GUGGENHEIM IS AT THE ART OF CREATIVE SCENE IN ABU DHABI
▶ Project director appointed as museum continues to take shape,
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi has named Stephanie Rosenthal as project director. The institution is scheduled to open on Saadiyat Island in 2025. Rosenthal has worked as the director of the Gropius Bau, a major cultural and tourist attraction in Berlin, since 2018. She was previously the chief curator at Hayward Gallery in London, and a curator at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.
At Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, she will work alongside Maisa Al Qassimi, acting project director of the museum, who has been on the project for many years through the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. Though first announced in 2008, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi announced further plans last year, confirming an opening date and hiring staff as it prepares for the project’s completion.
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection has also been in building since the beginning. It concentrates on work from the Mena region amd South Asia and now counts numerous key pieces from regional and UAE artists among its holdings.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will cover 30,000 square metres, with its gallery spaces spread across four levels linked by glass bridges and a central atrium at its core. The building will feature nine cone-shaped structures that will offer space for commissions and acquisitions.
Designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, who is also behind the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the UAE site is set to be the latest and largest outpost of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation’s list of international museums.
The museum aims to present global modern and contemporary art, said Mohamed Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism. “As we move forward with our plans, it is crucial to recognise the impact of this museum in realising our vision for the emirate’s culture and creative industries. Investing in these industries is pivotal to the economic development of our emirate, and to our contribution to the global art world,” he said.
“Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, along with other cultural institutions such as Louvre Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum, will undoubtedly contribute significantly to a thriving creative scene.”
Speaking to The National in September, Al Qassimi said Guggenheim Abu Dhabi was going to work with artists to create site-specific commissions for the museum over the next five years. “We are going to continue with programming, research, collection [building] and our major focus will be commissions for the building and that takes a lot of time,” she said.
“It’s really an exciting time that we’re in that phase. We’re in the phase of commissioning artists and definitely focusing on regional artists.”
More than a decade since its first acquisition, the museum has been building a transcultural collection, which today comprises more than 600 works by 295 artists from about 65 countries.
“In the past 10 years, we really have been doing a lot of research, heavy on seminars, we’ve been doing of lot of workshops with other academics in building this collection,” Al Qassimi said.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will undoubtedly contribute significantly to a thriving creative scene MOHAMED AL MUBARAK Department of Culture and Tourism