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DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s 421 Arts Campus will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Nov. 15 after supporting more than 1,500 creative practitioners, commissioning hundreds of new works, and delivering about 2,000 programs, residencies, grants, and exhibitions in the city.

To mark the milestone, 421 Arts Campus is presenting “Rays, Ripples, Residue,” which is set to run from Nov. 1 to April 16. The exhibition is curated by Emirati Munira Al-Sayegh, Lebanese editor Nadine Khalil, and Sharjah-born Indian writer Murtaza Vali, and explores how artistic practices and exhibition-making in the UAE have evolved over the past decade.

Faisal Al-Hassan, director of the arts hub and commissioning institution, spoke to Arab News about the showcase, explaining that it features new commissions as well as previously presented works, or new iterations of those works.

The exhibition unfolds in three chapters, with Al-Sayegh’s chapter titled “Leading to the Middle.” It “looks at how minor moments that can be easily overlooked — which she views as ‘ripples’ — create opportunities for a younger generation of artists to flourish,” Al-Hassan explained.

Al-Sayegh examines the practices of established artists like Emirati Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and the late Kuwaiti creative Tarek Al-Ghoussein.

Then, Khalil presents “Ghosts of Arrival,” described by Al-Hassan as “an intimate look at what it feels like to arrive after the moment has passed.”

Artists featured in the section include Hashel Al-Lamki, Mona Ayyash, and Nadine Ghandour.

Al-Hassan said: “She brings to the fore the practices of artists from the past 10 years who were influenced by work that was created a decade prior. It is both an analysis of artmaking in the UAE and a personal reflection of her own arrival in the country in 2017.”

“SUN” is curated by Vali and presents a survey of the last 10 years to highlight the preoccupation of artists in the country with the sun. According to Al-Hassan, Vali selected “works made between 2015 and today that are focused on the sun as both a symbolic and physical presence in our everyday lives — presented visually and metaphorically — to convey and investigate environmental degradation, hyper-commodification, and urban development.”

DUBAI: Set to run from Oct. 22 to 26, We Design Beirut is a products, interiors and furniture fair that bucks convention due to its staging in several of the capital’s key historical buildings.

While design fairs around the world usually stage showcases in one location, often a convention hall devoid of any real character, founder and CEO Mariana Wehbe and partner and creative director Samer Alameen were keen to highlight historic buildings in Beirut.

“There were spaces and places that have been forgotten ... whether the history, the archaeology, the stories they hold,” Wehbe said recently.

“So it’s more a story about Beirut and it’s more cultural than commercial,” Alameen added.

Exhibition locations include Villa Audi, Beirut’s Roman Baths, Burj El-Murr, an unfinished skyscraper turned war relic, and Abroyan Factory, an abandoned textile facility.

“This isn’t just a design week … this has become a way of talking about our country, protesting in our own (way),” Wehbe said, reflecting the desire to unite Lebanese communities after years of divisive politics.

“And you know, some people fight with weapons and some people fight with politics and some people fight with creativity and with bringing communities together in the hardest and most difficult times,” she added.

Comprised of exhibitions, excursions and workshops, the event seeks to shed light on both established and emerging designers, artisans and students from nine universities in Lebanon.

“We’re losing the artisans because it’s impossible to find an artisan under the age of 50,” Alameen explained.

“Because they’re no longer teaching their kids. They’re not making money, And this is the massive problem … That’s why we created the platform,” Alameen said.

The diverse exhibitions include “Totems of the Present & the Absent,” that features work by emerging and established designers from Lebanon and beyond, exploring presence, memory, and legacy.

Meanwhile, hosted in the Roman Baths, a marble design exhibition “Of Water and Stone” reinterprets the ancient site’s rituals of cleansing.

The student-led “Design in Conflict” exhibition sees young creatives explore how strife shapes spaces, while “Rising with Purpose” calls on Lebanese talents under 30 to create thoughtful, relevant objects that address societal, cultural, and environmental needs.

“There is an intensity in this country that drives you … so this grace, this buzz, this energy, and there’s a love for our country that is really, I think, is almost unique to Lebanon,” Alameen said.