Twinge DXB
TWINGE-DXB is a new urban arts and culture festival organized by the community of Dubai and for the community. Sherif Aibaza came up with the idea of the festival after he was inspired by his artist friends to showcase their work and he decided to put up this event to involve the wider creative community.
He hopes the festival will serve as a platform for the participating artists to grow their careers and grow within the local community, "If any of the participants sell a painting or gets commissioned for a job utilizing their talents due to their participation in Twinge, then we’ve achieved our objectives."
I was curious about the name of the fesival. Sherif explained it by saying "Social Media plays a very important part of our everyday lives. Twinge is a play on words between 'Fringe' referring to marginalized or underexposed talent and 'Twitter' a staple of the Social Media playground today."
Personally, I'm not very convinced with the name "Twinge DXB" - we already have a Twestivals, Tweet ups, Twit Book Club - so it feels like yet another social media event. Some event organisers fall into the trap of trying to associate everything with social media - and for a festival like this, it could miss out on attracting an audience that isn't necessarily active on social media (and yes, there are people that don't use Twitter or Facebook). Nevertheless, I think this festival is a good initiative and it's great to see the creative community in a space that isn't in a gallery or theatre. I'am a big fan of taking art out to different and new locations, to engage with the city and it's people.
Here's the schedule of events:
10th-16th December 2011
During the whole week, you will see:
- Painting by Noha Mourad.
- Photography by Catalin Marin (I've featured his work on my blog before and he's very active in the photography community in Dubai. I am a big fan of his travel photography, so I strongly suggest you check out his work.
- Mime artist Lara Matossian Roberts. "Artist Lara didn’t know she was in the box until she got out of it. She stumbled upon that imaginary rope and was bedazzled by the treasures held within the chest at its end, but she’s quite happy to share. Come and get bedecked."
© Catalin Marin
10th December 2011 - Praise for Prose
Book readings by
- Alexander McNabb recently self publised his book Olives which is available on Kindle, Smashwords and Amazon.com internationally. TwingeDXB will mark the official UAE launch of the Middle East print edition and there will be copies of Olives on sale at the Festival. I enjoy Alexander's writing on his blog Fake Plastic Souks, so I am looking forward to getting my hand on a copy of Olives.
- Frank Dullaghan is an Irish writer who has lived in the UAE since 2006. He has read at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (Fringe) in 2009 and 2010 and in the main festival as part of Poeticians in 2011. He is also a member of the Emirates Literay Group and Dubai Writers Group. Frank is widely published in literary journals and poetry magazines in the UK and Ireland.
- Sultan Al Darmaki, a freelance writer from the United Arab Emirates. His book "Under My Black Halo" is a collection of his thoughts that was self-published in November 2010. He currently writes for Gulf Today Panorama magazine, his column "Impromptu" features articles that deal with local and global social issues.
11th December 2011 - Music
The night will feature by Dubai based musicians
- Neil Harrison from Beat Antenna
- Lauren Nieuwland
- 4 Brownies
- Abbo
- Gongsters
- Sach Holden
12th December 2011 - Fashion Night
The night will feature fashion by Sartori Sartori and jewellery by LOVE SONI.
Sartori Sartori
13th December 2011 - Comedy
There will be stand up comedy brought to us by Dubomedy, a collective of artists that aims to create more performance opportunities for local artists, provide professional performing arts training and put on original productions around the region.
14th December 2011 - Variety Night by Infusion
The night will feature stilt walkers, jugglers and fire dancers
15th December - Poetry Night with the Poeticians
The Poeticians is a collective of poets and writers run by Hind Shoufani, who is also a filmmaker.
16th December - Film Night
Three short films willl be screened on the night:
Event details:
Date and time: 10th-16th December 2011. Doors open at 6pm, shows start at 7:30pm.
Venue: Wild Peeta at Dubai World Trade Centre (location map)
Free entry and suitable for all ages.