Julius Baer today announced a new digital commission by prominent Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem that will debut at Art Dubai 2025. Housed at the Julius Baer Lounge at Art Dubai, the new immersive work is titled ‘Directions (Merging)’ – اتجاهات (تمازج) and draws on the interconnectedness of people, diverse cultures, and perspectives, serving as a powerful analogy for the city of Dubai. The work is the latest major solo commission supported by Julius Baer, following acclaimed new works by Refik Anadol in 2023 and Krista Kim in 2024, and it marks the Group’s decade-long partnership with Art Dubai.
Using coordinates that Kazem has collected around the world at precisely the location where waters meet the shore, the commission speaks to the seamless exchange of resources, the fluidity of nature, and the interconnectedness of distant shores, mirroring Dubai’s evolution as a future city and a hub for global communities. Dubai’s coordinates will be presented at the centre of the space, inviting visitors to converge in a microcosm of the city. Three walls filled with coordinates from various parts of the globe, framed by a video backdrop of constantly moving waves, will surround viewers, visually reinforcing ideas of unity, fluidity, and borderless flow.
Mohammed Kazem – “The Julius Baer commission offers a unique opportunity to bring together the coordinates I have been collecting over time, placing them into a new perspective. With Dubai’s coordinate at the centre, those of other places will merge and dissolve into one another, rendering them unrecognisable. This convergence challenges the notion of fixed borders and territories, creating a space where geographical distinctions fade into one fluid, interconnected landscape”.
Kazem is an Emirati artist who lives and works in Dubai and his artistic practice encompasses video, photography and performance to find new ways of apprehending his environment and experiences. The foundations of his work are informed by his training as a musician, and Kazem is deeply engaged with developing processes that can render transient phenomena, such as sound and light, in tangible terms.
This commission is part of Julius Baer’s ‘Future Cities‘ next-generation theme, which examines how cities have enormous growth potential as places where progress is fuelled by the convergence of diverse populations, and are developed through cultural investment in the local ecosystem. As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations in Dubai, and 10th year as a lead partner of Art Dubai fair, Julius Baer continues to emphasise its long-term commitment to the city’s evolution into the region’s centre for art and culture.
