Art centres have many roles, but to magpie’s way of thinking there are two that are key to their function – one conceptual, one practical. The first: to introduce its audience to art (and by that we mean ‘artistic and creative endeavour in general’) that we might not otherwise come across. The second: to make the maximum possible use of the physical facilities available (particularly the spaces and services it has to offer) and its reach (the mailing lists, marketing facilities and other ways of communicating with its – hopefully multiple – audiences) to further the first.
All of which is by way of a big thumbs-up for the Jameel’s hosting of a free-to-attend day-long symposium on 15 October under the title Material Matters: Experiments in the Built Environment. It’s not the kind of exhibition or performance that you would reasonably expect from this venue; but it is equally open, stimulating, and should expand horizons. The topic is building design, which might be regarded as drab, functional, utilitarian; but it’s design for the Anthropocene, for risky and uncertain futures, and that definitely demands a creative response.
So we get a series of presentations and panels by a genuinely impressive collection of local and international people, thinkers and doers, who are active in architecture, design and the visual arts.
Using both reports from the field (“site-specific research” as the blurb puts it) and what-it proposals (“speculative experimentation”), the aim is to explore how innovations in materials and design are shaping the future of our cities in a time of environmental flux; and perhaps predictably – not least because it’s obviously the right thing to do – there’s an emphasis on emphasising the local and getting back the vernacular; so “in light of a global imperative to reduce emission footprints and waste creation, architects, artists, and designers are increasingly looking to vernacular architecture and local landscapes as sources of knowledge and renewable materials … Their aim is to create context-responsive environments that work with local climates, landscapes and cultural habits”. Though not without the application of some serious cutting-edge technology.
The programme looks good, though oddly it doesn’t seem to have any involvement at all with the Sharjah Architecture Triennial (which has a very similar and certainly compatible theme). Here’s how the day looks:
| 2.00pm | Welcome by Nora Razian, Head of Exhibitions at Art Jameel (Why is the Jameel involved? See above, but also “Art Jameel’s programmes – across exhibitions, commissions, research, learning and community-building – are grounded in a dynamic understanding of the arts as fundamental to life and accessible to all”). |
| 2.05pm | Opening remarks by representatives of EUNIC and the EU’s Delegation to the UAE (It’s a Delegation because it’s not allowed to be called an Embassy). EUNIC commissioned the symposium; it’s the European Union National Institutes for Culture, a network of EU organisations which advocates for a prominent role of culture in international relations. It draws on the broad experience of its members to share knowledge and build capacity among its members and partners in more than 100 countries worldwide. |
| 2.15pm | Bioregional Design & Architecture: Lot 8, Building for Uncertainties Daniel Bell, Atelier LUMA Daniel Bell is an architect and researcher at Atelier LUMA, a multidisciplinary design and research lab located in Arles that develops local solutions for ecological, economic, and social transition. Lot 8 is a large-scale demonstrator project, a workshop building being redesigned and renovated as a practical exercise using local resources, local know-how, and materials that come almost exclusively from local by-products or waste resources. |
| 2.45pm | Daniel Bell in conversation with Wael Al Awar Wael Al Awar is one of the co-founders of waiwai design (formerly ibda design); his multi-disciplinary approach to design and architecture seeks to go beyond man-made fabrication, instead remaining open to adaptation and appropriation. He was the curator for the National Pavilion of the UAE at the 2021 Biennale Architettura di Venezia (and winner of the Golden Lion Award) with Wetland, an experimental approach to utilising natural materials from salt flats for construction. The symposium was conceptualised by waiwai. |
| 3.00pm | Floating University: Notes from the Field Axel Timm, raumlaborberlin Axel Timm is an architect, artist and activist who has been part of raumlaborberlin since 2005. raumlaborberlin is a collective of nine architects who work “at the intersection of architecture, city planning, art and urban intervention … We address in our work city and urban renewal as a process. We are attracted to difficult urban locations … These places are our experimentation sites. They offer untapped potential which we try to activate. This opens new perspectives for alternative usage patterns, collective ideals, urban diversity and difference …” The Floating University (above) was a six-month project in 2018 where a rainwater retention basin at the former Tempelhof airport became a meeting place of transdisciplinary exchange – seminar groups, workshops, discussions, presentations, lectures: “a laboratory and a platform for new forms of urban practice … an offshore campus for cities in transformation”. |
| 3.30pm | Axel Timm in conversation with Nora Razian |
| 3.45pm | Palace of the Republic: Surveying Urban Citadels Jasmin Werner Werner is a German-Filipino artist whose sculptures explore architectures of power and objects of status, critiques of a perception of economical, social and spiritual development that are based on constant growth, production (and productivity), and consumption. In particular, she is attentive to the ways our built environment reflects the attitudes, prejudices, and desires of the society in which it is produced. Her title refers to her scultpure series Schloss der Republik Burj Khalifa OFW; Berlin’s Palace of the Republic, built to house the parliament of the former GDR, was demolished in 2006 and by ironic coincidence some of the iron from its structure – an undeniable symbol of East Germany’s socialist past – was recycled in the construction of the Burj Khalifa, which is about as far from socialism as a building can get. |
| 4.15pm | Jasmin Werner in conversation with Shama Nair, Material Matters coordinator |
| 4.30pm | Break |
| 5.00pm | Anecdotes from Other Environmentalisms Faysal Tabbarah Faysal Tabbarah is an Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Architecture at the College of Architecture, Art and Design at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), and co-founder of the experimental architecture and design studio, Architecture + Other Things (A+OT). He was recently named as curator of the National Pavilion UAE for the 2023 Biennale Architettura. His work focuses on how people bring their natural surroundings to bear on how they understand and shape their world, to develop alternative building practices that are rooted in their surrounding material and cultural environments. |
| 5.30pm | Negotiating Landscapes: Site-Specificity and Design Studio Wild Studio Wild is the collective design practice of Tymon Hogenelst and Jesse van der Ploeg. Founded in 2018, their practice “operates in areas of tension between politics, architecture, and nature”, with a focus on the relation between landscape and architecture. This method of working in a very intimate way, negotiating with the landscape, results in an architecture consciously situated in time and place. |
| 6.00pm | The Anthropocene Research Kitchen Katia Arfara and Dale Hudson The NYUAD Anthropocene Research Kitchen is an an exploratory initiative for creative practice and research, of the Arts and Humanities division at NYU Abu Dhabi, one of four such cross-displinary thematic hubs. Its purpose: “to engage directly with the Anthropocene concept’s transformative power, while remaining mindful of the term’s semantic and conceptual limitations”… Katia Arfara is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at NYUAD; she has initiated and curated numerous international festivals at the intersection of art, science and civic practice. Dale Hudson is an associate professor at NYUAD whose current research and teaching focus on film and visual media in relation to environmentalism and North Africa, South Asia and Southwest Asia. |
| 6.15pm | Panel and Q&A: Faysal Tabbarah, Studio Wild, Katia Arfara, Dale Hudson |
| 7.00pm | End |
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