FREE Entry at Expo City Dubai This Weekend
Free entry to museum and sky deck
The Expo 2020 Museum, which highlights the innovation and global spirit of the world's fair, will be open to all visitors at no cost during the two-day celebration. Also joining the free list is the Garden in the Sky, a 55-meter-high rotating observation tower offering panoramic views of Expo City and the surrounding area.
It's a chance to relive Expo moments or experience it for the first time — without spending a dirham.
Rashid and Latifa are back to greet visitors
For fans of Expo 2020's mascots, Rashid and Latifa will be back on-site to meet visitors from 2 PM to 6 PM on both days. Expect selfies, smiles, and maybe even a little nostalgia as they return to the spotlight.
Special Dh25 pass to explore more pavilions
As part of the celebration, Terra, Alif, and Vision pavilions are offering access for just Dh25 with a special weekend pass. This gives you a full Expo experience — from exploring sustainability and mobility to revisiting the UAE's story through the Vision Pavilion.
The discounted pass comes as Expo City marks the membership of its pavilions in the International Council of Museums (ICOM) — a nod to their role as cultural and educational spaces.
Where to get tickets
The Dh25 pass will be available online starting May 14, and you can also buy them at Expo City box offices throughout the May 17–18 weekend. Entry to the Expo 2020 Museum and Garden in the Sky remains completely free.
Whether you're in it for the views, the memories, or just a budget-friendly weekend plan, Expo City has your plans covered.
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The National
4 hours ago
- The National
No Trespassing: Dubai exhibition challenges contradiction between gallery and street art
When curator Priyanka Mehra invited Fathima Mohiuddin to create works for a summer exhibition at the Ishara Art Foundation, she sensed a certain hesitation – a diffidence that suggested the street artist was out of her element. Mohiuddin, who goes by the moniker Fatspatrol, is known for her sprawling bold murals. She has covered the facades of buildings in the UAE and Canada with her work. A famous local example is For the Love of Birds, where she decked seven buildings on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi with images of birds found in the UAE. But the Mohiuddin in the gallery space was not the same artist that Mehra had become familiar with over the years. 'She produced some designs on what she was planning to do in the space,' Mehra says. 'But in my head I thought 'this isn't the Fatspatrol I know'. She's a strong player with scale, but that wasn't coming out.' Mohiuddin's timidity was understandable. After all, a street artist in a gallery setting is a bit of an oxymoron. Street art, by definition, is inextricable from the urban environment. It responds to the architecture, the social fabric, the noise, grime and politics of public space. By contrast, galleries are curated and controlled, even relatively sterile. If anything, galleries can be antithetical to the core ethos that drives street artists. When street art enters a gallery setting, the immediacy that gives it its edge is blunted. It becomes sapped of its subversive spirit. But the new exhibition at Ishara Art Foundation challenges (or even embraces) this inherent contradiction between the gallery and street art. No Trespassing is the first summer exhibition to be held at the foundation. Running until August 30, it brings six artists into the gallery – not to simply pin their works in the white space, but to treat it with the same way they would an open urban environment. 'I told Fatspatrol to think of the space as a playground, not a white cube space,' Mehra says. A week later, just before work on the exhibition was due to start, Mohiuddin returned from a trip to India with a 'radical idea' of painting the space using a broom similar to those used by street sweepers. The result was a moving, even awe-inspiring gestural trail, with bold, fervent strokes from which emerge forms, like birds, faces and stop signs. It is a thought-provoking work, particularly with the use of a broom – a tool used to sweep and clean – to imprint marks in the gallery. The work, dubbed The World Out There, also incorporated several scavenged objects, from discarded street signs and license plates to posters and scraps of wood. 'She could have gone very abstract with it, because it's easier to just make marks with the brooms. But then she has this beautiful, expressive quality,' Mehra says. Mohiuddin's work can be seen as the curatorial nucleus of No Trespassing. It is at the very centre of the exhibition, and is one of the few that is not in direct dialogue with adjacent works. But each work in the exhibition responds similarly to the gallery space. Some leave marks and even stage protests, whereas others speak out by removing elements. Take the works in the opening space as examples. Kiran Maharjan, a street artist from Nepal who goes by H11235, presents two pieces that face one another. On the right is a collage that has many of the hallmarks of his oeuvre – blending photorealism with the digital while drawing parallels between architectural elements in the UAE and Nepal. The work is the concept Maharjan had initially planned to paint in the space. However, as the artist wasn't able to travel to the UAE due to visa issues, Maharjan as well as the Ishara team improvised, taking the initial design and abstracting it further. 