FARID RASULOV (Azerbaijan)
Today’s life is overwhelmed and unfocused, surrounded by information which we cannot process, we don’t recharge ourselves properly and tend to have depression and anxiety. Musical Colour Meditation practice will assist and guide art lovers to gather and participate in a relaxation and colour experience in the beautiful location of Dubai Miracle Garden.
FILIPE BRANQUINHO (Mozambique)
Branquinho will present a film revealing his creative process and work. Lipiko sheds light on the artist’s latest series alongside a special focus on his most recent works, which depict the overarching themes of worldwide greed and malaise. They dig into the heart of the Mozambique culture, politics, ways of living, the country’s natural beauty, costumes, corruption and its monstrosities.
HASHEL AL LAMKI (UAE)
Based on Al Lamki’s Control and Guilt light sculpture series which is influenced by his travels where he encounters objects, gatherings, and outings, guests will be invited to a unique supper club setting where there will be a physical showcase the collection, along with a tailored 5 course tasting menu which references the pieces.
JANET BELLOTTO (Canada)
Dredging Hope takes a group on an isolated tour on The Island that unfolds a narrative on one of the remote World Islands. After receiving an isolation kit, the group undertakes a variety of activities where they will contemplate their state of being in complete isolation, prior to returning to the urban jungle. As well as a meditation on ecology and the future of the world, this will be a tour of curiosity, seeking a unity of humanity, where together, yet apart, we pulsate luminosity.
JULIEN BOUDET (France)
After recently discovering unique scrap yards full of sports and luxury car pieces (in which his latest work is based), Boudet will guide guests through these spaces as he explains his practice and what inspiration he draws from them, whilst demonstrating how he arranges objects to create artwork.
MOHAMED AHMED IBRAHIM (UAE)
Mohamed will guide a group through the Sustainability Pavilion at EXPO 2020 to his installation HUGS. This public art installation intends to express the extent to which the Emirates people embrace all cultures that live within and work to build the state. A nation that stands strong behind its people, where there is a message of acceptance, coexistence and a belief in tolerance.
MOHAMMAD ALFARAJ & SARAH BRAHIM (Saudi Arabia)
Creating a performance that draws inspiration from natural elements and traditional practices, Alfaraj and Brahim will showcase a narrative-based work that sheds light on the environment around us, its element and the people who are directly tied to it. Using tools and elements like water, movement, sound and poetry, the performance will tell a story through our ancestors or future selves, and the time they were looking for a drop of water. The result being a sensory experience stimulating thought, emotions, sound, sight and smell.
NAQSH COLLECTIVE (Jordan)
The Bride’s Rug tells the story of a nation of people who lived their heritage outside their own country, through a bride who was supposed to receive gifts. Living in an occupied country was not a safe haven for Palestinian people, their belongings being confiscated at any time led the bride’s mother hiding their cherished belongings, one of which was this rug, which she buried in the desert. That rug never made it to the house where it was supposed to go, nor to the people who were supposed to enjoy it. Guests are invited to discover this story in the desert followed by a dinner.
RASHED AL SHASHAI (Saudi Arabia)
Taking guests on a tour of Dubai’s old souks and asking each to purchase an item that reminds them of something nostalgic from the past. Al Shashai will then take each piece and obliterate its identity, package them and reassemble them with other pieces in a synthetic work.
TABA & SHOOKI (Iran)
The duo will present dinner where guests will encounter an uncannily decorated dining table laden with platters, drinks and crockery. Participants are invited to dine on the feast which will also feature a number of miniature pieces from their “The Majors Series”. Throughout the dinner the artists will be working live on an unfinished sculpture which will conclude in a replica cake that is carved and served to those dining.
TAHIR CARL KARMALI (Kenya)
An immersive sound experience based off his recent series PAPERwork, Karmali uses filtration in papermaking as a metaphor for the bureaucracy of border maintenance. Old visa applications and travel documents are shredded and submerged in water, forming a pulp that is then filtered to make new recycled paper. Using the sound from this ritualistic practice, Karmali has created a meditative soundscape for the audience which they will experience in the desert during sunset.
TSEDAYE MAKONNEN (Ethiopia)
An extension of work on forced migration and state-sanctioned violence, Makonnen will perform in Al Shindagha Museum with textiles adorned with mirrored pieces. These represent water and the bodies that have drowned at sea and exist in the wake of the Black Atlantic & the Black Mediterranean.
