{"id":46192,"date":"2023-03-29T20:01:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T16:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=46192"},"modified":"2024-11-13T18:24:33","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T14:24:33","slug":"public-art-for-all-abu-dhabis-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/public-art-for-all-abu-dhabis-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Art for all: Abu Dhabi’s plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DCT Abu Dhabi has announced the launch of a major public art imitative for Abu Dhabi, supported by a substantial investment \u2013 more than $35 million a year. The aim of Public Art Abu Dhabi: \u201cto support the emirate\u2019s wider creative industries through public art\u201d and to \u201cfurther the emirate\u2019s long legacy of investing in culture and embedding it in the fabric of society\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That level of commitment buys a programme of installations and commissions, with a Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial scheduled for November 2024 as the centrepiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative has been launched with WAVE, a giant public digital media artwork by the South Korean digital media design company d\u2019strict. WAVE was first shown in 2020 on a massive 80x23m outdoor electronic display that wraps round one of the buildings in Korea\u2019s version of Times Square, the Gangnam-Gu area of Seoul. There mega-size LED screens on the walls of the large buildings compete for your attention, and WAVE certainly delivered on that; it claimed to be the world\u2019s largest anamorphic illusion (anamorphic meaning a distorted image that recognisable only when viewed from a specific vantage point \u2013 it\u2019s a technique that has been used in art and design for centuries, with examples dating back to the Renaissance). In the case of WAVE, it\u2019s obviously a 2D projection \u2013 but it\u2019s dramatically 3D in its impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically WAVE is an actual wave is projected on the huge screens<\/a>, apparently crashing into the glass and giving the illusion of a glass tank containing perpetually moving water. It seemed the waves could break the glass and flood the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Abu Dhabi installation (above), the screens have been mounted in a rectangle on top of the Cultural Foundation. It\u2019s a mesmerising experience and well worth seeing, especially after nightfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other projects will include Manar Abu Dhabi, a series of light art installations and sculptures sited on islands of Abu Dhabi. It sounds like a kind of light festival and apparently it will be viewable by boat as \u201ca surreal and magical outlook on the surrounding landscapes\u201d. There\u2019s no word on who\u2019s involved or when this will be opening (we did ask).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there will also be a series of direct commissions at various of the emirate’s landmarks, including tunnels, roundabouts, bridges, and parks. Again, we couldn\u2019t get any details, but we\u2019re assured these will be \u201csignificant\u201d and some will be permanent; the brief is to take inspiration from the UAE capital\u2019s distinctive traits and highlight its modern heritage and natural landscapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public art has long been a part of Abu Dhabi \u2013 remember the giant concrete cannon and coffeepot at Al Ittihad Square? \u2013 and Public Art Abu Dhabi will fit into DCT Abu Dhabi\u2019s Modern Heritage Conservation Initiative, which aims to maintain sites that relate to the country\u2019s recent past. The new public art will \u201ccontribute toward the conservation of significant architectural and urban spaces, enhancing their historical, aesthetic, social, scientific, and technological value to the community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact the community angle is key to Public Art Abu Dhabi \u2013 indeed, Reem Fadda, director of the Cultural Foundation and co-curator of Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, called it the cornerstone of the exercise. \u201cThrough both the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial and Manar Abu Dhabi we will insist that works commissioned for these major programmes will transform places and resonate with the people in a meaningful way\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial will be curated by Fadda with the independent curator Galit Eilat (right). These two know each other well, having worked together between 2006 and 2009 on the award-winning \u2018Liminal Spaces<\/a>\u2019 project in Palestine, Israel and Germany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eilat promised that \u201cthe Biennial will commission and exhibit a vibrant, inclusive and varied selection of artists rooted in the UAE and the region, while also keeping with its mandate on including artists from all over the world\u201d. Beyond that there’s no information (yes, we tried to find out more) but the Biennial is clearly going to be a major centrepiece of the whole exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The level of commitment in terms of finance and personnel in Abu Dhabi makes for an interesting comparison with the approach being taken in Dubai. There Dubai Culture has committed to half a dozen substantial installations around the city, and has done so by effectively outsourced the selection and curating to local arts institutions \u2013 the Jameel, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Art Dubai, Tashkeel, and Akaas Visual Arts. So far the process seems to be open-call competitions (we\u2019re on the third right now) with a winner\u2019s prize of around AED 35,000 plus the construction and installation costs. So it\u2019s all on a completely different scale to Abu Dhabi\u2019s programme, which in fact looks more like the Saudi approach \u2013 large scale, heavy on impact, dirigiste rather than involving. Reem Fadda has been quoted as saying \u201cwe are absolutely building on the regional offering, looking at what Sharjah has been doing or Saudi Arabian cities such as Riyadh. We’re trying to complement these.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, who chairs DCT Abu Dhabi, said Public Art Abu Dhabi was all part of positioning Abu Dhabi as \u201ca global centre for culture\u201d and promised that the \u201cambitious\u201d initiatives will \u201cfoster creativity, placemaking and cultural infrastructure, while ensuring that public art is integral to our emirate\u2019s cultural identity, liveability, and attractiveness to visitors\u201d. It sounds like a soft-power pitch for regional leadership in the arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently DCT Abu Dhabi has just completed what it terms \u201ca holistic infrastructural transformation of the Culture Sector on all fronts\u201d. Rita Aoun, DCT Abu Dhabi\u2019s Executive Director for the Culture Sector, said: \u201cwe are ready for further announcements of new major projects that will bring art to our public in the public and will first and foremost resonate deeply and significantly with our community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saood Abdulaziz Al Hosani, Undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi, also elected to major on the community benefit, commenting on \u201ca unique opportunity to transform Abu Dhabi\u2019s physical and civic spaces, making the UAE capital a more liveable, creative and joyful place\u201d. He also came up with the line that \u201cpublic art is where creativity and infrastructure meet\u201d, which is indeed a neat summary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks as though Public Art Abu Dhabi will be the umbrella platform for Abu Dhabi\u2019s various public-access programmes \u2013 like the Durub Al Tawaya performances and the Rimini Protocol visits. There will also be collaboration with other ministerial and artistic institutions, such that exercises like school visits and tours for students to cultural sites and events will also come under the Public Art label. So will the cultural heritage work; DCT Abu Dhabi has been mapping modern heritage elements of the city, and that too will become part of the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DCT Abu Dhabi has announced the launch of a major public art imitative for Abu Dhabi, supported by a substantial investment \u2013 more than $35 million a year. The aim of Public Art Abu Dhabi: \u201cto support the emirate\u2019s wider [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[234],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-public-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}