METASITU in conversation with Ghada Yaiche

Rewilding the Kitchen

Take a closer look at the experiments and stories that inspired the final culmination of the eight week long culinary programme.

The Street Came First

Three photographers capture life and work in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa

Cultures in Conversation Blog

A cultural sector focused platform bringing thought leaders together for candid discussions on society, culture and community.

Cultures in Conversation by Alserkal Advisory

A cultural sector focused platform bringing thought leaders together for candid discussions on society, culture and community.

From the Archive | Fall 2024 Residency

From the Archive | Spring 2025 Residency

Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives

Works by major figure in postcolonial Moroccan art showcased at Concrete

The Technological Body

This third and final installment of the curatorial narrative linking corporeal depictions by young GCC-based artists will consider how technology expands, projects and amplifies the artist’s body.

Voice Notes from Venice

A journal of sights and sounds from the 59th International Art Exhibition

The Suffering Body

Part two of a curatorial narrative around the absent, suffering and technological body in contemporary works by GCC-based artists

The Greening Story

In reimagining the Avenue’s public spaces, we wanted not only to reinstate the primacy of vanished plants as a necessary gesture of horticultural de-colonisation, but also to humanise our spaces of congregation.

Open Studios: Still Lives

Explore the studios of Alserkal Arts Foundation's three artists-in-residence

Contemporary Art in Dubai at Alserkal Avenue

In Close Quarters

A photo essay by Shama Nair on the visual language of memory and belonging.

Ink, Paper, Alchemy II

In an era of digital publishing, working with ink, paper, and print is a daunting art form that requires pluck, business acumen, resilience and constant funding.

Indie Publishers III: Women Powered Platforms

An Orchestration of Magic

Is This Tomorrow? Art vs. Architecture

Five pairings of artists and architects challenge the question through experiential installations

A Slightly Curving Place

Ink, Paper, Alchemy

In search of the indie alchemists of print publishing in the region

Global Cultural Districts Network Convening in Lugano After Three-Year Hiatus

Portals to Unspoken Histories of the Land

Drawing a Shifting Landscape

"What does it mean to map a shifting, mobile landscape? Anchoring permanent forms to impermanent things?"

Resonance

Presented in collaboration with Alserkal Arts Foundation and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority

Arab Cinema in One Week

Our critic takes a journey through Arab Cinema Week with Rabih El-Khoury.

Disrupting the Pattern

How practices of care can oppose the climate crisis

The Myth about Maths

World-renowned mathematician and author Marcus du Sautoy talks to Perspectives about how maths can help us hack life, understand AI better, and solve the riddles of the universe.

Design as a Wrapper

Designer and educator Zena Adhami explores the dangers of assumptions when designing for communities

Beyond the Measure of Time

Sheba Chhachhi and Mariah Lookman discuss time, activism and the digital age.

Pop Power

‘Pop South Asia’ stakes a claim to the art form

Research Rooms

UAE based researchers make their home at the Foundation studios for the summer.

The Absent Body

Mapping disembodiment and performativity among GCC artists

Reshaping the Narrative of the Desert | Modern Excavations

From the Archive | Spring 2024 Residency

Connecting Syria to the World

Director Shireen Atassi expands on Atassi Foundation efforts

The Global Co-Commission

The Global Co-commission project unites three cultural districts across three continents in a collective response to the global climate crisis.

Turn On, Tune In

Six virtuosic albums on vinyl that capture the evolution of recorded music through the ages.

Fahd Burki and Ala Ebtekar Take to the Skies

Three public installations question daily rituals and time.

What did we gain at COP27?

Beyond its talking shop reputation, what were our key takeaways for the region at the latest climate summit?

Three Conversation Pieces II

As India continues to find its bearings amidst COVID tumult, Aveek Sen explores how his own conversations have become at once more vital, yet oddly unfamiliar

The Poetics of Partition

In a trilogy of animated films entitled Lost Migrations, a refugee crossing South Asia’s lines of 1947, transforms into a weightless paper plane.

The Making of a Ruin

A public art commission by the artist collective METASITU welcomed visitors to a post-apocalyptic ruin

Rewilding the Kitchen | Mastic Fizz by Salma Serry

Curator and artist Nahla Al Tabbaa converses with filmmaker and interdisciplinary foodways researcher Salma Serry about Mastic and its connections to UAE's history

Three Conversation Pieces I

As India continues to find its bearings amidst COVID tumult, Aveek Sen explores how his own conversations have become at once more vital, yet oddly unfamiliar

Slippery Modernism

A review of Building Bauhaus, Jean-Paul Najar Foundation’s tribute to the German art school’s centenary – with a regional twist.

On Emirati Women

An insight into the practices of Emirati women challenging notions within their professional fields

An Incomplete History of UAE Cinemas, Part 2

In Part 2 of her Incomplete History, Mezaina explores the rise of the multiplex model, film festivals, and the creation of alternative viewing spaces in the 2000s.

Three Conversation Pieces III

As India continues to find its bearings amidst COVID tumult, Aveek Sen explores how his own conversations have become at once more vital, yet oddly unfamiliar

Resistance is futile: how I learned to appreciate the e-scooter

Perspective by Troy Pieper on how he learned to appreciate the e-scooter

Deliberate Pauses

Presented in collaboration with Alserkal Arts Foundation and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority

Between a Beach and Slope: Curated by Fatoş Üstek

A Feral Commons

The inaugural cycle of the Global Co-commission project, A Feral Commons, is underway and Alserkal Avenue is one of three cultural districts participating under the theme of climate change.

