Jameel Arts Center, the foundation of contemporary art in Dubai, yesterday revealed more details of its program for the fall and winter of 2019.
In the period from 10 October to 15 February, with the participation of 13 artists and art groups, the exhibition «Memory Amputee» questions about our relationship with the material heritage. The works, which have numerous artistic media, deal with pressing topics, such as the writing of history. The exhibition discusses the distribution of monuments, and the destruction of architectural spaces. The issue of tangible heritage has gained worldwide attention, particularly in the Middle East, where the background of colonialism, wars and conflicts of cultural domination casts a shadow over the subject.
The artistic treatments of the subjects, objects and locations in the exhibition range from objects and compositions to videos and photographs and three-dimensional drawings, as they remain incomplete, and their first objective is to encourage the recipient to submit his imagination to refer to other ramifications on the same path. In choosing the title of the exhibition «Memory Amputee» referral to the painful medical condition in which the body refuses to acknowledge the loss of one of the parties after a violent injury or inevitable amputation.
Raptor Memory is commissioned by Rand Abdul Jabbar, Ali Shree, Decollonization Architect, Benji Boyadgian, Akram Zaatari, Jumana Manna, Bio Abad, Francis Wadsworth Jones, Kader Attia, Theo Mercer, Ryan Tabet, and Khalil Rabah.
The exhibition also includes a major installation entitled “Maps of Confrontation” that demonstrates how innovative ways of digital design and photo-taking can help preserve cultural heritage, while still witnessing the destruction that took place before the effects of crimes are erased through reconstruction. . Accompanied by «Memory Amputee» program of lectures, workshops, films and events to suit all ages.
«Sea of Fists»
From 16 November to 31 January, the Jameel Center for the Arts, the mobile library, with more than 700 titles, will be on display for the first time in the region.
Prabhacker Pashupte, one of the most famous Indian artists of his generation, will share his latest projects in the artists' rooms at the Jameel Arts Center from September 21 to February 15. As part of his series of works called the Sea of Fists, the exhibition represents a powerful demonstration of the art of protest, exploring existing procedures and the realities of societies at the heart of the conflict across India. Over recent years, India has witnessed constant protest movements in which farmers used their bodies for performance signals, including silent marches in Nashik, challenging stops in the lakes of Karnataka, and even burying themselves in pits to protest against forced land acquisition in Rajasthan. The large artistic installation includes murals executed directly on the exhibition walls, plywood cutters and elements of the figures.
Solo exhibition
The Jameel Art Center in Dubai also hosts the exhibition “For the first time in a long time”, the first solo exhibition of the Saudi artist Sarah Abu Abdullah, which offers reflections on contemporary Gulf life, and how the Internet and digital communication channels in shaping our understanding and concerns towards the world; December 18 to April 11 next.
The exhibition combines current video works and new assignments including a large drawing on the fabric as well as installation of live plants, a joint production of the Art Jameel Foundation and Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany.
In the garden
The Jadaf Waterfront Art Park, adjacent to the Jameel Arts Center, set up in collaboration with Dubai Holding to be the first art park in the UAE, hosts the grand installation of Hassan Khan's 'Composition of a Public Garden' from the Jameel Art Collection, a complex of multi-channel music and lighting. With audio backgrounds in Arabic, English and Urdu.
The work was preceded by the 57th Venice Biennale, where the artist received the Silver Lion Award. The show will open on November 3 and will run until June 8, 2020.
List combinations
Visitors to the Jameel Arts Center have a last chance to see many galleries and art installations. Among them is the exhibition «borrowed materials», an exhibition that explores various approaches to the concept of materialism, and will continue until 23 November. The exhibition includes works by 18 artists and groups and offers assignments, performances, workshops, lectures and film screenings. In the embodiment of the symbolism of the center's integration between art and nature, the artist's garden presents a composition by Sheikha Al Mazroua entitled “Green House: Interior / Exterior Design, Artificial / Natural” until the end of November.