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ArtDubaiAbu DhabiEvents

by Dara Morgan

UAE Cultural Digest: May 2025

29 Apr 2025

Temperatures are rising, sandals are melting, and the sun is personally offended if you leave the house without SPF 50 — yet the UAE’s cultural scene simply refuses to take a nap. May is bustling, with new exhibitions, film festivals, site-specific installations in the wilderness, and performance art that involves crystals and multiple dimensions (naturally). Whether your idea of cultural enlightenment involves meditative digital masterpieces or high-concept horror at Cinema Akil, this month has something for everyone — including the heatstroke-prone and the hyper-scheduled.

Shaikha Al Mazrou’s Deliberate Pauses in the Hatta Mountains

An artwork that complements landscape.
Leave it to Shaikha Al Mazrou to take on the Hatta mountains — not with a bulldozer or a neon light installation shouting into the void, but with five enormous metal circles that somehow blend in and stand out all at once. Deliberate Pauses is described as Dubai’s largest site-specific art intervention. Which sounds rather dramatic until you realise that the sculptures, each five metres across, are also incredibly well-behaved. They sit along the trail around Leem Lake with a meditative stillness, as if politely declining to interrupt your hike — despite their size and shine.
Shaikha Al Mazrou, known for teasing unlikely tensions from metal and space, channels her signature style here again. The circles are red — the same fiery hue as her Red Stack from Frieze London — and smooth as if buffed by mountain whispers. That is not to say they are delicate. They are steel. They are five metres wide. They have presence. But somehow they also disappear into the rust-toned rocks, their silence louder than any signage could be.
If you feel like contemplating existence and/or burning calories, a hike around the lake will provide both.
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Arab Cinema Week Volume 4 at Cinema Akil

Ten days of Arab film, feelings, and probably a few quiet sobs in the dark.
When? May 2–11
Where? Cinema Akil
Cinema Akil is back at it — gathering filmmakers, dreamers, existential crises, and excellent popcorn under one independent arthouse roof. Volume 4 of Arab Cinema Week is diving straight into the soul of the region, unearthing stories of resistance, nostalgia, and the occasional supernatural encounter. With premieres, women-led productions, and post-screening Q&As where everyone will pretend not to be starstruck, it is shaping up to be one of the most emotionally fulfilling ten-day stretches of the year.
Expect genre-hopping aplenty: from Nayla Al Khaja’s Three, which looks at horror through a local lens, to Mira Shaib’s Beirut road-trip comedy Arzé. Bonus points to Mond — which features an Austrian martial artist navigating the inner world of Jordanian sisters.
Opening night also features Majlis KaramAllah, a Sudanese-inspired performance involving poetry, praise, and presumably a few goosebumps. Highly recommended for those who enjoy art with a side of spiritual transcendence.
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Arte Museum X Musée D’Orsay

Classic French art meets digital spectacle. Monet, but make it immersive.
When? From April 17
Where? Arte Museum Dubai, Dubai Mall
If you have ever looked at a Van Gogh and thought: “I wish this painting moved, played orchestral music, and smelled faintly of lavender” — you are in luck. ARTE MUSEUM Dubai has partnered with Paris’s iconic Musée d’Orsay to turn nineteenth-century masterpieces into a full-blown sensory odyssey. Think floor-to-ceiling projections, evocative scent diffusion, and a soundtrack that is one string section short of a full emotional breakdown.
The experience is equal parts art history and futuristic theatre, with over 100 works transformed into a walk-in moodboard. Monet’s lilies bloom across digital ponds, Degas’ dancers pirouette mid-air, and yes, Van Gogh’s Starry Night does swirl — in actual motion.
Academic purists, do not panic. The exhibition is curated with full scholarly rigour. One might call it a respectful reimagining. Or just a very fancy Instagram opportunity.
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Instagram: @artemuseum_dubai

Kojo Marfo’s "HOME: Heart Of My Existence"

Where home is not a postcode but a personal crisis, artfully rendered.
When? Until May 31
Where? JD Malat Gallery Dubai
Afro-Surrealist sensation Kojo Marfo has arrived in Dubai with a solo show that redefines the idea of home — not as a place, but as a state of being, emotion, and occasionally disorientation. His new exhibition, HOME: Heart Of My Existence, features thirteen dazzling large-scale compositions that dance between tradition and modernity with the grace of a well-travelled ghost.
Expect Cubist echoes, Ghanaian symbolism, and Old Master techniques with a fresh, almost electric pulse. The works are bold. The colours do not whisper. And the message — about memory, identity, and what it means to belong — could not be more relevant in a city where home is more often a WhatsApp location pin than a fixed address.
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Kojo Marfo, Saddle and Sceptre, 2024; Rhythms of the Soul, 2025; Euphoria, 2025. Source: jdmalat.com

Marina Abramović Enters the Fifth Dimension (with Crystals)

You, too, can own a looping animation of an archetype and maybe enter another plane of reality.
Marina Abramović is back in Web3 and things have escalated. Not content with merely turning her performance art into NFTs, she is now offering “5D avatars” and something called Transformational Crystals. Her new project, Marina Abramović Element (MAE), launches in phases and includes interactive games with rewards, rituals, and presumably the odd existential breakthrough.
The whole thing is part archive, part myth-making, and entirely on-brand. For those asking what exactly 5D means: apparently, your physical body cannot handle it unless you lighten up (with a crystal inside you, naturally).
In Dubai, the launch was given a fittingly ethereal preview at Soho House — the chosen venue for invoking higher dimensions while sipping something infused with rosemary and meaning. There were art types, tech futurists, and at least one person in linen who claimed to “feel the energy.” We believe them.
Unfolding in three thematic drops — Art, Life, and the Marina Abramović Method — MAE is not just a series of NFTs. It is an invitation to participate in the legacy of an artist who once sat still for 736 hours. Only now, there are gamified mazes and digital moons involved.
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Instagram: @taex_com

Van Cleef & Arpels x Tashkeel: A Decade of Design

Where wind inspires chandeliers and wood consoles whisper in reclaimed tongues.
When? Until June 3
Where? Tashkeel Nad Al Sheba
Marking 10 years of the Emergent Designer Prize, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tashkeel have launched an exhibition that is equal parts history lesson and style showcase. Featuring works by designers from across the Gulf, the show highlights pieces that respond to the poetic theme “Inspiring Winds” — which, thankfully, no one took literally.
The standout? Dhow Kite by Hajar Al Tenaiji, a piece that merges traditional Emirati sailing heritage with sustainable play design. Other highlights include a chandelier inspired by erosion (No Beginning) and a console that looks like it was sanded by sea breezes (Breezeborn). If your idea of inspiration includes wind-shaped cork, sculpted wood, and sustainable storytelling — this one is for you.
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From Fragments to Coherence

A show for people who love meaning, memory, and materials that make you think.
When? Until May 10
Where? Sevil Dolmacı Dubai
Curated by İpek Ulusoy Akgül, From Fragments to Coherence brings together artists from across regions, media, and sensibilities. The exhibition ponders how fragments — material, conceptual, geographical — can somehow come together to make a whole. Or at least, something that feels like one.
Featuring textiles, installations, sculptures, and more, the works explore memory and transformation without the usual fanfare. No flashing lights. No immersive smells. Just thoughtful art, asking thoughtful questions. Sometimes, that is all one really needs.
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Sabine Boehl, Hala Schoukair

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