The Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation is bringing back its Portrait of a Nation exhibition for a second time. Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives will run till April 16 at Manarat Al Saadiyat, coinciding with the Abu Dhabi Festival.
It traces the evolution of the UAE’s visual arts scene over the last half-century. The exhibition, curated by Maya El Khalil and Roxane Zand, includes works by artists, curators, and gallerists who were either born in the UAE or have made the country their home, and tells the story of the country’s cultural progress over the last five decades. More than 100 works of art are on display, including 15 special commissions.There are five main subjects that are investigated. Reclaiming/Reimaging Home examines the early days of artists’ homes, while Shifting Landscapes examines how artists deal with change and modernism. Reclaiming/Reimagining Language looks at mediums of communication, while Configurations of Togetherness looks at spaces that bring people together across cultural divides. Finally, Shifting Sociality examines society through consumerism, custom, and time and travel structures.
From the start, Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives has been a series of approaches – to people, histories, and stories, to name a few “El Khalil stated. “We propose ways of thinking about culture in terms of space rather than time, recognising that art is shaped by and through encounters that may go dormant and then resurface, that relationships grow in and with the places where they began, and that people assimilate the ideas of their world into their activities. What emerges is a picture of a diverse and polyphonic society created through friendship and exchange.”