An installation by Jude Maharmeh, for the Unstable Grounds show at 421 Arts Campus. Antonie Robertson / The National
An installation by Jude Maharmeh, for the Unstable Grounds show at 421 Arts Campus. Antonie Robertson / The National
An installation by Jude Maharmeh, for the Unstable Grounds show at 421 Arts Campus. Antonie Robertson / The National
An installation by Jude Maharmeh, for the Unstable Grounds show at 421 Arts Campus. Antonie Robertson / The National

Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Young Emirati photographer gets first solo show


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

This week’s exhibitions chart new geographies, both literally and metaphorically. From remote mountains and rural farmlands to imagined terrains, the featured shows reflect shifting grounds, whether beneath our feet or within our collective consciousness.

Here are three exhibitions to see this week.

Everyman's Mountain, by Omar Al Gurg at Lawrie Shabibi

The show pays tribute to Mount Kilimanjaro. Photo: Lawrie Shabibi
The show pays tribute to Mount Kilimanjaro. Photo: Lawrie Shabibi

Emirati photographer and designer Omar Al Gurg is presenting his first solo show with Everyman’s Mountain. The exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi features 24 archival prints from a six-day trek up Kilimanjaro in 2021. From misty forests and regenerating moorlands to the fragile icy summit, Al Gurg’s work shows the mountain as a shifting ecosystem, shaped by nature and human activity.

The exhibition is as much a personal odyssey as it is a broader environmental mediation, a tribute to nature’s quiet transformations and our collective duty to preserve them.

Monday to Saturday, 10am-6pm; until September 12; Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai

The Peasant, the Scholar and the Engineer, by Asuncion Molinos Gordo at Jameel Arts Centre

The show presents the vernacular ways of farmers as sustainability solutions. Photo: Jameel Arts Centre
The show presents the vernacular ways of farmers as sustainability solutions. Photo: Jameel Arts Centre

Spanish artist-researcher Asuncion Molinos Gordo’s first major retrospective in West Asia surveys 15 years of her work on rural knowledge, land use and food systems.

Gordo's work draws on anthropology and cultural studies. It reframes farmers as not only food producers, but also intellectuals and engineers. Their vernacular practices, she points out, may hold keys to sustainability.

Works that are being featured in the exhibition include her famous World Agriculture Museum, which was first staged in Cairo in 2010 and won the Sharjah Biennial Prize in 2015. Another highlight is Como Soliamos, a 2020 rammed-earth installation echoing Andalusian and falaj irrigation techniques.

Saturday to Monday, Wednesday to Thursday, 10am-8pm; Friday; noon-8pm; until September 28; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai

Unstable Grounds, at 421 Arts Campus

In Unstable Grounds, the MFA graduate exhibition from NYU Abu Dhabi at 421, art becomes an act of placemaking – a wrestling with materials in search of meaning. The show is layered and searching, a constellation of practices that reveal not just what is shown, but also what resists visibility.

The exhibition features the work of eight artists, exploring themes of the environment, displacement, memory and human connection, through installation, performance, video, sculpture and print.

Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-8pm; until September 7; 421 Arts Campus, Abu Dhabi

Tamkeen's offering
  • Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
  • Option 2: 50% across three years
  • Option 3: 30% across five years 
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Director: Goran Hugo Olsson

Rating: 5/5

Why seagrass matters
  • Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
  • Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
  • Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
  • Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
It Was Just an Accident

Director: Jafar Panahi

Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Rating: 4/5

Farage on Muslim Brotherhood

Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.

MATCH DETAILS

Barcelona 0

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Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
  • 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
  • 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
  • 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
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Price, base: Dh399,999
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Fuel economy, combined: 16.8L / 100km (estimate)

MATCH INFO

Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium (Malacca, Malayisa)
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD

* Second leg in Australia scheduled for October 10

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin

Director: Shawn Levy

Rating: 3/5

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Why it pays to compare

A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.

Route 1: bank transfer

The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.

Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount

Total received: €4,670.30 

Route 2: online platform

The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.

Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction

Total received: €4,756

The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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Global institutions: BlackRock and KKR

US-based BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with $5.98 trillion of assets under management as of the end of last year. The New York firm run by Larry Fink provides investment management services to institutional clients and retail investors including governments, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, banks and charitable foundations around the world, through a variety of investment vehicles.

KKR & Co, or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is a global private equity and investment firm with around $195 billion of assets as of the end of last year. The New York-based firm, founded by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, invests in multiple alternative asset classes through direct or fund-to-fund investments with a particular focus on infrastructure, technology, healthcare, real estate and energy.

 

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Match info

Bournemouth 0
Liverpool 4
(Salah 25', 48', 76', Cook 68' OG)

Man of the match: Andrew Robertson (Liverpool)

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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)

The Year Earth Changed

Directed by:Tom Beard

Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough

Stars: 4

'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra

Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa

Rating: 4/5

Brief scores:

Day 2

England: 277 & 19-0

West Indies: 154

Updated: June 12, 2025, 3:01 AM