Personal Highlights of 2024
This year has been a rollercoaster of emotions consisting of joy, heartache and dealing with health scares in the family (things are much better now). In September I wrote a few words about how I found myself opening up, letting my guard down and connecting with people in a way I’ve not done before, some of the results backfired, but some of it has been emotionally and mentally enriching. Along the way I gained a little more understanding of myself (an ongoing process), and what I want to focus on in life.
Not to mention coping with news of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, news out of Sudan, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, the blurring lines between left and right wing politics, and a rise in racial, gender and religious discrimination in many parts of the world. I’m reminded by these quotes every time I pause to think about all of this:
In the words of Hilton Als from last February 2023 in an interview on Talk Easy podcast, “there’s a “collective lack of humanity”, “lack of care from one another”, and “lack of believe from one another as a species”.
On October 4 this year, Lina Mounzer wrote in her essay titled A Year of War Without End, ”…ask any Arab what the most painful realization of the last year has been and it is this: that we have discovered the extent of our dehumanization to such a degree that it’s impossible to function in the world in the same way.”
“I’m distracted by the escalating horror of world events and find it hard to concentrate on my work”
Being John Smith (John Smith, 2024)
Being John Smith (2024), film still via The Film Verdict
The above quote is narrated by John Smith in his short film Being John Smith that I saw in October at the Viennale. It truly encapsulates how difficult it has been for me to focus on making work as an artist. But by shutting down emotionally and creatively, it also means "they win”, the collective “they” behind the cruelty and injustices we’re seeing in the news.
So in whatever capacity as an artist and opportunities I have, my aim is to focus on making, showing and talking about work that matters to me about our place in this world, and hopefully to anyone else that is interested in my work.
Some of my personal highlights and things I’ve worked on this year:
The Creek is for Me. The Creek is for Us.
A selection of images from my portfolio website.
Last October I was selected from an open call to participate in PH Museum’s Mediae 2023/24 Online Masterclass On Transmedia Storytelling. It ended this April, and the result is a new and currently ongoing series titled The Creek is for Me. The Creek is for Us.
It includes photography, video and a few installation ideas that I am still trying to figure out. It is inspired by a Robin Moore novel from 1976 called Dubai, and it is also an homage to Dubai Creek.
The title is from a line of dialogue in the book. You can see a small selection of photos from this series on my portfolio website, and I will be adding more in the coming weeks and months.
Zines
I made three new zines this year, and I’d like to make more in the coming year.
Great Night Life
The zine was made as an extension to my installation Good Life, a collection of 105 reprinted advertisements from the group exhibition Guest Relations at Jameel Arts Centre.
It consists of extracted images and texts from advertisements for hotels, discos, bars and restaurants in the United Arab Emirates from What’s On magazine, a Dubai based entertainment and lifestyle magazine, from issues published between 1979–1986.
City Text: Free Free Palestine and City Text: Viva Viva Palestina
These two zines feature photos I took during my travels to Europe between October 2023 and September 2024 of hand writings and graffiti showing solidarity and support for Palestine. They were launched at the Great + Everlasting* stand (a collective run by Azim Al Ghussein and my brother Khalid Mezaina) at Focal Point, Sharjah Art Foundation’s art book fair.
If you’re interested in buying/stocking any of these zines, please let me know.
*The name of this collective is the English translation of their names. Love it.
I didn’t participate in any new exhibitions this year, but had works in two exhibitions that opened last year that went on till March and April this year:
Resonating Tides: Stories from the Edge of Tomorrow’s Anthropocene (Women’s Pavilion, Expo City Dubai, ended on March 3)
Guest Relations (Jameel Arts Centre, ended on April 28)
I launched Visual Culture Club, a collaboration with Hobb, a design and visual culture focused bookstore in Dubai. We hosted three sessions in March, May and June, and so far the discussions have been enlightening and fun. The next one is scheduled to take place on January 5.
Film screenings and writings:
Film Night with Hind Mezaina: Traversing Landscapes, a program of short films for Todd Reisz’s Night School at Jameel Art Center.
I posted photos from this evening and wrote a few words about it here.
Additionally, I was pleased to see the film night was written about by Shama Nair for Global Art Daily, here are a couple of extracts:
“The film programme by artist and film curator Hind Mezaina, a segment without which Night School is incomplete, serves as a tender invitation to audiences to gather in JAC’s cosy, dimly lit foyer overlooking the city lights dotting the creek, and immerse in new worlds and architectures through the celluloid form. The screen acts as a portal, window, and mirror granting access to spaces strange and familiar at the same time.
