For now the Abu Dhabi version exists only in an artist’s image and as a model at the exhibition in Manarat Al Saadiyat.
But putting up a building from the architect’s design is the easy part. Deciding what goes into the building and how the contents will reflect the region and the UAE has been occupying experts at the Guggenheim since the initial agreement was signed in 2006 between the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation and the Government of Abu Dhabi.
Focus Groups of International Experts
Last month international art scholars came to Abu Dhabi for an intense two days of focus groups to work toward some conclusions about how the museum should be defined and how the collections might fit into the history of art in the world and in the region.
On the third day some of the scholars met the public in a program billed as “The first in a series of talks and panel discussions exploring the vision and future programs of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.” It took place at Manarat Al Saadiyat which currently stands in for all the future museums of the future Cultural District including the Louvre, Sheikh Zayed, and Maritime as well as the Guggenheim.
Four Parts of Future Museum
Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, said that the Abu Dhabi collection is planned in four parts: acquisitions by the Abu Dhabi government for the permanent collection; long term loans from the Guggenheim Foundation from New York, Bilbao, Venice, or others in its family of museums; the Middle East collection including art by Emiratis; and works commissioned specially for the unique spaces of the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim.
During the panel discussion, questions arose about what constitutes the Middle East and when contemporary art begins. Spector said that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi would focus on the period from 1960, but Salwa Mikdadi, Head of Arts and Culture Program at the Emirates Foundation, said the entire 20th century should be represented to “provide a frame of reference for young people.”
Art Helps Develop Civil Society
In general, Mikdata said, “the growth of civil society and the response in the arts is important in how we select works for the permanent collection” and emphasized that “serious research” is needed because there are “no degrees in Islamic art history” in the region.
Dr. Borys Groys who teaches aesthetics and art history in Karlsruhe, Germany, as well as at New York University said that today “all cultures live in the same time” or what he called “transnational time,” meaning that “past and future co-exist in the same moment.” He noted the contradiction between what a museum does – which is to preserve and also to show. As a result, Groys explained, the museum “should be about process.”
Role of Emiratis and Arabs
During the Q & A, several people in the audience asked about the role that Emirati art would play in the Guggenheim. They were told that the New York Guggenheim is planning an exhibition of Emirati art. They also learned that there won’t be “a section called Emirati art” in Abu Dhabi; works by Emiratis will be catalogued by themes or influences, not by nationality.
H.R.H. Princess Wijdan Al-Hashemi of Jordan spoke about the promise and the problems ahead. “I see a great future provided that the Guggenheim gets out of its shell and interacts with Arab artists rather than just looks at its collection as something to join the past and the present.”