The Tragedy of Mustafa al-Hallaj

Making History: A Study of Archives

Historic archives feed our identity and origin stories. But who builds them?

Stepping Forward

View the complete public programme from our archives.

An Incomplete History of UAE Cinemas, Part 1

In Part 1, Dubai-based writer Mezaina examines independent cinemas pre-multiplex days

Health & Wellness at the Avenue

Machining the Dream

Will AI art end the careers of human artists?

The Overseas Filipino Artist

Fresh insights on Filipino artists in Dubai through the lens of Sa Tahanan Collective founder

Reflections on Land & Home

An Incomplete History of Cinema, Part 3

For the final part of this series, we look at the past decade, the current state of cinema exhibition and the ongoing mission of filling the gaps in UAE’s cinema heritage

Questioning Sound

Can archaeology help us reassess our experience of sound?

THE UNCOMFORTABLE TASKS

Hair Mapping Body; Body Mapping Land

Hair Mapping Body; Body Mapping Land, an exhibition at ICD Brookfield Place from 10 November to 19 December 2021, Programmed by Alserkal Advisory

A Tour through A Supplementary Country Called Cinema

A reflection on A Supplementary Country Called Cinema, a film programme that was a prelude to the exhibition A Slightly Curving Place

Quoz Arts Fest

The region’s best-loved arts & culture festival will be back on 27 & 28 January 2024.

Rewilding the Kitchen | Recipe No. 1 | Barri by Namliyeh

Curator and artist Nahla Al Tabbaa savours unlearning traditional food narratives with ethnobotanists Namliyeh

Insights from Istanbul

Does the 17th Istanbul Biennial deliver on its curatorial promise?

Connecting Cultures Through Contemporary Art

Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi shares her thoughts on curating the second edition of the Lahore Biennale

Earth to Humans

Rania Habib takes us through the presence of the Earth and Sustainability at this year's Quoz Arts Fest

The First Collectors

The role of the artist in relation to collecting is reconsidered

Youth and Change

Experiences from the Youth Climate Movement

Chaos, Love, and Enigmas

Malaysian artist Hasanul Isyraf Idris tackles his homeland’s multiculturalism through densely populated compositions that engage episodic memory.

Ways of Seeing

Palestinian artist Samia Halaby's approach to painting reveals her precise complex process, astute peripheral sensibilities, and why abstraction is the only movement left unexploited.

Who Owns Yoga?

The warrior poses and sun salutations practiced in yoga studios around the world aren’t mentioned in any ancient yoga text.

Letter from Hollywood: How RRR Redefined Global Pop

We chart the global and cultural impact of Telugu film ‘RRR’ in a post-pandemic, streaming world.

The Alserkal Ecology Reader | Three Lectures on Architecture and Landscape in the Gulf

The Alserkal Ecology Reader is a compilation of three lectures held in 2018 and 2019 in relation to Civil Architecture’s residency at Alserkal Arts Foundation.

Abu Fadi

Life provided him with an abundance of reasons to surrender, but he never backed down.

Fathi Ghabin: A Self-Portrait of the Working-Class

A self-taught artist, Ghabin prefers the intimacy of painting with his fingers over the intermediary of a brush.

Collaborative Co-existence

A six-week series screenings, workshops, performances, and exhibitions around the theme of maintenance

Dima Srouji and Jasbir Puar

On Tolerance

Tolerance in the UAE is largely owed to the country’s multiculturalism.

August Observations

Personal archives are fraught sites filled with memories and stories that drag us into the past.

(NON) EXHIBITIONS OF SOLIDARITY

Rewilding the Kitchen | Joori Wa Loomi by Moza AlMatrooshi

Curator and artist Nahla Al Tabbaa converses with conceptual artist, writer, and chef Moza AlMatrooshi

When Solidarity is Not a Metaphor - Curatorial Statement

The Africa Connection

As the global art world shines a light on Africa, Rebecca Anne Proctor writes on the growing dialogue between the Middle East and Africa

Why I Don’t Blame Institutions Anymore

An argument for how to find optimism in place of frustration in the local cultural institutional landscape

Will the Fashion Industry Ever Truly Be Sustainable?

Founder of clothing brand One and Four speaks about sustainable practices

Layer upon Layer

A dive into the layers behind "Wamda : A Glimpse", UAE Unlimited's retrospective exhibition showcasing the works of UAE-based artists during Alserkal Art Week

A Reality Check for Indian Love

Mansi Choksi’s Newlyweds explores the challenges of forbidden love for India’s youth.

Mystical Warriors

The works in Reza Derakshani’s latest show at Leila Heller Gallery reveal the mystical connections between the artist’s time in Russia, and the forgotten tales and symbolism of his Iranian heritage

One-on-One with Nabila Abdel Nabi

A conversation with Nabila Abdel Nabi, Tate Modern's first MENA curator

Rehaf Al Batniji

Adelita Husni-Bey

Discomfort is the Only Constant

Seeking identity through poetry and hip-hop

Koushna Navabi

Saint Levant: Home-maker

Palestinian, French and Serbian rapper Saint Levant seeks home in his lyrics and music.

Drone Go Chasing Waterfalls

Thoughts on Stephanie Comilang’s film Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to Me, Paradise)

Saad Eltinay