…
Concluding with a vibrant, candid conversation between Mezaina and Reisz, we see the value of making and working collaboratively; of brainstorming and “thinking publicly,” as conversations about our city ought to be - open, transparent, tangential - in the best possible way.”
You can read the complete piece here. Also, save the date for the next Night School film programme, on January 25 at Jameel Art Centre.
In May, a group of students from the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business at the University of Pennsylvania were on an academic trip to Dubai. I was invited by Osman Balkan, the Associate Director of the program to present a selection of short films under the title of “The Story of Dubai” and to have a discussion with the students about the city and about representation, memory, and identity. The students were very receptive to what I showed and asked smart questions. I left thinking I’d like to do more of this.
Also in May, I was included in Screendaily’s Future Leaders 2024, a list of 25 film festival programmers and curators to watch. I wrote about it here. I was happy for this recognition, but the sad irony is when the piece came out, I was credited as the film curator for CineMAS Film Festival at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi which I worked on for three years but was not invited back for this year’s edition.
I hosted and presented three Culturist Film Club screenings:
The Super 8 Years in January and The Witches of the Orient in June, both at Alliance Française in Dubai.
Terra Femme + a book discussion about Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women in November at Kutubna Cultural Center. It was a collaboration with Tamreez Inam that was a very rewarding experience and hope we can do it again. We both wrote our thoughts about this event here.
I wrote a short review about Ibrahim Nash’at’s Hollywoodgate for Documentary Magazine, the International Documentary Association’s print and online publication. It was published as part of a series of short reviews titled Screen Time, Summer/Fall 2024. Thanks to Abby Sun for asking me to write about this film.
The Secret Garden by Nour Ouayda in Gallery 9 at Jameel Arts Centre.
The Secret Garden by Nour Ouayda at Jameel Arts Centre, organised by me and Tribe Magazine in collaboration with Jameel Arts Centre and was screened on loop in Gallery 9 during the opening hours of the art centre between November 8 and December 9.
I had originally intended to screen it for one night as a public event hosted by Tribe Magazine and presented by me as Tribe’s Moving Image Editor (I had written about the film and interviewed Nour Ouayda for the magazine), but it was difficult to find a suitable date that worked for all parties. Instead it got exhibited for a month.
Presentations and Recordings:
In February, I moderated a discussion at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature with filmmakers Nujoom Alghanem and Nawaf Al Janahi about their careers and current film projects.
I was invited to talk about Nujoom Alghanem’s work for an audio piece that accompanied a video about her shown at the America Abroad Media’s Awards Dinner in February where she was honoured for her work as a filmmaker and an artist. You can watch the video here.
In November, April Gertler, one of the co-founders of WIRWIR, an artist run space in Berlin, invited me to to submit clips for an event titled VIDEOLAND that is hosted in their space every few months. The theme for this edition was “Resistance” and I said yes right away. More about it here.
An anniversary:
On December 5, this blog turned 15. FIFTEEN!!
With so many people spending most of their time Instagram and TikTok to read, watch or kill time, I am thankful to anyone that still drops by this site.
Travels:
I didn’t visit any new city this year, but was happy to go back to the ones I like and getting into a routine where I’m less of a tourist and more of just hanging out to do what I want - walking, people watching, going to the cinemas (film festivals or other screenings), and depending on when and where, hang out with fellow cinephile friends.
February-March: Berlin for the film festival, and Amsterdam
June: Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato
September: Venice for the film festival, and London, Amsterdam (this was my birthday month and ended up staying outside Dubai longer than usual)
October: Vienna for the film festival
December: Amsterdam and London (my first time visiting both cities in December and ended up loving the cold winter and the festive vibes)
A couple of standout highlights from these trips:
A Bologna WhatsApp Group consisting of friends and people I met (and some not yet) who were at Il Cinema Ritrovato. It started as space to laugh at our frustrations with the broken online ticketing system, and during the festival it was a way to share and recommend films we’re watching. It has managed to stay active since June because a few of us have been sharing thoughts, frustrations and experiences from other festivals and other film related topics. The discussions are funny, nerdy and comforting, and it’s been nice to be part of this small community of people I only see a few times a year.
An accidental reunion in London with my friend Wael Hattar, my culture partner in crime and podcast co-founder Tea with Culture.
We had not seen each other for a few years and also not had a chance to work on our podcast because life and distance got in the way. But during our several breakfast catch ups where we talked and people watched like we did when he was living in Dubai, we agreed we should reactivate our podcast. So watch this space.We also laughed when we saw the sign for the musical Why Am I So Single?. We entered the building to ask if there was a matinee session, but alas there wasn’t.