This month’s CreativeMornings theme is “Folklore”. ATÖLYE Dubai will be hosting CreativeMornings Dubai with Laila Binbrek: Art, Story and You on Thursday, March 24 at 8:15 AM (GMT+4). The event will take place in-person at ATÖLYE Dubai. Find registration details below.
About the Theme:
The universe is vast and full of mysteries. Humankind spin stories to answer these mysteries without answers. As these stories are passed down and among a people, they become folklore. Who placed the stars up there? When a pot breaks, who might have been the unseen culprit? How do we celebrate the successes we can’t take credit for? Folklore exercises our mythic imagination, our way of seeing beyond the tangible to make sense of the enigmatic and the unfathomable.
A song about the origin of the world, a pot of simmering stew that draws the community to the table, a knot of ribbon in your hand. All of these moments and rituals bind us to our ancestors, our past to our future. Our collective and ancient wisdom is contained in folklore, we must simply look there.
Our Guatemala City chapter chose this month’s exploration of Folklore and Sara Ortega illustrated the theme.
About the Speaker:
Laila Binbrek is the Coordinating Director of the UAE National Pavilion, which presents the United Arab Emirates’ annual exhibition at the Venice Biennale.
Since joining in 2013, Laila has worked to set the pavilion’s ongoing strategy and vision in collaboration with its commissioner, the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, and manages its operations and team. For each edition of the Venice Biennale, Laila convenes the curatorial selection committee and collaborates with local and international curators, artists and cultural practitioners to develop exhibitions and research publications that tell untold stories about the UAE’s art, architecture and cultural heritage.
Laila has significant experience within the region’s cultural industry. Before joining the UAE National Pavilion, she spent 6 years at The Third Line, one of Dubai’s leading contemporary art galleries, where as gallery director she worked to develop a platform for MENASA artists from across the region. Prior to that, Laila managed the Art Centre at the Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Centre (DUCTAC), with the goal of promoting community engagement within the local community of the UAE.
A Canadian of Yemeni descent, Laila is passionate about promoting arts and culture within the Canadian Arab community and has held positions on the boards of the Canadian Arab Federation, Community Arts Ontario, and the Toronto Arts Council. She holds an BFA (Hons.) from the University of Waterloo, Canada, with a special focus on drawing and sculpture. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and her work “Mirror, Mirror” is on permanent display at the Canadian History Museum in Ottawa. She has lived in Canada, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and England.