Project Space Art Jameel, Alserkal Ave, Dubai UAE. Research studio: Annotations ‘Interdisciplinary practices of the early 80s, UAE’. Community programme, starting with the Project Space, the curatorial partnership with Campus Art Dubai, and the forthcoming Jameel Arts Center which will be a collaborative space working with the V&A, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Prince's school of traditional arts. It will house a research library and focus on histories of the UAE and GCC.Why is this relevant to me? The GCC is underrepresented by artists actually living and working here, it is often represented by artists that have experienced it, or claim heritage but are not based here (from my observations) it's a multinational place, literally full of people that do not claim citizenship but do invest in the economy and the culture. A place that has a large influence on my personal narrative and that of my family and has now become part of our heritage (birthplace of daughter). To understand the context you are working within is to come someway towards understanding the context of your own work and its readers - from commercial perspective can also aid in gaining viewership. But to be honest I didn’t take in a large amount of the information, the activity of the space enriched me more.
The layout of the exhibition is explained in the beginning. It can be read succinctly panel by panel or you can choose to follow the connections demarcated by the different colour threads traversing the space. Literally mapping out a mind-map or spider-gram style research focus.Each panel holds a snippet of dialogue and the references that are made are highlighted around the panels. These include sounds clips, ipads for interactive research aspects, newspaper clippings, and various other texts and images.
You can see here the threads linking the panels and traversing the space up and over.It was the representation of the threads of connection that struck me the most. The aspect of physically seeing the references connected through a conversation, a path that can be followed, the manner in which citations in written works should work. The physicality of moving across and around the space, like a treasure hunt to work out which paths linked where. It's a simple concept I have not seen in person before. It reminded me of the crime scene style maps and charts on TV, with locations pins and mugshots. But again, these tend to be constrained to one surface so a drawn line would suffice. I’m inspired to create a space where I can web between works to show their development.The tables in the center of the room contain arabic texts and examples of posters, worksheets etc.The back of the space contains a reading room. Within this space can be found an OHP with a collection of acetates displaying visuals and maps. On the large projector are videos of dances, performance pieces and poetry readings from the 80’s. A seating area is located at the back with headphones. As you can see there is also a wealth of literature for you to browse.The table contains numerous books in various Arab dialects, as well as english. Where possible they have obtained the texts in two or three languages. It is a collections of exhibition catalogues, poetry, reviews, biography, fiction and monoliths of Arab literature, and artists. There are texts on this table I plan to go and spend some time with: But We Cannot See Them ( a show last year I was unable to attend), Victims of a Map (a bilingual anthology of Arab poetry), Sufism and Surrealism.
Around the edge of the room is a publication regarding the creative arts in the region that has been published for many years. It is unusual to have access to these kind of resources here as the library are not particularly well stocked. I would also like to go through the older editions of this publication to explore how architecture has developed and covered within it.
I’d like to add that Louvre Abu Dhabi opened on Sat 11 Nov 2017, first museum of its kind in the Arab region. Full of loans and pieces acquired of permanent collection. Commissions from Jenny Holzer & Giuseppe Penone. Have yet to visit but seems to be a largely westernised canon of art history, I question whether is holds an orientalist view or not, but will have to report back!
It feels like it's going crazy here at the moment, Art Abu Dhabi was last week, the opening of the Louvre, this week is Dubai Design Week and then it is the Dubai Film festival is December. It is difficult to distinguish which things are important to attend.