50 Years of Cool is a collaborative exhibition with Taqeef, O General, and Gulf Photo Plus, commemorating the 50th anniversary of air conditioning in the United Arab Emirates.
This exhibition maps the cultural impact of air conditioning in the Emirates over the span of 50 years, inviting viewers to reflect on its transformational effects on quality of life, and beyond that, into the fabric of our urban landscape.
This evolution in air conditioning moves on a conversational current with the Gulf's textured migrant histories and economic development, with the rise of companies like Taqeef and Fujitsu General, which had laid the groundwork for the UAE's industrialisation as we know it today.
With works in photography, moving image, and annotated portraits with the insights of employees and customers, '50 Years of Cool' narrates a lesser-pondered perspective on the commercial advent of air conditioning through the lens of four artists based in the United Arab Emirates.
Hussain AlMoosawi's grid of photographs captures the diverse typology of air conditioning systems in the UAE, highlighting their ubiquitous presence in our urban architecture and by extension, our everyday lives.
Fatema Al Fardan's short experimental film collages a personal oral history and visuals to weave together a poetic interpretation of the before-and-after effects of modern air conditioning, platforming a first-hand account of how it has revolutionised the ways people live and work.
Ahmed Al Kuwaiti's photographic series plays witness to the intricate relationship between the buildings, people, and air conditioning systems that have made the urban environments of the Emirates habitable in intense heat.
Poignant portraits of O General employees, technicians, and long-time customers, presented by Augustine Paredes, offer a glimpse into the on-ground human impact of the local air conditioning systems industry, accounting for the human faces and pioneering stories behind cooling technologies.
Together, these works extend a fascinating and thought-provoking reframing of the role of air conditioning as a catalyst to a significant paradigm shift in the country, its people, and their daily lives. In '50 Years of Cool,' Taqeef and O General celebrate the past, present, and future of air conditioning, and the people who made it possible.
