Jameel Arts Centre – Contemporary Art in Dubai.
Mark it in your agenda, November 11st 2018.
Less than 2 weeks before the opening of Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s first contemporary art museum, an independent institution dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art and engaging communities through learning.
Founded and supported by Art Jameel: a complementary and independent organization established in 2003 that fosters and promotes contemporary art, cultural heritage protection and creative entrepreneurship across the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and beyond.
The new Jameel Arts Centre is located at the tip of Jaddaf Waterfront, on the Dubai Creek, will be home to curated commissions and projects, solo and group exhibitions. A new creative destination in the city, a hub for educational initiatives and cultural events.
The Building
Jameel Arts Centre is designed by UK-based Serie Architects. The assignment was given after the winning of an international competition in 2014.
The building is conceived as a series of boxes of varying dimensions that are bound together by a one-storey colonnade; its massing and spatiality draws from the rich architectural tradition of the region and is influenced by the position on the Dubai Creek. The colonnade is an active social space, framing gardens and enlivening the waterfront promenade.
The building is comprised of three floors of gallery spaces; an open-access research center and library; dedicated projects and events spaces; a rooftop terrace designed for installations, film screenings and events; a restaurant, a shop and espresso bar.
CRUDE – the first Group Exhibition
Crude, curated by independent critic and curator based in USA and UAE, Murtaza Vali, is an group exhibition with 17 artists and collectives from the region and beyond, that are going to explores Oil as an agent of social, cultural and economic transformation across the MENA, as well as a driver of geopolitical upheaval.
“Oil has been a trigger for misguided colonial adventures, wars, and coups; a catalyst for nation building, modernizations and development; and a cause of terrible ecological disasters. Oil and its attendant industries and economies has produced a spectrum of representations—architectures and infrastructures, documents and records, plans and photographs, and image and artifacts—that bring alive these complex histories. Much of the historical material lies buried in various national, corporate and media archives.” (Murtaza Vali).
Artist’s Room Galleries – 4 Solo Exhibitions
Artist’s Rooms is a series of solo exhibitions by influential, innovative artists, with a particular focus on practitioners from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Winter 2018-19 features rooms by Maha Malluh, Mounira Al Solh, Lala Rukh and Chiharu Shiota in galleries 1, 2, 3 and 10.
The Gardens
The Jameel Arts Centre gardens have been designed by renowned landscape Swiss architect Anouk Vogel (famous his landscape design for Bahrain Pavilion in Milan Expo 2015).
The project is conceived as a series of seven sustainable, open-air courtyards; each garden has a particular design and character, and represents a distinct desert environment, named after a country, region or particular species: Namib, Socotra, Chihuahuan, Australian, Silk Floss, Arabian, and Spiny Woodlands. Each of the seven gardens features a collection of sculptural plants native to the world’s varying desert ecosystems make up a few of the 149 varieties featured.
Alongside the Centre’s seven gardens, set between galleries 2 and 3 and open to the colonnade on the Creekside, is a plot reserved for artists to cultivate and experiment, via an annual commission.
The first project will be Greenhouse: Interior yet Exterior, Manmade yet Natural by Emirati sculptress Shaikha Al Mazrou (Dubai, 1988).
P.S. If you want to know better Shaikha’s work, visit meanwhile Lawrie Shabibi Gallery in Alserkal Avenue; exhibition open till 1st of November.
Opening Programme of Jameel Arts Centre on Sunday, November 11
10am-12 noon: Children’s Opening
Offering first-access to the center for tomorrow’s generation, this collaboration with UAE schools includes special workshops/tours. For more information, email: learning@artjameel.org
5pm-10pm: Public Opening
Curator, architect, and artist led tours of the building and opening exhibitions; Jameel Library events and talks; Sculpture Park activations and events.
Are you interested in contemporary art? Check our previous article about it!