At their festival this weekend, Sole DXB, Dubai’s lifestyle platform for footwear, fashion, culture, art and design, will running a short film alongside the live art Baqala, to celebrate the vibrant, and often neglected, street culture of the UAE and its iconic Baqala grocery stores. For those who grew up in the region, the Baqala lined city streets are rooted in their coming-of-age, when 90s kids were experiencing things like hip hop, skate culture, street wear, and Air Jordan’s for the first time.
As Dubai continues to change at a rapid pace, the film preserves the fading memory of Dubai’s street culture for generations to come. The film focuses on a group of international skaters as they carve their way through the Baqala — selling everything from hoodies and snapbacks to kurthas and kandoorahs. The juxtaposition between young skaters and ageing Baqala owners is indicative of Dubai’s constantly changing landscape.
Experience, The Baqala, a living art installation celebrating this regional icon, conceptualised by We Are The Medium, at Sole DXB this November 20th & 21st.