Dania Ezz
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Exhbition Designer
The exhibition design and graphic identity for Pravasis, is based on a collaborative project by artist Christopher Joshua Benton and signmaker Faisal Abdu of Mubeen Calligraphy—a Satwa-based studio known for its vibrant shopfront graphics that define Dubai’s visual vernacular. The installation recontextualizes Mubeen’s archival designs as lightboxes, distilling them into emoji-like icons that trace labor, migration, and cultural imprint within the UAE’s urban landscape.
The spatial design integrates Pravasis?—a list poem by Deepak Unnikrishnan (Temporary People, 2017)—in English and Malayalam (the most common language among UAE migrant workers), bending its text across walls to immerse viewers in the rhythm of transient professions. A color-coded system links the poem’s stanzas to the lightboxes: green for featured trades, pink for anticipated visitors, blue for museum staff, and yellow for the makers themselves, blending the traffic through the gallery with the themes of the art work. This typographic hierarchy renders visible the often-invisible workforce that sustains cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
This work was created in collaboration with Christopher Joshua Benton, Deepak Unnikrishnan and the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery