Walk With Me - Curated by Zoé Whitley

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That’s not for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

- From The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Our 2024 edition of public art commissions is thoughtfully curated by Zoé Whitley, who was particularly struck by Alserkal Avenue’s accessibility, notably its cultural and experiential offerings for audiences on foot rather than by car. The Avenue effectively extends an invitation to forge new discoveries by walking the site. Her project takes two points of departure: 1. from Rumi’s poem Keep Walking and 2. American poet Brenda Hillman (author of the poem Walking the Dunes) , who observes, “It is the artist’s job to make form. Not even to make it, but to allow it. Allow form. And all artists have a different relationship to it, and a different philosophy of it when you are trying to open up a territory.”

The 2024-25 commissions realise ambitious new works by artists who want to make their concepts physically relatable. Each asks us to look again, to linger. What one uncovers on a walk can give new form and meaning to the experience of a place. It lays the foundation for the unforgettable.

Commissioned by Alserkal Arts Foundation

Curator’s Bio:

Dr. Zoé Whitley is Director of the non-profit Chisenhale Gallery in London, championing the next generation of artists through producing era-defining new commissions. She co-curated the acclaimed Tate Modern exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and its subsequent international tour (2017-2020). Whitley has distinguished herself as a curator working in leading UK institutions on exhibitions and collections research (as the British Council's curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019); Tate Modern (2014-2019); Tate Britain (2013-2015); V&A (2003-2013)). Alongside exhibition catalogues and artist monographs, she writes for all reading ages. She established Chisenhale Books, has authored children's titles Meet the Artist: Frank Bowling; Meet the Artist: Sophie Taeuber-Arp; and served as consultant for the award-winning young adult reader Black Artists Shaping the World (Thames & Hudson). Zoé is a member of the London Mayor's Commission on Diversity in the Public Realm. She is a Trustee of the Teiger Foundation and Sir John Soane's Museum.

This Is Not Your Grave

Dima Srouji

This Is Not Your Grave delves into the architectural shortcomings that have failed to protect its users. The ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza serves as a poignant reminder that architecture has deviated from its core purpose in serving as a shelter. In times of desperation, everyday elements such as tunnels, bathtubs, and staircases are repurposed as makeshift sanctuaries. Tunnels become spaces of resistance, bathtubs offer shelter to sleeping children, and staircases transform into impromptu libraries during the night. This project celebrates these instances where silence and safety briefly converge, demonstrating how architecture can be employed to pass the time.

The installation serves as a stage set, allowing architecture to reemphasize its fundamental values and create spaces for the Alserkal community to gather in moments of grief, mourning, joy, and around visions of liberation. The tunnel, stair, and bathtub evoke emotions of joy, cleansing, shedding, and provide a glimpse of liberation through their simple forms that offer a sense of security. These structures become what Ugo La Pietra describes as "spaces of decompression," where design becomes a tool for releasing tension.

The three shelters are organised around different sensory experiences they activate. These programs include a library beneath the staircase, a sanctuary within the bathtub, and a hearth inside the tunnel. These shelters will be brought to life in Alserkal through a series of events in collaboration with performers, chefs, and members of the Palestinian diaspora residing in Dubai. The installations also welcome spontaneous gatherings and brief encounters with passersby and the Alserkal community, encouraging visitors to transition from one shelter to the next.

Each structure is a slightly different shade of purple while the interiors are a rich crimson, referencing the contrasting palettes complex symbolism of Palestinian clothing. During rituals around marriage and mourning, clothes would be dyed red, blue or purple through the rites of marriage, childbirth and mourning.

The title of the installation comes from a verse in a Darwish poem titled “I didn’t apologize to the well…”

I didn’t apologize to the well as I passed by it.

I borrowed a cloud from an ancient pine and squeezed it

like an orange. I waited for a mythical white deer.

I instructed my heart in patience. Be neutral, as though

you were not a part of me. Here, good shepherds

stood on air and invented the flute and enticed

mountain partridges into their traps. Here, I saddled

a horse for flight to my personal planets, and flew.

And here, a fortuneteller told me: Beware of asphalt roads

and automobiles, ride on your sigh. Here, I loosened

my shadow and waited. I selected the smallest stone

and stood wakefully by it. I broke apart a myth

and got broken myself. I circled the well until

I flew out of myself to what I’m not. And a voice

from deep in the well spoke to me: This grave

is not yours. And so I apologized. I read verses

from the wise Qur’an and said to the anonymous presence

in the well: Peace be with you and the day

you were killed in the land of peace and with the day

you’ll rise from the well’s darkness

and live…

Thresholds of Perception: Redefining Balcony Spaces
Asma Belhamar

Thresholds of perception delves into the experience of walking and the concept of slowing down, with a particular focus on the balcony as a liminal space. This space, situated between inner and outer realms, public and private spheres, offers a unique opportunity for contemplation and connection. By reconstructing the balcony at a human scale and utilising aluminium cladding, it seeks to challenge traditional perceptions of space. Through meticulous surface treatment, including texture and colour matching with warehouse walls, the balcony merges seamlessly into its environment, prompting viewers to reconsider architectural boundaries.

Furthermore, attention is drawn to the experience of walking, particularly the distance and perspective offered by specific balconies. These balconies evoke nostalgic memories, especially for those who grew up in the UAE. Through communicating this sentiment to the audience, the installation invites them to reflect on their own experiences and connections to these spaces within the urban landscape.

