Quoz Arts Fest 2016 by Alserkal Avenue is back for a 4th edition

Image courtesy Lindsay Kirckalcy, Quoz Arts Fest2014, Alserkal Avenue

Quoz Arts Fest is a celebration of art and culture in the industrial neighborhood of Al Quoz. This year, artists from a variety of disciplines including visual art, music, dance and design will be invited to engage with the Al Quoz community. On the weekend of 22, 23 January, the festival free festival that is open to all will include artist workshops, performances, walks, and interactive installations that invite collaboration with the public.

This years theme follows “Curate Your Day”, asking visitors to choose a route of exploration through Al Quoz that reflects their interests and stirs their curiosity. Participating galleries and creative spaces in Alsekral Avenue and across Al Quoz will stay open from 10am-7pm each day, hosting tours and welcoming visitors to examine and learn more about their exhibitions and artists. From Alserkal Avenue, visitors can take guided tours, and book workshops fromone of the info booths at the Avenue entrances, go on walks to explore nearby spaces, or hop-on one of three buses to galleries and creative spaces across the neighborhood.

Quoz Arts Fest will also introduce three new artist commissions as part of the Alserkal Avenue Programme which includes: Task Party: Dubai, an improvisational event with a simple structure and very few rules conceived by Oliver Herring, a visiting artist born in Heidelberg Germany and currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Task Party’s open-ended participatory structure createsalmost unlimited opportunities for a group of people to interact with one anotherand their environment. www.oliverherringtask.wordpress.com.

A sound-walk of the neighborhood, created by UK artists Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver to explore the surrounding neighborhood following a path of recorded audio. Download the sound-file to your smart-phone and follow its directives as it leads you to around Al Quoz. The work reveals hidden layers of daily life as revealed in sound, creating a walk that opens up little known areas and stories about Alserkal Avenue and its industrial and creative neighbors. www.bradleyandweaver.wordpress.com.

The Third commission, Topologies, is a new work by Dubai-based, Brazilian-born artist Jessica Mein, in which the artist captures surfaces and impressions of the Avenue using frottage, scanning, drawing, photography and stop-motion animation. Over the next three months, the artist will be located in warehouse E51. During Quoz Arts Fest, visitors are invited to meet the artist in her studio, and join one of two workshops in which they can take part in the process of documenting the neighborhood. www.jessicamein.com

Food and beverage will be organized by Good Vibes Market, served-up by some of the best food trucks and culinary artists across the Avenue.

About Alserkal Avenue
Alserkal Avenue is a vibrant cultural district in the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai, and is home to a community of over 70 contemporary art galleries, visual and performing arts organisations, designers, home-grown and entrepreneur-led businesses, and community spaces across 500,000 sqft and 90 warehouses. Alserkal Avenue provides an essential platform for the development of the creative industries in the United Arab Emirates. As one of the region’s foremost destinations for contemporary art, and home to Dubai’s risk-takers, makers and wide-ranging creative communities, Alserkal Avenue provides cultural experiences for local, regional and international audiences through its extensive year-round programming. Alserkal Avenue is home to Concrete, a multi-disciplinary exhibitions space conceptualised and programmed by Alserkal, as well as the artist residency program of Alserkal’s non-profit, Alserkal Arts Foundation. Alserkal Avenue was established in 2008 by Alserkal following the visionary thinking of its founder, Emirati businessman and cultural patron Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, who sought to cultivate a vibrant creative community and support cultural production in Dubai.

Programme highlights

The Craftsmanship in Danish Design
Pop-up presentation
Showcasing the best of Denmark with the exceptional presence of the craftsmen. Seven Danish global brands to showcase unmatched craftsmanship skills and more than a half-century long design tradition with the support of the Danish Foreign Ministry and the Royal Danish Embassy of the UAE. Participating brands: Bang & Olufsen, Louis Poulsen, Jacob Jensen, Montana, Muubs, Georg Jensen, and Carl Hansen.

Tse Tse Fly Middle East
Curated sound art with video from the Middle East
Live performances and artist sets from members of the Tse Tse Fly artist collective and extended family: Karim Sultan, Ghada Da, Nour Sokhn, Jonny Farrow, Isaac Sullivan and more. There will also be experimental music and noise DJ sets from musician and producer Community Spirit. www.tsetseflymiddleeast.org

Sima Dance Company
Hosted in Alserkal Avenue warehouse
Two contemporary dance performances and a workshop. The company works on spreading a new and mature image in the world of dance and movement, to be side by side with development of the performing arts around the world. www.simadancecompany.com

Cinema Akil and Cinephilia Productions
A marathon of the 3 editions of Cinephilia Filmmakers to Watch series. An annual screening program that highlights the work of unique and remarkable voices from MENASA region. Cinephilia curates a program of narrative short films and sets them to screen around the world at art house independent cinemas, art galleries and cultural spaces. www.cinephiliaproductions.com, www.cinemaakil.com

Yard Stage
Held in The Yard and featuring a daily programme of talks by participating artists, and open-mic sessions for poets, musicians, singers and comedians presented incollaboration with The Junction. Sign-up required.

Short + Sweet Voices Dubai 2016
The Junction
A capella signing festival aimed at showcasing and developing the extraordinary vocal talent of Dubai. Participating groups are assessed on their performance by industry judges, in addition to an audience vote to determine the People’s Choice winner. Tickets available at www.thejunctiondubai.com/events/shortsweetvoices-dubai-2016