Would you like to step into an Emirati family home? Wander with a poet through the financial district? Source local fashion designers and cult stores? Dance to a Filipino rock band? Hear the stories of the dhow boat men? Drive out to swim in a wadi?
These and more questions are asked by Palestinian poet and filmmaker Hind Shoufani, editor of Uncommon: Dubai, a new artistic guide of Dubai, published by Uncommon Ltd., an international guidebook project based in London.
Released this month and available on the publication’s online shop, Uncommon: Dubai aims to navigate the city without a traditional map and to find a balance between travel writing and artistic impressions through text, images, routes, and further insights seen through the eyes of 30 selected regional contributors, including Irish-Libyan photographer Jalal Abuthina, Palestinian poet Hajer Almosleh, Lamya Gargash, Hungarian photographer Balazs Gardi and filmmaker and documentary photographer Lafi.
“Its lack of sustainable oil production has caused Dubai to style itself—in dramatic super-star overnight fashion—into a commerce, trade, and real estate hub, as well as a prominent leisure destination, voicing louder thoughts than its sibling emirates, or other Gulf cities nearby,” Shoufani wrote in the guide’s preface.
For the occasion, photographer and art director Basile Mookherjee made Paradise City, a video that accompanies the new guide.
“In this guidebook we delve into the dichotomy of Dubai, between those who admire and invest in the city and those who feel unsettled by its novelty. We approach the stories of people as avenues to the city’s unfolding map, and where there are people, there is culture to be made,” Shoufani concluded.
Picture Credits: © Uncommon Ltd.
—Elisabeta Tudor
