1980-TODAY: Exhibitions in the UAE
NATIONAL PAVILION UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Venice, 14. Biennal of Art, 2015
The new UAE pavilion for the 2015 Biennale of Art in Venice is a retrospective on contemporary art exhibitions in the Emirates during the last 30 years.
The basic idea is to provide a flexible installation, able to host the heterogeneous artworks of that period. The design tries to accommodate in 250sqm a range of about 120 works of art, created in different times and on different media: paintings, sculptures, photographs and notebooks, coming from more than 30 artists of the Emirates. The selected artworks (mainly paintings) are quite a significant amount, considering the available space - it is not possible to use any of the existing vertical surfaces -. For this reason, the design involves the creation of a series of vertical elements, each one designed to fit artworks' sizes. Each holder is mobile, so that the curatorial team can calibrate artworks' placement in an appropriate way.
The pavilion is made by three main components:
THE FLOATING FLOOR
A floating floor is set up in the upper part of the pavilion, in order to achieve a level of +16cm. The floor houses all the low wiring system. Three "holes" in the floor identify three areas in which are hosted grouped artworks.
THE HARDWARE
Some specific furnishings are not moveable: the reception, the big podium facing the entrance, the back wall - which houses a storage, a complementary exhibition space and the back entrance -.
THE SOFTWARE
A series of moveable walls (17 units), equipped with small podiums at their base, is designed to accommodate the selected artworks. Each wall is placed on top of the floating floor, and can be configured in a flexible way - together with the podiums - in order to achieve the ideal configuration and build up a dialogue between the artworks