ARTS AND CULTURE
EXHIBITIONS
Mona Ayyash: The Clock Doesn’t Care
16 May – 25 August
In her first solo exhibition, The Clock Doesn’t Care, Mona Ayyash presents a collaborative video piece with a group of actors, dancers, and performance artists, focusing on small body movements. The work is a study of repetitive non-functional movements, without purpose or productivity. It questions the tension between passing time and wasting time.
Selected through an open call, the artist’s collaborators committed to a long-term creative process where they contributed to the work by filming themselves responding to movement prompts, encouraging them to consider what ‘doing nothing’ looks like.
Ayyash extracts fragments of the collected footage and edits them to be layered one over the other or side-by-side, constantly changing, accumulating, and subtracting. The everyday and the mundane are themes highlighted in work, as the bodies are stuck repeating their movements in a loop, going nowhere. The use of repetition attempts to expand time, giving the gesture more space to claim its value.
Without a clear narrative to hold the spectator’s attention, the exhibition serves as a playful inquiry into the objective nature of time. The exhibition’s title, The Clock Doesn’t Care, expresses how time, indifferent to our individual pursuits, will continue its inevitable move forward without concern or coercion.
The exhibition design imagines a fragmented route featuring viewing platforms and cut-out frames for an immersive viewing experience. Ayyash quietly rejects the notion of stimulation, inviting visitors to engage with boredom through repetition and slowness, encouraging them to let time pass.
This project grew from the artist’s earlier participation in the Homebound Residency Program in 2020, where she produced a video work titled Folding Bellies in collaboration with five participants from the UAE art community.
Ayyash is participating in the 2024 cycle of the 421 Artistic Development Program, mentored by Jolaine Frizzell. The Artist Development Program is a capacity-building program that gives UAE-based artists the opportunity to develop a major body of work that culminates in a solo exhibition.
On a Timeline: 2024 MFA Graduate Show
16 May – 25 August
On a Timeline: 2024 MFA Graduate Show presents the work of graduate students completing the two-year Master of Fine Arts in Art and Media at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).
Marking the third year of collaboration and an expanded partnership between 421 Arts Campus and NYUAD, the exhibition showcases the research and experimentation of the 2024 MFA cohort who visualize questions and ideas in expansive ways that provide valuable insights into our contemporary global condition. On a Timeline features projects by Sara Alahbabi, Ciel Arbour-Boehme, Zara Mahmood, Fatima Al Romaithi, and Farah Soltani. The exhibition features explorations through drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and mixed media.
This collaboration between 421 and NYUAD supports the production of emergent contemporary practices from the region through facilitating explorations by MFA graduates. The yearly exhibition offers graduate students a platform to showcase their artistic research and growth developed throughout their academic program, emphasizing the significance of sharing their work with the broader community.
The two-year Master of Fine Arts in Art and Media at NYUAD is the first program of its kind in the UAE. The program leverages Abu Dhabi’s location as a global hub for the exchange and dialogue in the arts and culture.
SEASON PROGRAM
Spring 2024: Reverberations
19 April – 6 June
This spring 2024 season, titled ‘Reverberations’, is focused on reframing our worldview, and reflecting on the current times that we’re living in. From an overload of information, live streams and the rise of Artificial Intelligence, alongside the tangible effects of political violence and climate change – the Spring 2024 program aims to echo and rebuild a community of hope.
Through two exhibitions and a series of workshops and special events that revolve around collective activations, movement, healing and dialogue, this spring program invites the community to join 421 as we learn to find ways to cope with and understand the world in times of constant change.
The major exhibitions Network Culture and Hana El-Sagini: Counting Fingers will continue until April 28. The closing weekend will include activations from selected artists participating in the exhibitions.
The season will also see the opening of Mona Ayyash: The Clock Doesn’t Care, part of the Artistic Development Program, and On a Timeline: 2024 MFA Graduate Show, presenting the work of this year’s graduating cohort in the department for Art and Media from New York University Abu Dhabi.
WORKSHOPS
Summer Club 2024
8 July 2024 – 12 July 2024
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Join us for a hands-on adventure and build your own creative journey.
The 421 Summer Club is designed for children ages 6 to 10. We invite budding artists of all skill sets and interests to join us on an unforgettable journey of self-expression and imaginative discovery.
About 421 Arts Campus
421 Arts Campus is an independent platform for emerging artists and creative practitioners in the UAE and across the region. A site for research, learning and experimentation, 421 provides a nurturing environment for emergent creative practices and those who want to harness the arts as an agent for social inquiry and transformation. 421 encourages practitioners to explore the potential of public spaces as a means for progress and community engagement through a wide-ranging programmatic model that facilitates artistic exchange and critical dialogue.
Located in Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed, 421 presents a year-round program of exhibitions, talks, workshops, special events and educational initiatives that offer accessible learning opportunities to the wider community and the general public. Many of the 421 programs are organized in collaboration with local, regional and international partners, engaging children, students, educators, and creative professionals in a participatory approach to artistic and creative practice. These programs are designed to develop artistic and creative skills, supporting the growth of the UAE’s creative ecosystem.
Previously known as Warehouse421, 421 was established in 2015 inside a renovated warehouse that was repurposed as an exhibition and community space featuring galleries, studios, courtyards, co-working spaces, a library and cafe, and a public, outdoor plaza that serves as a multipurpose venue for film screenings, symposia, performances, art installations, and other special programs. The 421 campus is also home to a number of permanent art installations commissioned for major exhibitions that were previously presented inside the 421 galleries.
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