Talks, workshops and interactive art events set for Manarat Al Saadiyat and Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Dubai: The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi does not open its doors until December 11, but the museum has already begun bringing its artists and ideas to the public.
A programme of talks, workshops and interactive art is taking place across Abu Dhabi this month at Manarat Al Saadiyat and Louvre Abu Dhabi. The programme features three artists connected to the museum and offers an early look at the conversations and ideas that will shape its opening.
1. Network of Answers
The first is an interactive artwork that visitors can take part in.
Agatha Gothe-Snape, an artist commissioned by Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, has created a phone-booth installation that invites members of the public to answer a series of questions. Their responses — from personal reflections and memories to individual perspectives — will form a collective archive of voices from Abu Dhabi.
The installation runs for a full month and does not require registration, allowing visitors to drop in whenever they are at Manarat Al Saadiyat.
When: September 25 to October 22
Where: Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Cultural District
Price: No registration required
2. Art Appears: Chant Avedissian
The second event is a three-day pop-up celebrating the work of one artist.
Chant Avedissian, the Egyptian-Armenian artist, is among the artists represented in the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection. His work reinterpreted Egypt’s cultural icons, histories and collective memory through a contemporary lens, and the pop-up celebrates his life, practice and legacy.
Across three afternoons, talks, workshops and interactive activities will explore the influences that shaped his visual language and the lasting impact of his work.
Places must be booked in advance through the museum’s registration page.
When: September 25 to 27, 2pm to 7pm
Where: Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Cultural District
Price: Registration required
3. Abstractions: A Journey Between Islamic and Contemporary Art
The month’s programme concludes with a conversation at Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Artist Rachid Koraïchi will join curator Abdelkader Damani to discuss abstraction as a shared artistic language across cultures and eras. The conversation will explore calligraphy, geometry and contemporary practice, as well as the links between Islamic artistic heritage and art being created today.
Koraïchi has a longstanding connection with the museum. The Jameel Prize-winning artist was among the first names announced for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, and his work Le Chemin des Roses, or Path of Roses, was featured in Seeing Through Light, the museum’s preview exhibition at Manarat Al Saadiyat in 2014 and 2015.
Calligraphy is central to his practice, drawing on Arabic script as well as Amazigh and Tuareg letters and mystical symbols.
Registration is required.
When: September 29, 6pm
Where: Louvre Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Cultural District
Price: Registration required
More to come
The September line-up is the beginning of a longer build-up to the museum’s opening. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi says it will announce more talks, activations and outreach events across the UAE in the months ahead, with updates available on guggenheimabudhabi.ae.
About the museum
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is a partnership between the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the museum is located in Saadiyat Cultural District, overlooking the sea.
The museum will focus on modern and contemporary art from the 1960s onwards, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image and new media. Rather than following a fixed chronological timeline, its galleries are organised around connected periods, places and themes, allowing visitors to choose their own route through the collection.
Inside, 28 galleries span 11,600 square metres, while a further 23,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition space extends around the building, including its cones and terraces.
