Alserkal Art Week runs from Monday, 20 November to Sunday, 26 November at Alserkal
Avenue. On This Land, a triangulated response by The Palestinian Museum, Barjeel Art
Foundation, and Alserkal Arts Foundation, will open on Sunday, 19 November, filling Concrete
for the duration of Alserkal Art Week from 10 AM to midnight daily. Tours of the exhibition will
take place at 3.30 PM every day.
The week-long programme will begin with Alserkal Lates on Monday, 20 November (5-10 PM),
and will be followed by a curated Majlis Talks series, guest projects, a dance performance by
Sima Dance Company, a storytelling performance, as well as more than 15 new exhibitions
across the Avenue. Alserkal Arts Foundation will also host their open studios for their current
residency cycle on Monday, 20 November. The Alserkal Art Week programme takes inspiration
from this year’s Majlis Talks, for which Alserkal Avenue commissioned Mari Spirito, curator and
Executive Director of Protocinema. Titled Fierce Grace, the term for knowledge gained through
hardship, the programme asks us to shift our awareness to recognise ourselves as part of a
bigger whole.
A collaborative exhibition
On This Land, which opens at 6 PM on 19 November and runs from 20-26 November
(10AM-midnight), is an exhibition that opens an unexpected window onto Gaza to prompt a
collective imagination of a possible future through the prism of a past made manifest.
Bringing together the digital archive of The Palestinian Museum and works from the Barjeel Art
Foundation’s collection, On This Land, harnesses the power of spontaneous collaboration not
only to protect what is being silenced but to generate a triangulated and amplified response.
Intervention by Hazem Harb
Long-time Alserkal Avenue collaborator Hazem Harb will begin his intervention on the 19
November, until 26 November, marking a return to charcoal on paper after a hiatus of more than
a decade. The use of the medium holds profound significance for Harb, the black carbon dust
echoes that which now settles in his home, Gaza. Combining elements of abstraction and
figuration, the works attempt to visualise the unspeakable and encapsulate a profound sense of
loss.
Majlis Talks: a common ground for discussion
The majlis has always been a source of thoughtful and inspiring conversations and reflection.
From the majlis we begin a convergence of differences, mingling vantage points, allowing new
questions to rise as we bring artists, curators, researchers, and art-world professionals together.
Starting at 4 PM on 23 November 2023 and running across five thirty-minute sessions, this
year’s Majlis Talks, titled Fierce Grace, curated by Mari Spirito, will see conversations with
curator Duygu Demir, artist Stéphanie Saadé, artist Marianne Fahmy, and author Kaya Genc.
Topics to be discussed will range from attention to the small details of life we overlook (like our
skin cells left on our phone’s touch screen), to un-learning social conditioning, futurism on rising
seas, invisibility as a means of survival, and interconnecting across geographies.
Performance by Sima Dance performance in partnership with Al Tayer Motors & Maserati
Sima Dance Company, in partnership with Al Tayer Motors & Maserati, presents RHYME. A
theatrical laboratory, RHYME shows Arab and Eastern cultural heritage through an artistic lens.
Choreographed by Artistic Director and Choreographer, Alaa Krimed, the 30-minute
contemporary dance performance is the result of Alaa’s research into a collection of old and
modern Arabic language and poetry. Music, narration and bodies translate its melodic and
experimental character in a dynamic performance on 20 and 26 November from 7 PM.
New exhibitions at the galleries
More than 15 openings of contemporary art exhibitions will showcase a fascination with
geometry, explore the surreal, and artworks that use volcanic rock to address abstraction as a
concept.
Green Art Gallery is showing a solo exhibition by multi-media Emirati artist Afra Al Dhaheri,
whose work is rooted in her experiences growing up in the UAE. Nima Nabavi’s precise
pencil-line drawings will be exhibited at The Third Line, alongside the intricate watercolour work
of Jason Seife. Leila Heller Gallery brings together three solo exhibitions featuring artists
Diane Tuft, Maxi Cohen, and Clifford Ross. After an 18-month hiatus, Gallery Isabelle will
reopen, with a solo exhibition Disjunctions by Lubna Chowdhary. Fahd Burki, whose practice
moves between non-representational and figurative realms, will be exhibiting at Grey Noise,
Dubai. Ayyam Gallery presents Roshanak Aminelahi in Faces of Resilience. It lies beyond is
the central installation in the exhibition by Rashid Rana at Volte Art Projects that, whilst
looking like a seascape, are in fact photographs of heaps of garbage.
