Good Life, 2023

105 reprinted advertisements for hotels, discos, bars and restaurants in the United Arab Emirates from What’s On magazine, 1979-1986, a Dubai based entertainment and lifestyle magazine.



”Over the years, artist, film curator and writer Hind Mezaina has accumulated a wealth of material pertaining to pop culture and entertainment in the United Arab Emirates. In her research-based art installation, Last Days of Disco (with Tulip Hazbar, 2018) and the essay Good Vibrations: Living It Up in Sharjah Hotels featured in Building Sharjah (Birkhauser, 2022, edited by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz), she focused on Sharjah’s nightlife in the 1970s and 1980s.

As part of her research, Mezaina scanned issues of What’s On, a Dubai-based English-language monthly entertainment magazine. Her display reproduces a selection of advertisements related to hotels that appeared from the magazine’s founding in 1979to 1986, the year following Sharjah’s ban on alcohol. These advertisements demonstrate the diverse social roles played by hotels during the early decades of the UAE, before most of Dubai’s malls were built and it had established itself as a premier international tourist destination. While some of the advertisements clearly targeted European or American expatriate community, others featured music, cinema and other events that held broader appeal. The archive demonstrates the importance of hotels in spreading new cultural practices and social attitudes throughout the country.” - Text from Guest Relations exhibition at Jameel Arts Centre

Photos from Guest Relations exhibition courtesy of Art Jameel. Photography by Daniella Baptista.