Dubai warehouses transform into unique cultural centres with glitzy 'hipster' scene

In the glitzy city of Dubai, known for its mega-projects, futuristic skyscrapers and ostentatious malls, Dana Alhammadi sat in a cosy cafe learning how to make natural beauty products.

The "environmentally conscious" workshop at the KAVE cafe is part of an emerging cultural scene in a city which after years of breakneck development is exploring its alternative side.

A visitor gazes at a work by the late American artist Alexander Calder during an exhbition.

If Dubai has a hipster centre, it is Alserkal Avenue, an industrial area full of warehouses large and small that in 2008 became a hub for art galleries, start-up businesses, and quirky retail outlets.

She was mixing bicarbonate of soda with coconut oil to make a back-to-basics deodorant, jazz legend Nina Simone audible in the background.

"I'm happy that they started such activities and workshops here in the United Arab Emirates," Alhammadi said.

Home to more than nine million expatriates from well over 100 countries, making up 90 percent of the population, the UAE prides itself on being a melting pot.

'A culture economy'

Alserkal, which hosts about 500 events a year, generally free of charge, is intended to create that cultural texture.

The project's director Vilma Jurkute said the community supports 70 projects by young men and women from different nationalities, attracting half a million visitors each year.

"It's essentially a community of thought leaders in literature, films, theatre, and community development that formed a key pillar of a culture economy for the city of Dubai (and) for the region," the Lithuanian expatriate said.

Located in a light industrial district and embracing warehouse buildings that range from the sleek to the shabby, Alserkal represents an alternative to what Dubai is best known for, Jurkute added.

"We really are part of the city and we have been for the past decade," she said.

One of Alserkal's most prominent attractions is its Cinema Akil, the first and only art cinema in the Gulf, offering audiences a different film experience, according to the theatre's deputy director Luz Villamil.

Every night independent films are played in the cinema, whose red armchairs and sofas, posters of old Arab classics and a cosy cafe help it to stand out from Dubai's usual blockbuster multiplexes.

"The most important thing for us is to show films that highlight voices that perhaps we feel... don't get represented very much, including Arab cinema and women-focused films."

'Human interaction'

This more inclusive and lesser-known side of Dubai is what drew French-Tunisian Arabic calligraphy artist "eL Seed" to set up shop in Alserkal Avenue.

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"I decided to have my space here to allow visitors the same experience as they would have on the streets... to just push the door and come in," he said.

His calligraphy is an art form Arabs can enjoy amid the overwhelming dominance of English as the UAE's most commonly spoken and written language.

Agence France-Presse