This week in Dubai is stacked with solid cultural plans. A new pop-up exhibition lands at Alserkal, Soul Kitchen Dubai hosts a special iftar collaboration, a listening bar turns into a residency for genre-crossing DJ sets, and the week wraps with character-driven cinema.

You will be bouncing between galleries, intimate dinners, listening sessions and independent film screenings. So plan your week smart and try to catch as much as you can.

Where? Alserkal Avenue

Where the Landscape Dreams is a beautiful pop-up exhibition by Pouyfaucon Gallery, bringing together four artists: Ben Arpea, Tess Dumon, Sarine Semerjian, and George Stamatakis. The works don’t show real places; they feel more like memories, colours, and landscapes you almost recognise.

Paintings and textiles blend into a calm, unhurried space. Easy to move through, easy to linger in.

On view until February 28.

Where? Window, Alserkal Avenue, Warehouse 39

A new spot by the Kokoro team, cooking with fire and seasonal ingredients. Warm wood and stone counters, along with an open hearth, shape the space.

Argentinian-born chef Gonzalo Platero is at the helm, and with just 32 seats, it feels intimate and unhurried.

Where? Soul Kitchen Dubai

Soul Kitchen Dubai launches its Iftar Super Collaborations series, starting with a special evening by chef Ahmad Halawa, hosted by Soul Kitchen’s own Margarita Vaamonde.

Expect a thoughtful, flavour-driven iftar that brings together different backgrounds and personal cooking styles. And if you have ever tried Ahmad’s or Margarita’s food, you are probably already excited — and have this one saved in your calendar.

Where? Honeycomb Hi-Fi

Honeycomb Hi-Fi turns into a Listening Club for the first chapter of Kito Jempere’s residency — a deep, cross-genre journey moving from jazz and disco through house, ambient, pop, jungle, and beyond.

Kito Jempere — DJ, producer, composer, and creative director of Sandy Times Radio — is known for treating DJing as storytelling rather than genre-hopping. His sets are built slowly, thoughtfully, and with a strong sense of context, drawing from decades of music across scenes and cultures.

This isn’t a party in the usual sense. It is about listening, connection, and discovering how different aesthetics can sit together in one space. EP01 opens a longer residency arc that will unfold across the year.

Where? Jameel Arts Centre

A film programme centred around Melted into the Sun by artist and filmmaker Saodat Ismailova, an Uzbek filmmaker and artist. The work moves slowly through layers of myth, history, and landscape, drawing on the story of al-Muqanna, a legendary, almost ghost-like figure whose presence sits somewhere between truth and fiction.

The film isn’t linear or narrative in the usual sense. It plays with repetition, ritual, and atmosphere, letting images, sound, and movement do the talking. You don’t need to watch it from start to finish — it is designed for drifting in and out, spending time with it, and letting it unfold at your own pace.

Where? Cinema Akil

Yes, looks like you will be spending this weekend at the movies. On Sunday, you can catch Father Mother Sister Brother, a film by indie legend Jim Jarmusch that is built as three interlinked stories about adults trying to make sense of their families.

Each chapter follows different grown-ups and their parents or siblings in distinct places — from a snowy road visit with a distant dad, to an annual tea with a mother and her daughters, to twins clearing out their late parents’ Paris home. It is a drama with dry humour, lots of small moments and awkward silences that somehow feel familiar.

The cast is stacked: Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Mayim Bialik, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat bring it all to life. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2025.

Just start the work week and do your best to survive.