MICRO-FUND PROJECT AIMS TO HELP UAE CREATIVES
▶ Dirwaza Curatorial Lab is offering mentoring and funding to artists,
“We’re looking for the curious,” said Munira Al Sayegh, whose Dirwaza Curatorial Lab has launched a micro-fund initiative for UAE creatives across several disciplines.
The funding initiative, which began this month, will give Dh1,000 ($272) to one successful applicant every month for the next six months.
Those who receive a grant will also be mentored by the Dirwaza Curatorial Lab and the micro-fund project curator, Sarah Daher.
Dirwaza was founded in 2020 by Abu Dhabi curator Al Sayegh to foster research and collaborative opportunities for artists and creative practitioners in the Gulf. The lab is run as a peer-led effort beyond major institutional partners, and its projects remain close to communities in the UAE and across the Gulf. They also aim to think through what is needed from the standpoint of the artists.
“The micro-fund encourages creatives at large to think cyclically and in throughlines, so that curatorial practice, as well as artistic practice, has a beginning, a theme, a particular exploration and the right to a conceptual framework,” said Al Sayegh.
“The incubator invites the creative community to come and think thoroughly, without having an end result or an exhibition in mind.
“The idea is that we are working with you, and we’re thinking alongside you.”
Dirwaza has also curated Zemanna – Replaying the 90s, which has been on display at Manarat Al Saadiyat. The exhibition investigates the 1990s in Abu Dhabi through pop culture paraphernalia alongside nine installations by local artists, including Afra Al Dhaheri, Jumairy, Mays Albaik and Sree.
The show grounds itself in items of material culture from that era, which was one of financial and demographic transformation, but which also function as a source of nostalgia for many in the UAE.
By drawing on pop culture from the time, it cleverly conflates the sense of childhood with the wider nostalgia for the UAE, before the large-scale expansion and investment of the 2000s onwards.
The curatorial lab’s next project will be a collaboration with students at New York University Abu Dhabi’s new MFA programme, in an exhibition of their work in progress. It will open at Warehouse421 on Saturday.
The fund will give Dh1,000 to one successful applicant a month for the next six months