Within the Visual Arts in Public Programme

4 sculptures by Emirati artists at the Expo 2020 site

4 Emirati artists of different generations put the final touches on their permanent artworks in the public spaces of the site.

From the source

As the countdown to the opening of Expo 2020 begins in October, when the world gathers in the UAE, four Emirati artists of different generations are putting the final touches on their permanent artworks in the public spaces of the site.

Within the framework of the Visual Arts Program in Public Spaces within “Expo 2020 Dubai”, the artists: Abdullah Al Saadi, Sheikha Al Mazrou, Afra Al Dhaheri and Asmaa Balhamer, along with their colleagues from the region and the world, are participating in creating an unprecedented space that celebrates creativity and contemporary art throughout the six months of the events The global event, and continues to be a lasting visual and aesthetic legacy that overlaps and harmonizes with the urban fabric of this futuristic part of Dubai.

The coordinator of the Visual Arts Program in Public Spaces, Tariq Aboul Fotouh, worked on the design of the program, in line with the "Expo 2020" vision of connecting minds, creating the future and the ambitious plan on which the Expo 2020 Dubai site was designed.

It is based on an urban plan designed to welcome the world during the upcoming international event, and to be a future urban extension for the city of Dubai after the curtain falls on its activities and turn into “District 2020, the smart, human-centered city of the future, which will develop at the site of Expo 2020 Dubai.”

The artist, Abdullah Al-Saadi, who resides in Khorfakkan, is participating in a permanent sculpture intertwined with a public place designated for audience seating, entitled “Trahal”.

It is the result of the artist's immersion in the unique nature of the Wadi Al-Tayba region in the Emirate of Fujairah.

The work takes the form of figurative paintings as if they were maps drawn by the artist over huge stones from the Wadi al-Taiba region, and it represents an invitation to discover a kind of poetic visual language.

The artist, Sheikha Al Mazrou, who was born in Sharjah and currently resides in Dubai, is also participating in a work called “Al Qaeda”, which carries her very special aesthetic language, which reflects her deep sense and intuitive understanding of materials and their physical properties.

The work, in terms of form and concept, refers to the base on which the statues stand.

Under the supervision of the co-curators: Munira Al-Sayegh and Muhammad Al-Alama, artists Afraa Al Dhaheri and Asmaa Balhamer participate in a special part of the program, which explores collective memory and its relationship to local nature and architectural vocabulary.

The huge marble sculpture by artist Afra Al Dhaheri, who lives and works in Abu Dhabi, bears the name: “Do we play a house?”, and it is inspired by the traditional hospice, or traditional floor pillows in the Emirates, to evoke moments of collective memory of children’s improvised games when they use these pillows to make a house or fort .

And “Contrast of the Familiar” is the name of the work of the artist Asmaa Balhamer, who lives and works in Dubai, and it is a sculpture that integrates formations from nature and the urban environment, as if it is a recording of the visual transition when moving between mountain and cityscapes, where the change appears from the natural terrain to the city and the diverse architecture and buildings. Towering is a journey through shifts in size and in time.

• An unprecedented space that celebrates contemporary creativity throughout the six months of the global event.

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