Summer 2024: Compositions

12 June 2024 - 21 September 2024

Our Summer 2024 program presents the continuation of two major exhibitions and featured events that include a writers’ group, workshops, film screenings, panel discussions, a board game corner, and special events surrounding the written word.

The major exhibitions Mona Ayyash: The Clock Doesn’t Care and On a Timeline: 2024 MFA Graduate Show will continue until August 25, 2024.

Episode 1│A Future in the Folds of the Past

Listen to Episode 1 Season 3 of our podcast, A Future in the Folds of the Past, a series that focuses on the role of art institutions, artists, and cultural practitioners in addressing the climate crisis.

This episode, titled ‘The Art Institution & The Climate Crisis’ features a discussion with Faisal Al Hassan, Director of 421 Arts Campus, and Nora Razian, curator and Exhibitions Program Manager at Art Jameel in Dubai. It delves into how art and culture institutions are developing programs and activities to experiment with and reflect on environmental issues.

There is a clear trend towards creating spaces that encourage practitioners, researchers, and artists to adopt environmental themes in their projects and artistic propositions.

Episode 2│A Future in the Folds of the Past

Listen to Episode 2 Season 3 of our podcast, A Future in the Folds of the Past, a documentary series that focuses on the role of art institutions, artists, and cultural practitioners in addressing the climate crisis.

In this episode, titled ‘A Drop of Sky’, Amanda Abi Khalil, an art curator and founder of the TAP platform, tells us about her initiatives in Lebanon and Brazil that merge contemporary art, environmental, and community work. Amanda uses contemporary art as an effective tool for change, launching several projects that address these themes. 

We also speak with Francesca Masoero, an art curator and cultural program coordinator who initiated the “Qanat” project in 2017, commissioned by Space 18 in Marrakech, Morocco. This project has evolved through multidisciplinary research and relies on collective production shared between the artistic field and community initiatives. 

Episode 3│A Future in the Folds of the Past

Listen to Episode 3 Season 3 of our podcast, A Future in the Folds of the Past, a documentary series that focuses on the role of art institutions, artists, and cultural practitioners in addressing the climate crisis. 

In this episode titled ‘The Climate Crisis: Responses through Artistic Practice’, our conversation features Adib Dada, a Lebanese architectural researcher and founder of ‘The Other Dada’ project, who focuses on developing projects that mimic nature and enhance the integrative relationship between architecture, design, art, and the environment.

We also speak with Asunción Molinos Gordo, a Spanish artist who explores alternative approaches to understanding evolution and innovation outside centralized urban contexts, focusing on contemporary farming issues as a central theme. 

Episode 4│A Future in the Folds of the Past

Listen to Episode 4 Season 3 of our podcast “A Future in the Folds of the Past,” which focuses on the role of art institutions, artists, and cultural practitioners in discussing the climate crisis.

In this episode, titled "Land as a Living Heritage", we host Rabee Zureikat, the founder of the Zikra Initiative for Popular Learning in Jordan, which aims to promote sustainability by reshaping the community's relationship with urban agricultural spaces and providing opportunities for people to participate in planting and harvesting local wheat.

We also speak with Zeinab Gaafar, an architect and researcher in urban studies, and a member of the Preserving Sudan’s Living Heritage project. She discusses the environmental challenges in Sudan that threaten the culture and community heritage, and the importance of cultural initiatives in these challenging times to enhance community resilience and protect cultural legacy.

Episode 5 │A Future in the Folds of the Past

Listen to the Episode 5 Season 3 of the podcast "A Future in the Folds of the Past", which focuses on the role of art institutions, artists, and cultural practitioners in discussing the climate crisis.

In this episode, we explore the relationship with the land in the context of post-colonialism and ongoing colonialism, using the cases of Algeria and Palestine. We delve into artistic interventions in environmental architecture and documentary cinema.

Pencil In: A Writers’ Group

12 September 2024
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Pencil In is a writers’ group created to provide a supportive environment for writers to write alone, together! We at 421 love the idea of body-doubling (working near or around someone to help stay focused and engaged) when we are working, writing, and creating.

Open to ages 18 and above.

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Open Calls Information Session

12 September 2024
7:00 PM - 9:15 PM

Join us for an online information session with our Programs and Community Initiatives Manager, Mays Albaik, where she will dive into the details of the open calls for 421’s Artistic Research Grant and the upcoming Residency Program. This is the perfect opportunity for artists to ask questions and get more insights about these open calls.

Location: Online Zoom Call

To register your interest and access the call, register here.

Fall 2024 Exhibition: Opening Reception

22 September 2024
4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Taking place on Sunday, September 22 at 421 Arts Campus in Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, the opening reception will begin at 4:00 pm.

Stayed tuned for more information on how to register.

Way of the Forest

22 September 2024 - 29 December 2024

Way of the Forest is a traveling edition of the arts festival Colomboscope that converges artistic pathways to rekindle knowledge of interdependence, custodianship, and restorative practices across rainforests, wilderness, mountain cultivations, and riverine wetlands. Taking over Galleries 1 and 2 inside 421 Arts Campus in Abu Dhabi, it invites deschooling – moving from the curriculum of plunder, reckless supremacy and extinction, to embrace active listening beyond the human sensorium.

This exhibition is an intricate study of our eroding ecological histories, of lost environmental wisdoms, monstrous developmental agendas, and ghosts of extraction. 

Way of the Forest is the 8th edition of the Colomboscope festival held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from January 19 to 28, 2024. This iteration of the festival has been adapted to reach audiences in the UAE, and marks a second partnership between 421 Arts Campus and Colomboscope.

Performance Co/Lab

29 September 2024
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Performance Co/Lab is an open invitation to all performing artists, creatives, and curious individuals looking to explore movement practices. Through a sustained program, participants will explore performance exercises such as contact improvisation, breath work, acting warm-ups, games, and techniques.

This summer also marks one year since we initiated our community-driven Performance Co/Lab series!

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Palette to Pedagogy: Teachers Evening

15 October 2024
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Join us for an educators evening  to explore artworks in our  major fall  exhibition, Way of the Forest, a traveling edition of Colomboscope arts festival. An immersive exploration of humanity’s relationship with nature, the exhibition is held across Galleries 1 and 2 and serves as a study of our ecological past, present, and future.

This exhibition, which is part of our Fall 2024 program, features the works of 19 artists from the Global South and is curated byHit Man Gurung (artist and curator), Natasha Ginwala (Artistic Director, Colomboscope), Sarker Protick (artist and curator), Sheelasha Rajbhandari (artist and curator), and Vidhi Todi (Assistant Curator, Colomboscope 2024). 

This event is only open to educators and teachers.

Register now on this link.

Deadline for registrations is Sep 30, 2024