With more than 300 delegates from the arts, public and private sectors, tourism experts, city planners and business developers from 28 countries in attendance to explore and discuss the many global influences shaping the creative infrastructure of nations and cities today, the second edition of Art for Tomorrow turned out to be an enlightening and inspiring affair.
While the focus of the event remained on the thought-stirring keynote speeches delivered by 45 internationally renowned figures and cultural pioneers, as well as the leading lights of the arts and culture community from across the Middle East and Qatar, The Art Lab on the 29th floor witnessed imagination taking flight.
The New York Times ‘Art for Tomorrow’ conference, organised by Qatar Museums (QM), dealt with an overall theme of ‘Technology, Creativity and the City’ and concluded yesterday at the W Doha Hotel & Residences.
The Art Lab, a pop-up art gallery on the entire 29th floor of the hotel featured works from Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark, Pia MYrvoLD, Androulla Michael, Google Cultural Institute, Laurence Winram, Omar Khalifa, Sheikh Hassan al-Thani and Ali Hossaini.
Here’s a recap of the highlights of The Art Lab, in their own words:
H2Orizons — A Soundwall collaboration
Prince Nikolaos has photographed his native landscape in Greece for over 10 years. He has a particular lens with which he continuously explores a scenery that has been portrayed in literature, art and music throughout the course of Western civilisation, given Greece’s millennia of history.
Two years ago, Prince Nikolaos began to print on aluminium using a new technological process that he believes vibrantly captures what he sees. For him, adding sound creates a sense of intimacy and allows people to best experience his art, says Aaron Cohen of Soundwall.
The H2Orizons triptych consists of three separate photographs: H2Orizon; H2Orizon Wet; and H2Orizon Droplets. These are printed on chromaluxe aluminium (fine art sublimation print on aluminium panel) and intended to be experienced as a multidimensional triptych.
The original H2Orizon (photograph) was taken in the middle of the day between the islands of Arki and Lipsi, in the south-eastern Aegean, Greece, on November 30, 2014 and using a Nikon D800 f11 1/8000s 70mm. Together with a team of 30 volunteers, Prince Nikolaos was on an expedition to support remote Greek islanders. During this trip across the Aegean Sea and following a short rainstorm, the sun shone through shedding a stunning light. The time was 1.37pm.
After the original image, H2Orizon, was printed on aluminium using the aforementioned technique, it was left outside to the natural elements where the work continued to evolve. Subsequently, H20rizon Droplets was shot while it was raining. H2Orizon Wet was captured while the original was still wet and as the sun came through.
Pia MYrvoLD
The Paris-based artist’s works ‘Wands’, first generation smart sculptures and ‘Stargate’, an immersive video sculpture is featured in The Art Lab.
In the process of exhibition making, using 3D animation forms gave ideas to build immersive environments such as the Stargate and Tunnel Vision.
Built from seven LED screens, one can enter and walk though this sculpture, observing the video playing with changing image groups, rhythms and colour hues.
First shown in an independent pavilion Pia MYrvoLD - FLOW works in motion, during the Venice Biennale 2011, Stargate was also part of the exhibition ART AVATAR in Centre Pompidou 2014.
My Diary #Selfie of a Nobody, (365 days), 2015
There is no ‘body’ on display in Androulla Michael’s self-portraits, nor is there a face; just the cosmetic remains of her day on a small circular cotton pad. Each evening when her makeup is removed she archives this relic in a large black folder. Personal thoughts and reflections of the day just past are often written on a label and attached adhered to the pocket in which the used swab is housed.
It is then catalogue alongside the many that came before it.
For over 10 years, Michael has kept an ongoing visual selfie diary of her life through the removal and recording of her daily cosmetics. This became a ritual, a physical and metaphorical cleansing that occurred as each day came to a close. The process reveals much more than the pigments upon the surface of the swab or photo paper they would eventually adorn.
Each swab is photographed in large format to create an oversized detailed print, evoking a transformative visual landscape of the face on whose contours the makeup once resided. Michael’s works invert every element of the selfie – giving the viewer a glimpse of herself that is more than skin deep.