“I’m actually a Gulf studies specialist that found my way into the art community as a young social science student in London on my visits back to Dubai, where I would hang out with my brother and his art friends who were studying at the college of fine arts in Sharjah around 2007-08. Those years were, in my opinion, the defining moment in the contemporary history of art in the UAE. It was a moment where the government and major institutions were like, “Let there be art” – deciding that visual art would be a key part of the UAE’s culture.
The interest in art has since matured and developed into a broader and greater understanding than [only] its relevance to contemporary society in the Gulf. Art brings together other disciplines, worlds and fields in a brilliant way. It’s a great way to explore everything from science to history to human interaction – and anything else one can imagine.
Clear exhibition held at Bayt Al Mamzar, courtesy of Studio Salasil
Bayt AlMamzar was a project developed by my brother Khalid and me. The seed of the project came around eight years ago when Khalid suggested to my father that we turn what was our grandma’s house into a private contemporary art museum after the family had moved out. At that time Dubai had a severe lack of non-commercial spaces showcasing contemporary art, and such non-commercial spaces are the key to a thriving and honestly reflective art ecosystem. When the time came to actually begin work on what was to become Bayt AlMamzar in 2020, Khalid and I looked at the state of things and saw that things were developing. Jameel Arts Centre came into existence, Alserkal Avenue had taken on a mandate of supporting artistic development in a more sustained way, and other signs were there that the non-commercial spaces for art were growing. There’s still a great need for more but the progress is there.
Clear exhibition held at Bayt Al Mamzar, courtesy of Studio Salasil
There was, and still is, another key structural challenge in Dubai and the UAE – which is the need for accessible studio spaces for practicing artists. This is primarily because rent is very expensive and it’s hard to find appropriate spaces which can function as studio spaces for artists. We realised that the bedrooms of the house would make perfect artist studios, so we shifted the focus to include artist studios and residencies as well. The result is now Bayt AlMamzar, a space that includes artist studio spaces and exhibition spaces favouring experimental exhibition development. We also house a specialist research library and other facilities.
We’ve hosted residencies by artists from Italy, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Kuwait and Pakistan so far this year. The exhibition ‘Crystal Clear’ – curated and produced by Studio Salasil (Sara Bin Safwan & Zainab Hasoon), running ‘til May – has really pushed what exhibition-making in non-institutional settings can and should look like in the UAE. One of the other coolest things we did this year was hosting a Bathroom Residency. It was the product of a relationship we have as Bayt AlMamzar with our friend, artist and jewellery designer, Ana Escobar Saavedra. She had previously informally produced wonderful activations throughout the house over the past two years and jokingly said, ‘All that’s left is for me to do something in the bathroom.’ She reached out a few weeks later and said, ‘Gaith, I wanna do a residency in the bathroom at Bayt AlMamzar,’ and I said, ‘Okay’. Ana was working towards her MFA at the time and needed a space to do stone-working. The bathroom was the perfect space because it could get super messy and had ventilation and access to water. Above all, Ana’s intention was to delve into the concept of the entity’s support and its significance to an artist. In this case, it was as simple as a bathroom. This is especially important in a place like the UAE, where artists and creatives feel that support needs to come from the government or big institutions and that it requires huge resources and big budgets.
Bayt AlMamzar is an evolving space – in the short time we’ve existed we’ve done some awesome things and that was because of the incredible creatives we have collaborated with; we take our cues from them, and the aim is to make sure we’re guided by the needs and interests of the creatives around us and the growing grassroots movements that are producing such cool things in art, design and culture.
Our goal is to be a space that nurtures creative development, critical dialogue and collaboration in a non-institutional way. We’re making small steps forward in this by actively allowing the space to be shaped and reshaped by the communities of creatives that are driving it. We hope to see more initiatives like ours come to life in the UAE and wider region. There’s a serious need for creatives to come together and build things in the gaps between the mega institutions that dominate things here.”
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