UAE | Heritage and Culture

Photographic exhibition to export Dubai's culture abroad

The newly-established Culture and Arts Authority in Dubai has taken a whole new meaning to the word "export". In an innovative new photographic exhibition, the unique culture and society of the emirate is to be showcased.

  • By Alice Johnson, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:11 June 4, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • An image of Dubai taken by photographer Jalal Abu Thena, as part of Art Basel.
  • Image Credit: Supplied Picture

Dubai: The newly-established Culture and Arts Authority in Dubai has taken a whole new meaning to the word "export". In an innovative new photographic exhibition, the unique culture and society of the emirate is to be showcased.

The exhibition is part of Art Basel and is called Dubai Next, which will be held from today to June 8, in Basel, Switzerland.

A series of photographs will be displayed in the Swiss exhibition, highlighting Dubai's diverse cosmopolitan culture and society.

Michael Schindhelm, Director for Culture, Heritage and Arts at the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, spoke to Gulf News about the department's vision for cultural and artistic development in the emirate.

Interest and demand

"One of the main objectives is to set up an infrastructure, because there is a lack of the hardware of culture in Dubai. There are some quite active galleries here and they're doing a good job, but we want to create awareness of how to build up cultural identity, interest and demand from this. We want to start initiating cultural activities as soon as possible," he said.

"We are working on many things at the same time and many of these things are not visible yet: this is why it's very important to not just be about imports. It's important to showcase the current status of Dubai. This is why we had the idea to turn the tables and instead of import, to export Dubai into the international cultural world," Schindhelm said.

Dubai Next is being co-ordinated between Schindhelm at the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, Jack Persekian who is Director of the Sharjah Biennial, and Rem Koolhaas who co-founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and is a Professor of Architecture at Harvard University.

Sharjah's Biennial was founded in 1993 and acts as a cultural bridge between artists, art institutions and local, regional and international organisations. The next biennial is due to be held in 2009.

The OMA was founded in 1975 and practices contemporary architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis, with offices in The Netherlands, China and the US.

While pictures being shown in the exhibition depict Dubai's growing number of buildings, they are intended to reflect the culture of the emirate.

Schindhelm said: "The idea is to showcase Dubai as a city for culture and of culture and cultures, with a unique character. There are just a few places in the world with a short history and a high diversity of different cultures worldwide.

"For many tourists with no personal experience of Dubai, it is the place of the tallest tower in the world and the real estate boom, but they wouldn't necessarily know at the same time that Dubai has a very vibrant cosmopolitan matrix. There's a quote from Shakespeare that says "the city is the people" - the idea behind this exhibition is that the Dubai Arts and Culture Authority has to highlight that the city is the people, rather than the buildings." he said.

Photographs in the exhibition were taken by Charlie Koolhaas (daughter of Rem Koolhaas) and staff of the OMA during several trips to Dubai.

The pictures were taken by outsiders unfamiliar with the city, in order to view the city with fresh eyes.

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