June 5-September 14, 2008
The Firestation, Vitra Design Museum, Weil-am-Rhine, Germany

Ebtisam Abdulaziz, still from Autobiography, 2007

‘Dubai Now’, a program featuring recent work by UAE-based artists and filmmakers Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Lamya Gargash, Nawaf Al Janahi and Waleed Al Shehhi, is included as a projected installation in the exhibition ‘Dubai Next: the Face of 21st Century Culture’ at the Vitra Design Museum. Over the past decade a nascent filmmaking scene has developed in the UAE, spearheaded — in the absence of dedicated film schools and a local industry – by homegrown initiatives such as the Emirates Film Competition and Gulf Film Festival. Groups of young Emirati men and women have produced a substantial body of short films, many of which explore the nature of being ‘local’ in today’s rapidly changing society – a subject rarely debated in the public realm.

Dubai Next is presented by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and curated by Rem Koolhaas, Jack Persekian and Bidoun.