BBC’s Collaboration Culture travels to Dubai where German conceptualartist Christian Jankowski teams up with curator Rami Farook
A new seven part series on BBC World News, Collaboration Culture pairs fourteen creative and celebrated figures from the worlds of fashion, dance, music, food and art and invites them to collaborate on a new, innovative project. In the fourth episode of the series, scheduled to air on July 21, contemporary performance artist Christian Jankowski travels from his home city of Berlin to Dubai to meet curator Rami Farook.
Rami Farook is an Emirati curator, art collector and founder and director of Traffic: a 7,000 sq. ft. multipurpose industrial space housing galleries, a design store, library and Farook’s personal collection of art. Featuring large-scale installations, sculptures and paintings, Traffic draws on the Middle East’s cultural heritage and attracts a diverse crowd, part of a contemporary art scene that goes beyond the familiar glitz and glamour associated with the city.
Berlin is home to Christian Jankowski, an artist renowned for hismischievous and witty performances. Christian’s work is set in the context of everyday life. He creates situations in which ordinary interactions are transformed into performance-based artworks exhibited as installations, photography and video.
In this episode, Christian will be blindfolded, having decided to experience the culture of Dubai using all his senses except sight. From the moment he steps off the plane, he will rely on Rami to introduce him to the smells, sounds and tastes of one of the most sensational cities in the world. Over the course of three days, they will both make a short film where Christian will play the Director and Rami will supervise the edit. Christian will feel the heat and sand of the desert; tune in to the hum of the bazaars; and taste the local food, using Rami as his only visual guide. The trip will culminate in a special film premiere in front of an audience where Rami will finally remove Christian’s eye mask.
Speaking about his experience whilst in Dubai, Christian Jankowski said: To come to Dubai blindfolded was a way to open up a new way of making a film…I never heard of a movie, shot, directed and filmed, recorded, sound recorded all blind, so I’m curious to see what can come out of this…. There are so many voices around you…. I think I need some time to arrive, to somehow orientate myself and get a clue for what I’m doing right now.”
Rami Farook said: “I have a fascination of how the artist can become an instigator of change … I think Dubai is interesting because first of all you have your freedom, you have this clear set of rules, some of them written, some unwritten but respected no matter what. On the other side you have the ability to collaborate with different cultures.”
Collaboration Culture, broadcast in association with Emirates, will air weekly on BBC World News from 30 June on Saturdays at 00:30; 07:30, and Sundays at 12:30; 18:30 (all times GMT).
