Warehouse421 Presents Winter 2022 Season Featuring New Exhibitions and Public Programs
Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi’s home-grown arts and design center dedicated to showcasing and nurturing creative production across the region, announces its Winter 2022 Season. The program offers a series of wellness events focused on self-care and professional development, and includes film screenings, creative workshops, an outdoor market and an open-mic night in collaboration with cl-u (creative link-up), as well as an education program for teenagers to seek inspiration from emerging creative practitioners to develop their skill sets further. Additionally, Warehouse421’s gallery spaces will see the opening of two new exhibitions titled Out of Range and Language is Migrant.
As a result of of the Artist Development Exhibition Program, which is organized in partnership with The Institute for Emerging Art, Warehouse421 will present the first major solo exhibition of artist Ammar Al Attar Out of Range, which features a new body of performance and video work focused on kinetic and reactive nature, exploring tools that embody the clerical and monotonous labor of daily tasks.
An Abu Dhabi edition of Colomboscope’s Seventh festival, Language is Migrant will be presented in a collaboration between Warehouse421 and COLOMBOSCOPE; a contemporary arts festival and creative platform for interdisciplinary dialogue that has grown steadily within the cultural landscape of Colombo since 2013. This year, it features several commissioned artworks and long-term projects that mobilize acts of transmission and embrace collective synergies refusing parochial attitudes that are on the rise.
“One of Warehouse421’s core values is collaborations, and we start this year bearing the fruit of two important collaborations with local and regional cultural partners. Starting off with Ammar Al Attar’s first solo exhibition, Out of Range, in partnership with The Institute for Emerging Art. Additionally, we are delighted to present, in collaboration with Colomboscope Contemporary Art Festival,g a special edition of ‘Language is Migrant’, The edition will include artworks supported through Warehouse421 Project Revival Fund in 2020., the festival explores intergenerational cultural practices from Sri Lanka, South Asia, and diverse international contexts”, said Faisal Al Hassan, Head of Warehouse421.
The Winter Program is set to host a variety of wellness and self-care workshops, including candle-making, sound healing, and art therapy workshops focused on raising awareness around both adults’ and children’s mental health. Moreover, other diverse workshops provide the opportunity to explore hands-on art forms such as jewelry-making, dancing, children’s storytelling, table scaping and Dukhoon (incense) making.
Of the first events commencing the season is the winter market. Organized by cl-u (creative link-up), Warehouse421 will be hosting a winter market driven by its very own homegrown creative practitioners offering visitors an experience that will ignite the senses through food, performances, and art. The combination of market and open mic provide a unique creative outlet that encourages and supports emerging Abu Dhabi artists and businesses as well as musicians, comics, poets, and performers of all sorts.
In conjunction with the visual arts activities, this season’s film and photography programming will witness Warehouse421’s various collaborations. Cinema Akil will present the 12th season of Arab Cinema Films at Warehouse421, enticing audiences through an array of film themes, whereas Gulf Photo Plus’s (GPP) online photography camp will introduce novices to the world of photography and the photographic history of the MENA region. Those who have developed a passion for photography can also join the series of GPP Photowalks throughout Abu Dhabi, taking in the city’s beauty through a new lens.
Holding true to the aim of expanding and developing the creative community, Warehouse421 is also hosting a series of talks by Afikra. Their first branch in the UAE will be introduced in Abu Dhabi during the Afikra Soiree, where individuals will get acquainted with members, upcoming events, and ways to get involved. The Afikra Salon will be a salon-style event were members of the community present on cultural and historical topics. The purpose of each evening is to bring together a community of like-minded individuals and have fruitful conversations.
With the Culture Bus back, community members will now have the opportunity to go around the UAE, soaking in the arts and culture scene by visiting key cultural institutions, museums, art fairs, community events, and various festivals.