The Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi announces upcoming public programming as part of Permanent Temporariness: Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 19 April 2018:  The Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi is pleased to announce a series of upcoming events for all ages as part of the public program of its current exhibition, Permanent Temporariness.

Taking place throughout the duration of the exhibition, all events are free and open to the public.

Details and registration will be on the Art Gallery website www.nyuad-artgallery.org. 

•     Talk and book discussion with IPAF shortlisted author Walid Shurafa

The Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi invites you to a talk and book discussion with IPAF shortlisted author Walid Shurafa.

Shurafa will be discussing his novel Heir of the Gravestones with Alsaad Almenhaly, editor-in-chief of National Geographic Arabic and journalist at Al-Ittihad Newspaper. 

Heir of the Gravestones is a novel about war and exile.

It tells the story of Al-Wahid, a Palestinian who remembers his childhood during the June 1967 war, and how his father and grandfather were forcibly evicted from their village ‘Ain Hawd’, which the Israelis turned into an artists’ village and renamed ‘Ain Hood’. Suleiman, the grandfather, builds a new house in Nablus which resembles the old one.

When he dies, Al-Wahid returns from his university studies abroad and tries to visit the house in the village.

However, the artist living there refuses him entry.

He sits in a nearby cafe, and then discovers the old sign belonging to his grandfather's house in the toilet.

When he removes it, he gets into a fight with the police and accidently kills one of them…

When: Monday 23 April, 6:30 pm
Where: NYUAD Art Gallery

•     Artist Talk with Gardens Speak's Tania El Khoury 

This talk discusses the creative process behind Gardens Speak (ASI-FAMA Incorporated, 2016) and its relevance to the large themes within Permanent Temporariness, artistic practice that blurs the lines between performance and visual arts, politics and personal, and issues that are current and timeless.

Tania El Khoury will be in conversation with Permanent Temporariness co-curator Salwa Mikdadi.

This event is hosted by the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute and NYUAD Arts Center, in collaboration with NYUAD Art Gallery.

When: Saturday 28 April, 6:30 pm
Where: NYUAD Art Gallery

•     Film Screening: A World Not Ours by Mahdi Fleifel

Presented in collaboration with Reel Palestine

A World Not Ours is a passionate, bittersweet account of one family's multi-generational experience living as permanent refugees.

Now a Danish resident, director Mahdi Fleifel grew up in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, established in 1948 as a temporary refuge for exiled Palestinians.

Today, the camp houses 70,000 people and is the hometown of generations of Palestinians.

The filmmaker's childhood memories are surprisingly warm and humorous, a testament to the resilience of the community.

Yet his yearly visits reveal the increasing desperation of family and friends who remain trapped in psychological as well as political limbo.        

 When: Wednesday 9 May, 7:30pm
 Where: NYUAD Arts Center, Room C3- B101

To rsvp to the above events, please visit http://www.nyuad-artgallery.org/. Details of The Art Gallery’s Ramadan programming will be announced soon.

Permanent Temporariness, which runs until June 9, is the first institutional retrospective of the renowned, award-winning artists and architects, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti.

Featuring works across a variety of mediums, the exhibition explores how human experiences and identities are shaped in the modern flux of “permanence” or “impermanence.”

The exhibition features seven installations, three of which are beyond the gallery walls.

It reactivates five of the artists’ signature installations to date, including The Concrete Tent, Common Assembly, Ramallah Syndrome, The Book of Exile, and The Tree School.

Two of the artworks - Living Room and Refugee Heritage - were developed specifically for this show, from the artists’ current research projects. 
Permanent Temporariness is guest-curated by NYUAD faculty Salwa Mikdadi, who is among the foremost historians of modern art from the Arab world.

It is co-curated by Bana Kattan, NYUAD Art Gallery Curator, who recently co-curated the exhibition Invisible Threads: Technology and its Discontents (NYUAD) and But We Cannot See Them: Tracing a UAE Art Community 1988-2008 (NYUAD).  

PERMANENT TEMPORARINESS
Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti
NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery 
February 24 – June 9, 2018
Visitor hours: Monday – Saturday, 12 pm – 8 pm (closed Sundays)
Admission: The NYUAD Art Gallery is free and open to the public