
Palestinian artist Qamar Abdulmalik, who lives in Saudi Arabia, uses the fantastical to comment on politics. -
Flush with images of passports, Qamar Abdulmalik's artworks exaggerate the absurdity of an undocumented immigrant’s quotidian challenges. -
One of the collages by Palestinian artist Qamar Abdulmalik. -
Having spent her early childhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, before relocating to Kuwait, multidisciplinary artist Amani Althuwani melds childhood fairytales with Kuwaiti marriage traditions and rituals. -
Collectively, Amani AlThuwani's works mourn the catastrophic destruction of a place that holds her earliest memories, and how her own children may not be able to experience them. -
Maria Shapranova’s mixed-media collages use Ukrainian symbolism in pop art-style to portray the resilience of Ukrainian women. -
Maria Shapranova uses bold scarlet shades to evoke blood — literally and metaphorically — as well as colours of the Ukrainian flag as backdrops for cleverly cut images. -
Egyptian painter and visual artist Amina Yahia. -
Emirati visual artist Afra Al Suwaidi. -
Ukrainian artist Maria Shapranova. -
Syrian artist and architect Sawsan Al Bahar. -
Kuwaiti artist Alymamah Rashed. -
Lebanese-Armenian artist Annie Kurkdjian. -
Iranian artist Negin Fallah. -
Palestinian artist Qamar Abdulmalik. -
Ukraine-born Kuwaiti artist Amani AlThuwani. -
Emirati artist Khawla Almarzooqi. -
The curators of Eyes Wide Shut, from left to right, Oceane Sailly, Mara Firetti and Celine Azem.
