Curatorial Concept & Museography

 

Gallery One was subdivided into 3 sections and an adjoining area for educational purposes
 
The first space: Receiving lounge and meeting area for organised discussions and presentations throughout the exhibition period.

The second space: Darkened to provide a dedicated and intimate auditoria presenting a rear projected film introducing the exhibition’s artists and providing scheduled presentations of various media works.

The main spine of the gallery: reconfigured in a magical and enigmatic "black box" environment that afforded visitors a feast of discovery. Works were displayed with low ambient lighting levels and more focused wash of lighting on the artworks ensuring a pure environment, rather than one of random distraction and visual disturbance.

To complete this interpretation, the end wall of the gallery was totally clad with black mirrors to provide a greater visual volume and an endlessly enhanced reflection of what is, and was perceived as, our "Emirati Expressions".

In order to enhance the exhibition, an adjacent educational study space was provided throughout the exhibition period. This was bolstered further by a creative and interwoven events program carefully tailored to create dialogue and discussion as well as highlight aspects of contemporary Emirati art scene.

Curator: Anne Baldassari, Director of the Musee National Picasso in Paris. She has been respectively curator of Musée national d’art moderne (National Museum of Modern Art), Centre Pompidou (1985 to 1991) and then of Musée National Picasso from 1992. She has organised a number of international exhibitions relating to modern and contemporary art. Curator of the Picasso Abu Dhabi exhibition and the current exhibition: Picasso and the Masters in Grand-Palais, Paris. Author of numerous works and exhibition catalogues

Museographer: Colin Morris,  from Colin Morris Associates Ltd - known as Morris Associates - established in 1987 by Colin Morris with the support of Lord Palumbo to provide expertise in museum and exhibition design. Since then, the company has expanded and now offers clients a complete design service. Museographer for Arts of Islam exhibition.