When you move to a new country, it can be hard to get your bearings. You get there eventually, latching onto moments, places, people. A regular jogging route, a favourite coffee shop, a reliable friend who enjoys a good piece of gossip. In Dubai, I have found that Kinokuniya at Dubai Mall just calms me right down. Even if it’s in the city’s most hectic mall, the Japanese bookstore is a reader’s paradise. And since this past Sunday, in Abu Dhabi I have Warehouse421.
Warehouse421 is a creative center in Mina Zayed and is “dedicated to emerging creative practitioners and those who want to access art and harness it as an agent for inquiry, education, and growth.” I like that the word access is included in the center’s literature, because that is what I felt throughout the Sunday afternoon activities there – a true sense of accessibility. From the cafe, to the library to the galleries themselves.
Sunday saw the kick off for Warehouse421’s Fall Program, with the opening of two exhibitions: On Foraging: Food Knowledge and Environmental Imaginaries in The UAE’s Landscape, which was first presented at the United Arab Emirates Pavilion in Expo 2020, and Let me tell you something, the first institutional solo exhibition for UAE-based artist Mohamed Khalid. Resulting from Warehouse421’s Artistic Development Exhibition Program, the exhibition features seven new commissioned works produced this year.
In the spirit of accessibility and knowledge-sharing, both exhibitions featured a tour with curators and artists – an eye-opening experience and generous approach to engaging with art and research. I was particularly struck by the enjoyable conversation between Lebanese curator Sarah Daher and Khalid. The talk explored themes that aren’t for the faint of heart – the meaning of labour in artistic pursuit, the feeling of being an interloper in a world you don’t belong to – but it never felt academic or impenetrable. A testament to the center’s philosophy, as well as the generosity of Daher and Khalid’s approach to the art world.
On Foraging is a group exhibition that explores what it means to be in constant search of nurturing and feeding, for the individual and the collective, within seemingly arid environments. The walk-through with curators Dima Srouji, Faysal Tabbarah, and Meitha Almazrooei was enlightening.
On Foraging: Food Knowledge and Environmental Imaginaries in the UAE’s Landscape & Mohamed Khalid: Let me tell you something run until December 25, 2022 at Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Fall Program at Warehouse421
The Fall Program has a distinct focus on climate change. “It seems more pertinent than ever for cultural institutions to continue the conversation around climate change and the environment. This season at Warehouse421, we’ve decided to extend it beyond our exhibition space and into our public programming, engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds to consider the importance of how our ecologies and immediate natural environment influences our culture, traditions and overall ways of life,” says Faisal Al Hassan, Head of Warehouse421.
More About Warehouse421
“Inaugurated in 2015, it grew into a space that nurtures our own world-class talent, where emerging creative practitioners can develop as curators, artists, designers, writers, musicians or performers across disciplines, while exploring their place in their communities and unpacking the potential of public space as a vehicle for progress.
Warehouse421 sees the creative process as a lens for observation, questioning, critique, and interpreting life. It is a practice of risk-taking, sharing, thinking, reflecting, dialogue, and understanding. Putting education at the forefront of culture, it champions the acquisition of knowledge and aims to support the next generation of deep thinkers, researchers, and practitioners who are engaged with the country and the region.”