Stock: Variation on a Fountain
Abbas Akhavan

Stockpiling, in construction and in the building industry, refers to the accumulation of supplies and materials such as steel, bricks, sand, concrete, and gravel. The accumulated goods are typically stored either onsite or in nearby locations for ease of access to avoid delays, and to ensure sufficient supply of materials for future use during the building process. Stockpiling plays an essential role in maintaining quality control, cost-effectiveness, and timely project completion.

Stockpiles are typically organised by material type and size. Stacking of such materials involves creating layers of secure and stable structures on top of each other. These materials are then used in the construction of structural elements such as walls, floors, roofs, or for decorative features such as tiles and brickwork.

Established in 2008, Alserkal Avenue now stands as the cornerstone of Al Quoz’s art scene, on the site of what was once a marble factory. From being the source of construction materials for Dubai, Al Quoz is transforming from an industrial district into an expanded art and culture district. As the area changes around us, Abbas has created a welcoming installation that serves as a reminder of the area’s history and of the Avenue itself. Inspired by historical fountains, made of marble and stone, the installation remains true to these materials. Constructed from found materials sourced from Alserkal’s own long-term storage, marble chunks and cut pieces are arranged to form seating and to create water features, inviting passers-by to linger, rest, and reflect in an atmosphere of pleasure and respite.

The installation builds on Abbas’ ongoing interest in the latent possibility within materials during construction phases, and plays with the temporal pause between storage, preparation, and construction. When the time comes, all materials will be returned to their original stockpiles, back to where they came from.

Roof/Structures
Vikram Divecha

Aspiration, luxury and desire are tentpoles of Dubai’s global appeal. Along Sheikh Zayed Road and other glittering streets, giant tarp billboards display visions of an imagined life. Once the promise of a product, property or event has been displayed, the durable tarps begin a second life in the local scrap market. Cut, bundled, resold and shipped away to countries such as Sudan, Iran and Afghanistan, the bright and seductive billboard images get re-stretched along roofs and awnings to protect from rain and heat, producing a curious mix of vernacular architecture and urban ingenuity. This cycle of circulation extends to the migratory patterns of people from these same regions, drawn to the enduring appeal of Dubai and its lifestyle promises. In fact, many cities in the Global South are now witnessing ‘Dubaification’, through aspirational architecture and urban development.

Roof/Structures is an installation that weaves together migration, status belonging and circulation. Divecha has collaborated with migrant carpenters and workers, inviting them to build vernacular roof structures inspired from their home countries, using bamboo and rope. Used billboard tarps sourced from local markets are stretched over these structures. Flipped and kept standing on their sides, this vertical cluster creates a cityscape of aspiration. The intricate scaffolding grids and oversized images call to us from a distance, just as the allure of Dubai does.

Artists Bio:

Dima Srouji is an architect and visual artist exploring the ground as a deep space of rich cultural weight. Srouji looks for potential ruptures in the ground where imaginary liberation is possible. She works with glass, text, archives, maps, plaster casts, and film, understanding each as an evocative object and emotional companion that helps her question what cultural heritage and public space mean in the larger context of the Middle East and a focused lens on Palestine. Her projects are developed closely with archaeologists, anthropologists, sound designers, and glassblowers.

Srouji was 2022-2023 Jameel Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum and is currently teaching the MA City Design studio Underground Palestine at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Victoria & Albert Museum, Institut du Monde Arabe, Corning Museum of Glass and TBA21.

Asma Belhamar’s interdisciplinary practice explores the phenomenon of the megastructure in the Emirates and its impact on the topographical memory of local landscapes. Through installation, experimental print, video and three-dimensional modelling, she synthesises the architectural and the organic to construct hybrid spaces that engage with notions of temporality and spatial memory. Her practice is driven by a desire to illustrate the effect that various architectural trends have had on perceptions of the Emirates both locally and globally. Her fascination with the architectural history of the UAE, particularly in Dubai, stems from a curiosity about design evolution and its reflection of societal changes over time.

Abbas Akhavan ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video, sculpture and performance. The direction of his research has been deeply influenced by the specificity of the sites where he works: the architectures that house them, the economies that surround them, and the people that frequent them. The domestic sphere, proposed as a forked space between hospitality and hostility, has been an ongoing area of study in his practice. More recent works have wandered into spaces and species just outside the home: the garden, the backyard, and other domesticated landscapes. Akhavan received his MFA from the University of British Columbia in 2006, and his BFA from Concordia University in 2004. Recent solo exhibitions include Copenhagen Contemporary & NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (2023); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2021); the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2019). Akhavan lives and works in Montreal and Berlin.

Vikram Divecha is a Beirut-born artist who grew up in Mumbai and is based in the UAE. He holds an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and was a participant of the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study program. Divecha’s practice focuses on ‘found processes’ – a term he uses to describe the urban operations he investigates and deploys. Divecha recently had his first survey exhibition titled ‘Short Circuits’ at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. His work has been exhibited regionally and internationally at the 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, 57th Venice Biennale UAE National Pavilion, 13th Sharjah Biennial, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Centre of Contemporary Art (Warsaw) and the Wallach Art Gallery (New York). He teaches as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the New York University Abu Dhabi.