WHAT'S ON - Warehouse 421
Art Salon Team- Apr 28
- 3 min read
Abdullah Al Saadi
Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia
30 JAN - 4 MAY 2025
Abdullah Al Saadi: Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia, curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh features ten works by Abdullah Al Saadi and offers a reflection on his decades-long artistic practice. Expanding on the work initially presented in the UAE National Pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia in 2024, the exhibition is designed to show the prolific artist’s work in the UAE, giving the local arts community and the wider audiences across the country the opportunity to encounter Al Saadi’s practice more intimately.
In his practice, Al Saadi embodies a wanderer, chronicler, cartographer, poet, decipherer, memory carrier, and storyteller. This exhibition includes works that were produced on his journeys in the wilderness, and invites viewers to explore his creative process in relation to the practices of Arab poets from centuries ago.
During his journeys that last several days, Al Saadi begins drawing, painting, or writing, on canvas or paper, once he feels immersed in nature. Classical Arab poets described this practice of wandering and immersion as the process leading up to the composition of their poems. He travels alone, with only the company of a book, music, domestic animals, or a means of transportation. The presence of these travel companions significantly impacts his artworks, as they join him in exploring the land and humankind’s place in it.
The presence of nature in Al Saadi’s work is not intended for visual documentation, and his map-like drawings and paintings do not include all the spatial components of the landscapes he depicts, the mountains, deserts and valleys. He creates a subjective, imagined world in the folds of nature, which does not exclude elements of contemporary life. He chooses the sites to retain, and others to forget, in a creative process that is simultaneously intellectual and aesthetic, sensorial and affective. Sites of memory are essentially paired with sites of amnesia, both necessary to the formation process of individual and collective memory, representing parallel histories alongside officially documented ones. For over forty years, Al Saadi has been creating singularly subjective narratives, and through a process of assiduous archiving, he keeps his maps, stones, scrolls, and drawings in tin boxes of various shapes and sizes. They are all stored in big metal chests like treasure boxes, numbered, dated, and coded, as if he is creating and preserving a collective memory for the future.
The exhibition is an invitation to enter Abdullah Al Saadi’s singular world and to wander among its unique and rich features. This is a journey where visitors move along a path, discovering both the displayed artworks and hidden art pieces in metal chests. In a re-enactment of the artist’s ritual with visitors in his studio, the concealed works are revealed by performers, who are constantly present in the space. They interact with visitors, telling them stories and giving them clues about the artist’s journeys and the collective memory that Al Saadi summons into the present, and meticulously preserves for the future.
About Warehouse 421
421 Arts Campus is an independent platform dedicated to emerging artists and creative practitioners in the UAE and across the region. A site for research, learning and experimentation, 421 provides a nurturing environment for emergent creative practices and those who want to harness the arts as an agent for social inquiry and transformation. 421 encourages practitioners to explore the potential of public spaces as a means for progress and community engagement through a wide-ranging programmatic model that facilitates artistic exchange and critical dialogue.
Located in Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed, 421 presents a year-round program of exhibitions, talks, workshops, special events and educational initiatives that offer accessible learning opportunities to the wider community and the general public. Many of the 421 programs are organized in collaboration with local, regional and international partners, engaging children, students, educators, and creative professionals in a participatory approach to artistic and creative practice. These programs are designed to develop artistic and creative skills, supporting the growth of the UAE’s creative ecosystem.
(Source: https://www.421.online/about/)
Opening Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday, 10 am - 8 pm
Monday's Closed
Address: Zayed Port - Mina Zayed - Abu Dhabi
