Last year, we interviewed the founder of Xische, Danish Farhan, regarding digital media trends in the Middle East. This latest initiative by the firm was a direct response to S*uce Projects, a creative group whose mandate is to encourage people to think about “the kind of love that transcends flowers, diamonds, chocolates and candy.” This year, S*uce decided to harness Dubai’s creative energy to promote its public spaces by populating them benches that double as public art pieces. Melinda Metri, one of the creative minds at S*uce, sourced local artists and gave them each a bench to decorate/repurpose as they pleased.

Interestingly, Xische created a bench with the hashtag #xbench on it and asked their Facebook fans and Twitter followers to complete the sentence “If I were a bench…” which created significant social media buzz for Art Dubai.

Other noteworthy contributors include: Nadine Kanso, Khalid Shafar, Maria Dowlatshahi, Hind Mezaina, Zayan Ghandour, Reema Al-Banna, Fathima Mohiuddin, Mohammed Hindash, Mobius-Studio, Hachem Ghandour, and Michelle Baker. Click their names to see the work.

[via @Xische]