Galleries Night at Alserkal.

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

The calendar for Cultures in Conversation, a series of multi-disciplinary events, cross-cultural conversations and artistic interventions has been commissioned by Expo 2020 Dubai and programmed by Alserkal.

The initiative is part of Build Bridges, one of the five tracks under Expo’s Programme for People and Planet. Build Bridges strives to break down cultural boundaries, harnessing the power of storytelling, art, and music to foster intercultural dialogue and knowledge exchange. Anchored by 10 Theme Weeks, the schedule of events, experiences, thought leadership and public conversations, aims to find solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing the global community today. The inaugural Cultures in Conversation session will take place on October 9 as part of Climate and Biodiversity Week. The sessions take place on the Saturday of each Theme Week, throughout Expo 2020, with the final session being held on March 26, 2022.

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The free events will require registration and will be open to ticket-holding members of the public. Expo tickets are available for purchase via the Expo 2020 website. Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, Founder of Alserkal, said that “at Alserkal, we share Expo 2020’s commitment to sustainable innovation and providing a platform for global exchange. Expo 2020 Dubai is a historic moment uniting the world and drawing attention to today’s challenges, while imagining ambitious solutions. Alserkal is proud to help shape thinking around these urgent issues.”

Nadia Verjee, Chief of Staff, Programme for People and Planet, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “An integral part of the Programme for People and Planet focuses on the power of cultural exchange. “We believe that intercultural dialogue is key to breaking down boundaries between people, creating better informed individuals who see connections between people and cultures of the world, rather than divisions. “As one of the most forward-thinking and established home-grown cultural initiatives in Dubai, Alserkal is perfectly placed to help us achieve this, and we can’t wait for visitors to take part in the Cultures in Conversation series.”

  Vilma Jurkute.

Comprising UAE-based poets, artist collectives and academics as well as international urban theorists, artists and diplomats, Cultures in Conversation challenges the conventional talk format and instead, debates pertinent topics through immersive experiences, artist interventions, informal conversations and performances, in order to address matters at the heart of cultural conversations today. Participants in the programme include Charles Landry, urban sociologist and an international authority on the role of creativity in urban and institutional change; Ambassador Lumumba Di-Aping, Climate Change Expert and Former Chief Negotiator for Developing Countries and Chair of the Rights of Future Generations Working Group; Omar Ghobash, Author, Assistant Minister for Public and Cultural Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the UAE and former UAE Ambassador to France and Russia; Nujoom Alghanem, Emirati poet, artist and film director; Sima Dance Company; a Syrian contemporary dance company based in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, and the Engage 101 collective, an art collecting and research platform that aims to address gaps in the Gulf’s art ecosystem through sales featuring non-gallery represented artists and public programmes.

Through five tracks – Build Bridges, Leave No One Behind, Live in Balance, Thrive Together and UAE Vision 2071 — the programme will explore humanity’s most pressing challenges through cultural, social, environmental and economic lenses. Cultures in Conversation is Alserkal Advisory’s first project with Expo 2020 Dubai. Alserkal Advisory is an independent, multi-disciplinary practice of thinkers, researchers and specialists, covering diverse fields and multiple geographies. Vilma Jurkute, Executive Director of Alserkal said: “Cultures in Conversation allows for a meta-narrative that offers reflection, awareness and re-envisioned approaches, as a result engendering new forms of knowledge, activating social discourse and shaping borderless communities on a collaborative Expo stage.”

Topics dealt with include Climate and Biodiversity (Oct. 9), which deals with climate change in the classroom, living room, street and beyond; Never Be Lost: Learn to Read the Stars (Oct. 23), which considers the cultural imagination of the celestial and how important systems of knowledge have been passed down through literature, memory and oral narratives; What Makes a City: Dimensions of culture and possibility of community (Nov. 6), which explores how the invisible ties that bind urban communities together become visible in the construction and use of shared public spaces and how these spaces are used, claimed, co-opted, transformed, and how citizens contribute to building a city; Town Hall (Nov. 20), which takes on the form of a town hall and invites regional voices from the worlds of culture and politics to engage and respond to audiences from the world over; The Everywhere Classroom (Dec. 18), an immersive multi-experience performance centered around learning via play; A Cloud is Nobody’s (Jan. 15, 2022), where Conceptual Artist Mary Ellen Carroll will be in conversation with AI ethicist Renee Cummings, to discuss the ethical imagination (or EI), travel and AI.

Through a commissioned performance (Jan 22, 2022), the question is asked: how can culture interpret the Global Goals for citizens of the world that are at Expo? Cultural practitioners are invited to radically challenge the conversation and allow for artistic interpretations of these objectives. Slowing down as an antidote, a programme on health and wellness (Jan. 29, 2022) invites curators and cultural practitioners to look into the urgency of slowing down, and investigate how socially engaged practices can question the plurality of care. Bringing a playful approach to the intrinsic link between food and culture, the Food, Agriculture & Livelihoods programme (Feb. 26, 2022) invites local, regional and international artists, chefs, researchers, scientists and curators, to share their stories. Cultural connections and knowledge were forged through maritime trade over centuries, shaping cultural identities and belief systems. In the event on March 26, 2022, participants explore what can be learnt from the respect that our ancestors had for the elixir of life — water — and how the past connects with the water crises and water conflicts we face today.