A staple in Dubai’s cultural calendar, Alserkal Art Week is a marker of the city’s art season, signalling a renewed slate of art exhibitions, films, performances and activities.
Held at Alserkal Avenue twice a year, the week-long event is currently taking place until November 23. It is running under the title Uprooted. The theme alludes to the condition of being pulled away from familiar ground and into uncertainty. It reflects upon a world marked by instability and disruption, where people, ecosystems and ideas are continually dislodged and required to adapt.
Here are a few things to look out for during this season of Alserkal Art Week.
Exhibitions
The title of Art Week reflects the themes and concerns surrounding many of the exhibitions. The 20th anniversary exhibition at The Third Line, extended until December 28, traces landmark local and international moments across the past two decades through the lens of its artists.
Ishara Art Foundation, meanwhile, is presenting Storm. The exhibition spotlights the 12 photographers shortlisted for the 11th Prix Pictet, an international photography award with a focus on sustainability and environmental issues.
The Shape of Things to Come at Efie Gallery is a group exhibition that features artists El Anatsui, Carrie Mae Weems, Abdoulaye Konate, Yinka Shonibare, Iman Issa and Adam Pen. Their work reflects upon the drastic and at times rapid transformation that define modern life. These include political upheavals, technological and cultural impact, as well as environmental crises. The works exemplify how art addresses these changes, but also anticipates them.
Another group exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi, meanwhile, is tracing parallels in non-figurative practices between South Africa and the Middle East. It shows how abstraction, rather than being a dismissal of representation, is a gestural form through which memory, lineage and lived experience is preserved. By the Movement of All Things features works by artists Igshaan Adams, Hamra Abbas, Diana Al-Hadid, James Webb, Bronwyn Katz, Timo Nasseri and Moshekwa Langa.
Ayyam Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of Ali Kaaf. The Fire’s Edge features pivotal bodies of work by the Algeria-born Syrian artist, including his Rift series and selections from his burnt cibachrome print series Ras Ras, as well as from his blown-glass series Helmet.
In Marks of Return at Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Palestinian artist Salma Dib spotlights how walls are expressions of resistance, drawing from Palestinian street inscriptions that stand against erasure and disappearance. At Zawyeh Gallery, Mohammed Joha similarly expresses resistance and endurance, but through collage, with his exhibition, Houselessness.
Other exhibitions include Domestic Compositions at Green Art Gallery, Iranian-US artist Kamrooz Aram’s cross-disciplinary inquiry into how painting, sculpture and architecture provide new ways of seeing cultural artefacts. Hujra at Tabari Artspace features a meditative dialogue between inner states and material processes by Iraqi artist Miramar Al Nayyar.
Monochromes at Taymour Grahne Projects presents the colour-driven landscapes of US artist Amy Lincoln. Grey Noise is presenting the second installment of an exhibition of the late Pakistani artist and educator Lala Rukh, reflecting upon her move towards greater abstraction from the late 1970s onward.
Performances
In Nerpala, Dileep Chilanka turns a traditional wooden framework, once found in shops across Kerala, into a performance that highlights the manual labour, rituals and movements specific to maneuvering the wooden planks. Chilanka originally developed the performance as part of Serendipity Arts Residency 2023. It will take place at Project Space on Saturday.
Rana Haddad and Pascal Hachem’s The Game is described on the Alserkal website as “a Beckettian experiment in stillness and undoing", moving between balance and collapse through sticks, chairs and trays. The performance will take place on November 23, also at Project Space.
Hussein Nassereddine, meanwhile, will present a performance blending narration, song and moving image. The work, exploring the overlap of myth and memory, is drawn from Nassereddine’s research into Islamic conceptions of time and the history of Arabic poetry. The performance will take place at Concrete on November 23.
Film
Cinema Akil will screen two films in The Yard during Art Week. These include Dahomey by Mati Diop. The film traces the return of 26 royal artefacts from France to Benin, documenting reactions and probing into themes such as colonial plunder and cultural restitution. The film will be showing on Saturday.
Banksy: Most Wanted, meanwhile, delves into the artist’s anonymity, showing the global mania of trying to uncover the street-artist’s identity. It highlights his works and activism, raising the question of whether we need to know the artist’s identity to appreciate their art? The film will screen on November 23.
In the final days of Art Week, Cinema Akil will be launching Mitti Indian Independent Film Festival. Taking place from November 21 to 27, the week-long programme will present seven independent films, archival works, workshops and conversations.
Opening with Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy, a neo-noir following an insomniac former policeman, the festival will screen a diverse line-up, from folklore-driven features to memorable character portraits. It also includes a film appreciation workshop, titled Decoding Indian Cinema, which offers deeper engagement with South Asian cinema and craft.
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
T20 World Cup Qualifier, Muscat
UAE FIXTURES
Friday February 18: v Ireland
Saturday February 19: v Germany
Monday February 21: v Philippines
Tuesday February 22: semi-finals
Thursday February 24: final
Results
2.15pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 1,700m; Winner: AF Arrab, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer).
2.45pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 1,700m; Winner: AF Mahaleel, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel.
3.15pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum handicap (TB) Dh200,000 2,000m; Winner: Dolmen, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
3.45pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,200m; Winner: Amang Alawda, Sandro Paiva, Bakhit Al Ketbi.
4.15pm: The Crown Prince of Sharjah Cup Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 1,200m; Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
4.45pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 2,000m; Winner: Al Jazi, Jesus Rosales, Eric Lemartinel.
Scoreline
Liverpool 3
Mane (7'), Salah (69'), Firmino (90')
Bournemouth 0
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
Company profile
Name: One Good Thing
Founders: Bridgett Lau and Micheal Cooke
Based in: Dubai
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 5 employees
Stage: Looking for seed funding
Investors: Self-funded and seeking external investors
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Three trading apps to try
Sharad Nair recommends three investment apps for UAE residents:
- For beginners or people who want to start investing with limited capital, Mr Nair suggests eToro. “The low fees and low minimum balance requirements make the platform more accessible,” he says. “The user interface is straightforward to understand and operate, while its social element may help ease beginners into the idea of investing money by looking to a virtual community.”
- If you’re an experienced investor, and have $10,000 or more to invest, consider Saxo Bank. “Saxo Bank offers a more comprehensive trading platform with advanced features and insight for more experienced users. It offers a more personalised approach to opening and operating an account on their platform,” he says.
- Finally, StashAway could work for those who want a hands-off approach to their investing. “It removes one of the biggest challenges for novice traders: picking the securities in their portfolio,” Mr Nair says. “A goal-based approach or view towards investing can help motivate residents who may usually shy away from investment platforms.”
TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel
Race card:
6.30pm: Baniyas (PA) Group 2 Dh195,000 1,400m.
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 1,400m.
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 1,200m.
8.15pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 1,200m.
8.50pm: Rated Conditions (TB) Dh240,000 1,600m.
9.20pm: Handicap (TB) Dh165,000 1,400m.
10pm: Handicap (TB) Dh175,000 2,000m.
RESULT
Huddersfield Town 1 Manchester City 2
Huddersfield: Otamendi (45' 1 og), van La Parra (red card 90' 6)
Man City: Agüero (47' pen), Sterling (84')
Man of the match: Christopher Schindler (Huddersfield Town)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
