Abu Dhabi Art Goes Virtual This Week

Abu Dhabi Art goes virtual this week but that hasn’t stopped organisers from commissioning and showing four pieces of performance art — more unusual in these digital times. “Performance art is based on a live, interactive human experience of the body in space and in real time; it is a complete conundrum to translate that into something meaningful online,” says the specialist Rose Lejeune, one of six guest curators to this year’s fair. To this end, she organised for four new works to be filmed in 360 degrees and viewable through Google VR headsets. Peripheral screenings are also happening in real life at the Manarat Al Saadiyat arts centre, where the fair is normally held, all to “create a concentrated experience that the viewer is still in,” Lejeune says. There are resonances of isolation in all the works, she notes. For example, the young Abu Dhabi artist Maitha Abdalla (born 1992) has filmed her work in abandoned buildings in the Emirati desert, while the UK’s Alice Theobald (born 1985) created her performance piece in London’s currently locked-down Albany theatre. The section joins 68 galleries at the fair’s 12th edition at abudhabiart.ae (November 19-26).