Warehouse421 Announces Winter 2021 Program of New Exhibitions and New Public Programs

Abu Dhabi – :

Warehouse421, the home-grown arts and design center dedicated to showcasing and nurturing creative production across the region, announces three dynamic exhibitions in January 2021. Float: Stephanie Comilang, an exhibition that features the works of artist and filmmaker Stephanie Comilang will open in conjunction with Mina Zayed: Reflections on Past Futures, an image-based exhibition presented in partnership with Gulf Photo Plus (GPP), that documents Mina Zayed through narrative photography. The Center also announced the third iteration of the 100/100 Hundred Best Arabic Posters, featuring the winning entries from the Biennial competition that celebrates graphic design in the Arab world. All three exhibitions are accompanied by a public engagement program and open on January 30, 2021.

Exhibitions:

Float: Stephanie Comilang

January 30 – March 21, 2021

Curated by Murtaza Vali, the exhibition presents two films by Berlin-based Stephanie Comilang that narrate the lives of overseas Filipino workers, bringing together documentary forms with references to science fiction.

Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to Me, Paradise) (2016), follows three domestic workers in Hong Kong on their day-off. As they gather with peers in the city center to engage in rituals of self-care, leisure and community, claiming if only temporarily, their right to a city supported by their otherwise invisible daily labor.

The film attempts to document intentional gestures of care and community that help collapse the distance from home and soothe the heartache of separation from kin and culture, land and language.

The second film, Diaspora Ad Astra (2020) imagines the plight of Filipino seafarers quarantined offshore as a result of the pandemic. Interminably adrift, alone and unable to communicate with their families, tantalizingly close but ultimately unable to return home.

“Float: Stephanie Comilang” follows “The Stonebreakers” in the four part series “Substructures: Excavating the Everyday.” The series, curated by Murtaza Vali, investigates some of the infrastructures that shape the spaces, contours and rhythms of Gulf urbanism, revealing forms and networks so embedded within the Khaleeji quotidian that they are commonly overlooked.

On February 2, The filmmaker, Stephanie Comilang, will talk about her wider practice and the works on display in Float exhibition. The talk will be streamed online via Zoom at 7:00pm (UAE Time) To register visit www.warehouse421.ae

Mina Zayed: Reflections on Past Futures

January 30 – June 13, 2021

The exhibition attempts to document Mina Zayed, historically, anthropologically, and architecturally. Through the works of 11 artists, the exhibition sheds light on the context of Mina Zayed through the tools of narrative photography.

Mina Zayed: Reflections on Past Futures is produced in partnership with GPP as part of Warehouse421’s Exhibitions Developmental Program, which includes workshops that guide the artists through concept and creativity, execution and editing, installation and space consideration, as well as text production.

Participating artists include: Aisha AlNoaimi, Augustine Paredes, Catherine Donaldson,

Fatema Al Fardan, Lateefa Almazrooei, Lena Kassicieh, Lara Rudar, Mansour Al-Heera, Mazna Almazrouei, Maryam Al Huraiz, and Sandra Zarneshan.

On February 16, the exhibition program will kick-off with its Artists talk featuring Catherine Donaldson, Lateefa Almazrooei, Mazna Almazrouei, and Fatema Al Fardan. The four participating artists will discuss their projects on display and the processes that led to them.

The exhibition program will also include two photo-walks on February 20 and March 20, led by Vamika Sinha. This three-hour photo-walk, led by, explores the rapidly-changing area of Mina Zayed.

This workshop is suitable for all who wish to participate, and no prior knowledge of photography will be assumed. To register visit www.warehouse421.ae

100/100 Hundred Best Arabic Posters

January 3 – April 29 2021

100/100 Hundred Best Arabic Posters exhibition returns again to Warehouse421. As part of its long-standing partnership with the Center, the exhibition brings together winning entries from a biennial competition that celebrates the work of talented graphic designers from across the Arab world. This year, Warehouse421 will highlight one winning poster by showcasing a billboard-sized print on the front facade.

The collection provides a snapshot of the diverse approaches being taken to Arabic visual communication around the world right now, and highlights the original work of some of the region’s most talented artists and poster designers.

This year’s judging panel includes Hala Al-Ani, Hadeyeh Badri and Riem Hassan of Mobius Studio (UAE), Wael Morcos (Egypt), Mohammad Sharaf (Kuwait), Shennawi (Egypt/Belgium), and Jana Traboulsi (Lebanon).

On March 23, this round’s jury will highlight and discuss the recognition of poster design as an important form of communication in the public space as well as sparking a discussion about its role, form, content and technical execution

Workshops

Design your own mask

3D Generative design

Geometric vase

Makhtout

Film Program

In partnership with Cinema Akil

Starting this year of thirst and avidity, underneath night-skies wide-open and thick above the shores of Mina Zayed. Here come the searchers! Blessed be the searchers! Blessed be the searchers who touch the ground with their feet and surrender their eyes to the light of the lives that dance before them, leaving behind them a quest of quests that leaves all seeking unto themselves. The contemporary Arab film program makes a voracious return with heightened senses and a program of films brought together by the act of searching together. Bolstered by the textures of bodies and spaces and shared through lived experiences, the films in this program breathe full color back into the big screen. This is a program of searchers, of their heartbroken hunt for answers, of their obsession with victory, of their carving of names onto the face of the world, and of their moments of respite. Following a year lived in extremity, sparseness, and excess comes this program to life: dancing, crying, and rebelling, all in stillness and noise, and not unlike life itself. Blessed be the searchers: the leopard hunters, the football champions, the artists, the lovers, and forever the dancers. Blessed be the searchers who come together to live.

Visitors are encouraged to book their visits online via the Warehouse421’s website. Visitors and staff are all required to wear masks, which will also be made available for visitors upon request.

Cleaning and sanitizing operations will take place during operating hours and after closure, in all common areas and exhibition spaces, and a dedicated team will be available on-site. To register for the workshops, talks and photo-walks or for more information about the upcoming exhibitions, please visit www.warehouse421.ae