How the UAE’s artscape reinvented itself during the pandemic

Inhale. Exhale. If there’s one routine activity that artists developed in the year gone by, it was that of taking deep breaths to realise and accept that while creating and practising any form of art is a tough job, creating art in a period of anxiety is tougher, and, at times, even impossible. We, at WKND, too mapped our breaths as we stood on the fringes and watched the world of art undergo a metamorphosis during the crisis. A lot changed and will continue to in 2021.

Art is a reflection of our realities, so before we move ahead, let’s take a few steps back to reminisce some highlights of the recent past. The last time I went to a theatre to watch a production was at the beginning of 2020, and while the doors to a lot of performing arts spaces opened gradually, with all the precautions, I am yet to sit on those seats. It was the Zoom room that kept me occupied. It may have been eerie at the beginning to watch a play on the laptop, with living rooms of actors as stage sets, but I got used to the idea and was soon happily engaged. Most of these shows were free-to-attend, which did break my heart, as had it not been for the arts, we all know the period of stay-at-home would have been challenging to live through. Outdoors, I applauded impromptu concerts that took place on balconies; sometimes there was a banging of utensils, on other occasions, there was singing of songs. I almost ended up championing for vertical concerts as the future of live entertainment.

Itching to breathe in the arts, albeit behind the mask, I found myself at World Art Dubai 2020, with socially-distanced stickers on the floor reminding us of the times we were in and our responsibilities to keep canvases safe. The halls at the DWTC stayed responsibly-packed all through the event, and the curators, organisers and artists claimed they raked in massive sales. Somewhere, I picked up the word, phygital, a blend of physical and virtual worlds. I walked through 3D virtual galleries and made stopovers in front of works I liked. On the other hand, local comics hosted stand-up virtual nights and somehow found the skill and courage to make an audience they could not see or hear laugh (as most kept the camera off).

We’ve fared well so far, even as arts got locked up in squares and pixels and confined to Instagram lives and StreamYard sessions. The doors have opened up again and the physical places are coming alive with songs, comic acts, short plays, fine art exhibitions, and more. And from here on, WKND will be the window to whatever happens next.

purva@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai