Palestinian folklore, memory and resistance in Dubai

Welcome back to AL-MONITOR Dubai.

Through her mixed-media work Palestinian artist Jumana Emil Abboud draws on mythmaking and traditional folklore as a means of cultural preservation and resistance in her solo exhibition at Jameel Arts Center. Elsewhere, Taymour Grahne Projects is celebrating a new generation of female Emirati artists with the group exhibition “Five Painters.” Meanwhile, Waddington Custot Dubai is marking the 10-year anniversary of its gallery in Alserkal Avenue with a powerful group show of regional and international artists who have been pivotal to its program. For Spanish cuisine, head to the new tapas counter-dining restaurant Barrafina in the Dubai International Financial District.

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Happy reading,

Rebecca

P.S. Have feedback or tips on Dubai's culture scene? Send them my way at contactus@al-monitor.com.

1. Leading the week: ‘The Storyteller and the Obedient Tide’

Jumana Emil Abboud, “I Feel Everything.” 2022. Digital video, color, sound, 9 minutes 4 seconds. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Art Jameel)

This exhibition marks Palestinian artist Jumana Emil Abboud’s first solo exhibition in the United Arab Emirates. Drawing on mythmaking, folklore and oral storytelling as forms of cultural preservation, resistance and environmental care, Abboud explores how personal and collective memories inhabit diverse landscapes, enabling ancient stories to resonate with contemporary experiences of loss and displacement. Curated by Jameel Arts Center's Indranjan Banerjee, the exhibition presents works  attuned to the land and to water sources such as springs, wells and rivers that sustain it.

The artworks showcased in “The Storyteller and the Obedient Tide” reflect the ebb and flow of water as they drift across time and geography, mythology and fact, emphasizing the socio-historical context of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and return.

Two key threads run through the exhibition. The first centers on a set of five virtues, outlined by the 12th-century Arab Muslim philosopher Ibn Zafar in his compendium of moral tales “Solwan” or “The Waters of Comfort.” Written as a guide for rulers, the text identifies five virtues: trust, fortitude, patience, contentment and self-denial. 

The second thread traces Abboud’s engagement with a folktale about fishermen that reveals striking similarities between Palestinian and Japanese folklore. Echoing the exhibition’s title, the tide’s devotion to the moon’s pull and the storyteller’s gentle narration reflect the exhibition’s central question: How do we sustain hope and memory across vast distances, destruction and isolation, ensuring their survival?

Date: until June 28
Location: Jameel Arts Center, Dubai

Find more information here.

2. Word on the street: Barrafina

Barrafina’s classic tortilla. (Photo courtesy of Barrafina)

The popular modern Spanish tapas restaurant Barrafina has arrived in Dubai. The award-winning London concept is now located in the heart of the Dubai International Financial Center, bringing authentic Spanish dining to one of the city’s premier financial and cultural districts.

Be sure to try the classic tortilla, gambas rojas (red prawns), prawn croquetas, chicken thighs with romesco and pan con tomate (bread with tomatoes). There are also dishes created especially for Dubai, including a daily special featuring clams with salsa verde and a selection of Galician dry-aged beef.

Between services, diners can enjoy the “para picar” bar snack menu, featuring white anchovy tostada, prawn croquetas and Spanish bikini sandwiches layered with tuna belly and caviar.

Location: DIFC, Gate Village, Downtown Dubai

Find more information here.

3. Dubai diary

Hawazin Alotaibi. “Shy Boy.” 2026. Oil, mixed media and experimental printing on canvas. (Photo courtesy of Taymour Grahne Projects)

• Five Painters

“Five Painters,” a group exhibition currently on view at Taymour Grahne Projects in Dubai, showcases a new generation of female artists from the Gulf. The exhibition presents paintings by Roudhah Al Mazrouei from Al Ain, United Arab Emirates; Dalal Al-Obaidi from Kuwait; Hayfa Algwaiz from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Latifa Alajlan from Kuwait and Hawazin Alotaibi, a Saudi artist born in the United States. Together, their works offer distinct reflections on contemporary life in the Gulf.

“The history of painting in the Gulf begins, as so much of the region’s modern cultural life does, with an act of departure and return,” writes Sara bin Safwan, curator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and founder and curator at Salasil, in one of the commissioned texts accompanying the exhibition. “The earliest works of the modern Gulf period are acts of witness, painters recording a world that was already changing faster than it could be held. The texture of a daily life that the discovery of oil would soon transform beyond recognition.”

The five painters featured in the exhibition capture the fluid tension of rapid change that has shaped the Gulf’s recent history. 

Date: until July 11
Location: Taymour Grahne Projects, WH 31A, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Find more information here.

• Ten Years of Art: Waddington Custot Dubai

Waddington Custot Dubai is marking its 10-year anniversary with an exhibition conceived as an homage to the artists who have shaped its program over the past decade. The exhibition presents a cross-generational dialogue between the modern masters who laid the gallery’s foundations and the contemporary voices who continue to expand its horizons.

Showcasing paintings, sculptures, ceramics and works on paper, the exhibition brings together artists from the region and beyond, including Etel Adnan, Ali Banisadr, Fernando Botero, Nick Brandt, Umberto Mariani, Georges Mathieu, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Marc Quinn, Arnaud Rivieren, Tomás Saraceno, Chu Teh-Chun, Sophia Vari, Bernar Venet and Fabienne Verdier.

Date: until July 18

Location: Waddington Custot, WH84, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Find more information here.

• The UAE at the 79th Cannes Film Festival

The Dubai Films and Games Commission participated in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, held on May 12-23, as part of ongoing efforts to deepen engagement with the international film industry and strengthen the UAE’s position within the global production landscape.

Over the last few years, Dubai has increasingly become an operational hub for productions across the Middle East. Recent global productions filmed or serviced in Dubai include “Genie,” Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” and “Make a Wish.”

Young Emirati filmmaker Sarah Alhashimi attended Cannes as part of Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation’s Young Filmmakers’ Circle, representing the UAE at the festival’s Short Film Corner with her film “Why Is My Grandfather’s Bed in Our Living Room?” The film explores memory, intergenerational connections and the impact of losing an ancestral home through the story of an Emirati family.

Find more information here.