InVisible - AFAC's Public Art Commission in Dubai

AFAC’s Public Art Commission “InVisible” was unveiled on November 29th, 2014 in the Shindagha Heritage Village in Dubai featuring work by five visual artists from across the Middle East region. The work will be on display till the end of March 2015.

Curated by Amanda Abi Khalil, founder of Temporary Art Platform, InVisible questions the "meaning of public art in relation to the Gulf cities in general and to Dubai in particular and invites the public to "intriguing perspectives on the themes of monumentality, permanence, transience and urbanization".

We came up with the theme “InVisible” given the intangibility, and yet, the omnipresence, of culture. As we are constantly trying to make the case for the importance of arts and culture in today’s Arab society, we often find ourselves straining to articulate the impact of culture upon our lives.

It seems to be invisible, and yet, many of the important and critical aspects of society are omnipresent, everywhere, in our thoughts, imagery and references. We came to wonder, how is it that the visible cannot be seen? And how come we have to plead for the recognition of the invisible value of art? How can the visible and the invisible be represented together, at play with each other, in a public space that will allow for this tenuousness and ambiguity?

Inspired by the fleeting nature of culture materiality, which fades, disappears, loses its original meaning, or gets replaced by something new, we had to ask, how can public art offer a space for what is lost and what will remain? And how do these questions pertain to a city as vibrant as Dubai?

Here's a selection of images of the work by each artist that can be found in the Shindagha Heritage Village and after the images you can watch a video featuring the curator and the artists talking about their work.

Stand Here by Shaikha Al Mazrou (UAE)