Art: Process & Practice - Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship. Abu Dhabi
Exhibition's main aim is to give a double insight on the works made by the artists involved in the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship.
On one hand the design tries to witness the “community” idea of the fellowship, trough specifically customised installations that group together the researches and the processes developed by the participants.
On the other hand the design gives to each artist an individual spot, where visitors are able to appreciate the outcomes of their ongoing personal researches.
The exhibition design uses the already existing environmental conditions: the introductory area and the darkrooms are hosted under the mezzanine, in an already existing shadowed space.
The contents of these two sectors are mainly made by videos, thus the design strategically emphasises the environmental conditions in order to create the ideal setup for the exhibition. The following room (the double height main room) is thought as a bright room, taking advantage of the light coming from the existing skylights. The space is equipped with a flexible series of “columns”, wrapped with a white and partially translucent fabric, hanging from the existing roof structure. At night an hidden lighting system transforms the intruded skylights in a sequence of lanterns. Each column has a customised foot, ready to host different kind of media: videos, sculptures and paintings.
The main room hosts 4 podiums and 8 holders, made with minimal and rough materials (steel structure, iron panels and stretched metal meshes).
The “community” idea behind the SEAF program is witnessed by a long communitarian table, that crosses the whole warehouse, reaching the outside space and becoming a sort of ideal billboard of the exhibition. The long table is a chain of show-cases, hosting sketches, drawings, photos, and documents as realised by the artists in their own ateliers.
The long table is designed in order to look as a stack of rough industrial wood, remembering the original function of the warehouse.
