Site Specific: Installations Dot Across Dubai

Shaking off common stereotypes, Dubai Design Week enlivens this desert city with over a dozen site-specific installations – everything from digital immersion to deeply ingrained artisanal-commentary. With work from both regional- and international-based practitioners found in strategic locations between Dubai Marina and old city Al Fahidi district, these singular pieces reframe areas less known to transitory tourists and shed light on Dubai’s diversity. Projects like Earth Hive by Emirati Latifa Saeed and Syrian Talin Hazbarre re-engage passersby with local terracotta craft while Cuppetelli & Mendoza’s Nervous Structure plays on virtual tactility. Juxtaposing the city’s century-old historic district – clad in thick coral-stone walls and small arabesque-motif windows – Detritus Wall by Iraqi All J Al-Samarraie challenges the ongoing issue of intrinsic material value by recomposing discarded cardboard and paper into something of a raw cylindrical combine. Nearby, Lux by Syrian siblings Bahar and Sawsan Al Bahar draws from the geometric architectonics of traditional Muqarnas decorative elements. Brazilian duo D3’s (Edson Pavoni and João Souza) A Place of Departure silently integrates technology in an unconventional however discrete wooden window frame. Demanding shared experience, an outer glazing vibrates as two people simultaneously touch its surface. Across town, Soundweaving matches skills of Budapest-based designer Zsanett Szirmay and composer Bálint Tárkány-Kovács for a specially configured apparatus to ultimately ‘code’ embroidery patterns based on musical scores. Last but certainly not least, Aljoud Lootah’s fishing industry-inspired installation Yaroof employs bright blue rope wrapped around hexagonal frames to emulate knotting patterns used to compose nets.