Bronze limited edition sculptures by Salvador Dali will be on view in Firetti Contemporary,
alongside Sawsan Al Bahar’s works. A group show, titled Reviewing Landscape, will be at
Elmarsa Gallery. The Black Flags of Medea covers a fundamental period of introspection for
Austrian artist Philip Mueller at Carbon 12. The first exhibition after their grand reopening,
TETHYS at Lawrie Shabibi exhibits the work of Nabil Nahas who draws inspiration from his
Mediterranean roots and reconnects to the places of his childhood, Lebanon and Egypt, to
explore themes through the lens of colour, texture, and the enigmatic world of nature.
Guest projects
Gazelli Art House will spotlight pressing environmental concerns in their group exhibition
جوهر /Jawhar, featuring: Recycle Group, Libby Heaney, Kalliopi Lemos, Aida Mahmudova,
Elnara Nasirli, Aidan Salakhova, and Matteo Zamagni. Ranging from artworks crafted from
recycled materials, to the creation of quantum-inspired visuals and augmented environments,
this exhibition explores themes of ecological fragility, and the potential of technological
advancements in rectifying these weaknesses.
Iris Projects presents The Return (راجعون(, new paintings by Juma Al Haj that chronicle
self-reflections on existence, triggered by loss. The immersive canvases explore spirituality and
the implausibility of memories in time. While Al Haj maintains his distinctive technique of
abstracted text, The Return signifies a clear development in his practice—his choice of sand as
a medium, the transition from script to tally marks, the shift to geometric abstraction.
Open studios at Alserkal Arts Foundation
The residents of the Fall 2023 cycle at Alserkal Arts Foundation will be hosting open studios for
Alserkal Lates. The residents include Christian Sleiman, a Lebanese artist, whose practice
examines various methods of food production, from foraging to industrial agriculture. Marika
Sardar, a consultant and independent scholar, is taking advantage of the setting in the UAE to
connect with local curators, artists, and members of the public. Smita Urmila Rajmane, a public
intervention artist, performer, and educator, explores major themes in her work that deal with
societal norms arising from class/caste and gender discrimination, communal violence,
projections of hate, and the differences that pervade today’s world. Vipin Vijay, a multiple
award-winning filmmaker and film academic, is an alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film & Television
Institute, Kolkata. Vipin’s public presentation delves into burial culture across diverse
archaeological sites and historical epochs on 23 November from 7PM.
Other highlights
For families, Rashid Almheiri, an Emirati visual artist, will be running two workshops, the first
exploring emotions through watercolour, followed by collograph printmaking. The Avenue’s new
outdoor screens will display work by Sofía Gallisá Muriente that makes visible the forms in
which climate programmes memory in the tropics. Wellness sessions, presented by The Chi
Room at DNA, will take place in The Yard, as well as a storytelling performance by Shereen
Saif on 25 November at 6PM, and Slow Art Walks throughout the week. On 20, 22 and 25,
Cinema Akil will be screening Farha, Gaza Mon Amour, and Foragers, in the Yard. An
experimental music performance by Bint Mbareh will be on 23 November at 7PM – the result of
the artist’s research into Palestinian songs, specifically the act of singing for the rain as a way of
affirming the collaborative relationship between communities and their environments.
Food and retail residencies
Visitors can enjoy Lebanese food at the contemporary manakishery Akhu Manoushe, premium
smash burgers at JT Burgers, a daily matcha at Blu Matcha, gourmet salads from Salata,
coffee and matcha from The Grotto, PHAT(where urban culture, music, art, and street food
collide), Wandr (wraps and bowls that strike a perfect balance between being indulgent,
nutritious and authentically-inspired), and Emirati owned bakery Local Foundry. Holistic
wellbeing specialists Maison Etherique is the Avenue’s current retail resident, alongside Swey,
showcasing a new wave of high quality eyewear.
Alserkal Art Week’s performance partner are Al Tayer Motors & Maserati. Al Tayer Motors will
showcase the New Maserati GranTurismo at Alserkal Art Week giving art lovers the opportunity
to see one of the finest examples of automotive art from the Italian auto manufacturer.
Full programme can be found on alserkal.online.