'We had to change the approach, because none of us can do this and paint like he does,' Mehra says. Instead of rendering the hands and buildings with the photorealistic touch Maharjan is known for, the team replaced the design with materials, like corrugated steel and wood, blending them with acrylic panels. Thus, the project became at once a juxtaposition between what-is and what-could-have-been, while simultaneously testing the definition of authorship. While Maharjan's work is a vivid display of how an artist can leave a mark – even through their absence – Rami Farook does so by pulling elements out. The Emirati artist has removed a significant portion of one of the gallery's walls, baring its metal framing and insulating wool. The gypsum board that was removed leans against the perpendicular wall – the dust from the removal process still left on the floor. The work is a thought-provoking example of intervening through erasure. 'It is a very conceptual piece,' Mehra says. 'It is talking about extraction, and this is the only work that is an extraction, as compared to putting something on the surface, which also brings us down to ownership.' The rest of the works in No Trespassing spotlight other public and personal interactions with urban landscapes. In For a Better Modern Something, Emirati artist Sarah Alahbabi presents cement blocks printed with maps and superimposed by LED strips that run the surface of the wall and floor. The work draws from Abu Dhabi's urban fabric and came as a result of Alahbabi's experiences as a pedestrian in the city. The final space of the exhibition features two complimentary works. In Heritage Legacy Authentic, Palestinian-Filipino artist Khaled Esguerra reflects on the urban transformation of historic neighbourhoods. Sheets of ordinary copier paper are plastered on the floor, forming a surface that actively invites interaction. Viewers are encouraged to stomp, tear, or even skid over the sheets. 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Gulf Today
5 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Hala Badri, Dubai Culture DG, speaks at London Art Biennale on art scene
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The Gagliardi Gallery, London. In her address, Hala Badri highlighted the momentum behind Dubai's growing arts scene, underlining Dubai Culture's strong support for both homegrown talent and international collaboration. 'We aspire to make creativity part of the everyday experience — to transform the entire city into a living canvas where expression and imagination are not confined to galleries, but encountered everywhere,' she said. She also pointed to recent milestones, such as the introduction of the Dubai Cultural Grant and the long-term cultural visa, as well as the UAE's emergence as a sought-after venue for major international events. During the Biennale, she toured the exhibition with Aarien Areti, Deputy Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and Peter Gagliardi, Director at Gagliardi Gallery and a member of the Biennale's curatorial team. 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Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) enables and develops the cultural and creative sectors in the emirate as the custodian entity, helping the emirate to define it in both local and global contexts. It manages five of the city's notable heritage monuments, six museums, and eight branches of Dubai Public Libraries.
Khaleej Times
12 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
UAE: Is viral 'aura farming' boat kid coming to Dubai? Here's what we know
We've seen him glide through the waters of Indonesia, as he stands on the tip of a boat, belting out the smoothest of dance moves with his black shades on. The 'Aura Farming' boat kid, who has gone viral on the internet, may now be making his way to Dubai waters, according to a social media account that claims to be his official page. As per information on the page, 11-year-old Rayyan Arkan Dikha is supposed to commence his 'Dubai tour' in July and August. "Dubai, I am coming. Dubai, get ready for me," read the last two posts. Khaleej Times has reached out to verify the information. Although no specific dates have been released yet, the young boy who shot to fame in no time, is said to soon visit some of the most iconic locations across the bustling city, most of which have some sort of water element. Here are the spots where we might see him: Dubai Marina Lamborghini Yacht Bel Haza Zoo and Dubai Aquarium Desert Safari Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis Burj Khalifa and Dubai Fountain Museum of the Future Jumeirah Beach and Kite Beach Who is the 'Aura Farming' boy? Rayyan Arkan Dikha originally went viral after a short clip of him wearing traditional Indonesian attire and dancing on a racing boat during a festival amused the internet. It was the young boy's calm, steady and cool demeanour that won the hearts of millions online, with his clip becoming a trend — Aura Farming — and even celebrities following it. Meanwhile, what became a trend for the internet, was actually just a morale boosting dance for Rayyan, who performed to motivate rowers who were competing in a centuries-old tradition. What is 'Aura Farming'? The term 'farming' is used in video games to describe collecting resources or tools. Meanwhile, in Gen-Z and social media terms, the word 'aura' is used to describe a person's demeanour and a likeable 'vibe' and personality. The better your aura is, the more 'aura points' you gain. This applies vice versa too, where if one does something embarrassing or disliked by people, then they loose their 'aura points'. A culmination of the two words has led to the term 'Aura Farming', which the little traditional boy seems to be a master of according to the internet.
