Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai will be “taken over” by UAE youngsters! The Youth Takeover will begin on May 18 and will ideally end on June 5 after the presentation of an original intervention consisting of more than 20 works, eight new commissions, and a slew of workshops, film screenings, and performances. Illustrations, installation, audiovisual works, and paintings are among the new commissions. Art Jameel’s yearly talent development programme, aiming to nurture creative potential, engagement, and peer-to-peer information exchange, culminates in the Takeover.
From hundreds of applicants, eight young creatives under the age of 25 from throughout the UAE were chosen for this year’s Jameel Assembly. The third incarnation of the Takeover, dubbed’smol,’ examines the inner child’s journey, nostalgia, and the difficulties and tribulations of being and coming of age. Youth pieces will be on exhibit alongside works from the Art Jameel Collection and private collectors throughout the Centre’s public spaces, including the Lobby, Galleries 9 and 10, stairwells, lockers, elevators, and more. Work from the Endeavor-Barbe Art Collection is also featured in the exhibitions.
The Youth cohort has been attending monthly seminars on themes ranging from collection care and curation to critiquing and community building. A reimagined map of Abu Dhabi, a vanity set with childhood videos, an immersive room-wide illustration, and paintings with sourced music are among the interventions and provocations.
The Art Jameel Collection’s works on view, which have been chosen for their inspiration in the Assembly’s examination of the inner child, have been a significant pillar in the Assembly’s research throughout the year.
The Youth Takeover, which represents the UAE’s multiculturalism, includes artists and curators from the UAE, Egypt, the Philippines, Pakistan, Palestine, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Chechnya, and spans a wide range of cultures and languages, including Tagalog, Chechen, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam, and Urdu.