In response to the global climate emergency, Art Jameel has joined 27 arts organisations across the world to form the World Weather Network, a ground-breaking constellation of ‘weather stations’ located across the world in oceans, deserts, mountains, farmland, rainforests, observatories, lighthouses and cities.
For one year starting tomorrow, June 21, 2022, artists and writers will share ‘weather reports’ in the form of observations, stories, images and imaginings about their local weather and our shared climate, creating an archipelago of voices and viewpoints on a new global platform.
Art Jameel’s weather station, located in the desert gardens, library and public spaces of the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s contemporary museum, explores atmospheric humidity, a central climatic marker of the Arabian Gulf.
Offering different ways of looking at, listening to, and living with the weather, writers and artists’ weather reports will be shared on the World Weather Network platform from each location: the Himalayas, the Mesopotamian Marshes in Iraq and the desert of the Arabian peninsula; the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the ‘Great Ocean of Kiwa’ in the South Pacific; ‘iceberg alley’ off the coast of Newfoundland, the waters of the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Circle; a tropical rainforest in Guyana and farmland in Ijebu in Nigeria. Artists and writers are working in observatories in Kanagawa in Japan and Manila in the Philippines; looking at cloud data in China and lichens in France; lighthouses on the coast of Peru, the Basque Country and the Snaefellsness peninsula in Iceland; and cities including Dhaka, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London and Seoul.
The Dubai-based Art Jameel weather station is anchored physically in the Jameel Library, through special events, research and book displays, and in the Jameel’s desert gardens, through on-siteair-to-water generators, providing visitors with fresh drinking water and insights into daily humidity and weather conditions.
The Art Jameel station’s weather reports – featured on the central World Weather Network platform and via listening posts at the Jameel Arts Centre – primarily take the form of narrative podcast episodes by artists and writers, released throughout the year, that explore themes including The Threshold, Sweat and Labour and Technofutures. Contributors to the podcast series include: Noush Anand, Saira Ansari, Nadim Choufi, Nadine Khalil, Nidhi Mahbajan and Deepak Unnikrishnan, among others.
Art Jameel’s work is underpinned by collaboration, exchange and a focus on addressing contemporary debates through working with artists, writers and creative practitioners. There is no contemporary debate more urgent than the climate crisis, and we are delighted to be working with inspirational, like-minded partners in the World Weather Network to bring voices from the arts together with those of ecologists and scientists — mirroring our broader approach across all Jameel family philanthropies. We look forward to seeing you online and in-person throughout the year as we collectively explore every facet of our changing weathers.
Art Jameel Chair and the Founder Fady Jameel
Throughout the year, across the 28 global weather stations, climate scientists, environmentalists and communities will participate in a wide-ranging programme of special events held in each location and online through the platform.
Among multiple events marking the June 21 launch of the World Weather Network is Word Weathers, a global, live performance and writing exchange that sees the weather recorded over a full 24-hour period, marking the winter/summer solstice. Artspace Te Tuhi, locatedin the Pacific Rim (Te Moana Nui A Kiwa), invited Art Jameel to participate, who in turn commissioned Moza Almatrooshi and Sree; the two UAE artists join more than 40 creatives around the world, who each log-on at dawn in their timezone to write and perform online. The performance will stream free, to a global public, for a full 24 hours on the World Weather Network and Te Tuhi sites.
Through the course of the year, the London Review of Books is commissioning special reports from writers based in many of the locations in the World Weather Network.
Whilst each organisation is reporting on their local weather, every one of these ‘weather stations’ is connected by the over-heating of the world’s atmosphere. The World Weather Network presents alternative ways of responding to the world’s weather and climate, and is an invitation to look, listen, learn and act.
To learn more, visit the World Weather Network platform.
Art Jameel thanks Eshara Water, providers of atmospheric water generators, for their support.
About Jameel Arts Centre
Known as Dubai’s contemporary arts museum, Jameel Arts Centre presents curated solo and group exhibitions, drawn both from the Art Jameel Collection and through regional and international collaborations. Current exhibitions include ‘Proposals for a Memorial to Partition’, ‘Fahd Burki: Daydreams’, ‘Taus Makhacheva: A Space of Celebration’, ‘Library Circles: Salma Serry’, and Artist’s Garden ‘Desert is a Forest’ by Sunoj D and Namrata Neog.
The Centre is a 10,000-square metre, three-storey, multi-disciplinary space designed by UK-based practice Serie Architects. The building is punctuated by seven gardens, designed by landscape architect Anouk Vogel, which reflect local and global desert biomes. Sitting alongside is the Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park, designed by waiwai, and a collaboration between Art Jameel and Dubai Holding. Entrance to the park, gardens, exhibitions and library is free, and all ages are welcome.
Located by the creek in Dubai’s Jaddaf Waterfront neighbourhood, the Jemeel’s galleries are complemented by the Jameel Library, an open-access research centre dedicated to artists and cultural movements in the Gulf states and beyond. The Jameel also includes project and commissions spaces, a writer’s studio, an artisan seasonal dining concept ‘Teible’ and the Art Jameel Shop.
The Jameel serves as a hub for educational and research initiatives for diverse audiences. Its wider programming embraces partnerships with local, regional and international artists, curators and organisations.
