Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Functionality, Space, and Public Art

This conversation extends from artist Christopher Joshua Benton’s Where Lies My Carpet Is Thy Home (2024), a vibrant, collaboratively made astroturf carpet developed with merchants from Abu Dhabi’s carpet souq and inspired by their stories and lives. The audience can learn how the work was made and how it reflects a carpet’s life cycle – from collecting wool to dyeing fibres to selling it in the souq.

Speakers:

Christopher Joshua Benton
Deepak Unnikrishnan, NYUAD Associate Arts Professor of Literature and Creative Writing
Katia Arfara, NYUAD Assistant Professor of Theatre, Performance Studies
Moderator Carmen Salah Hassan

This Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial event will be at the Carpet Souq hub. The conversation will be followed by performances:

6.45pm Poetry reading by Banin Amini (Afghanistan)
6.55pm Poetry reading by Daniel Tajwer (Pakistan)
7.15 – 8.15pm Mohammad Paktiawal and Bakhti Jan Tappay (Afghan folk band)