Useless Palace art intervention

Date
December, 2022
In the same way archaeology reconstructs the past by using fragments of material culture, artists take a close look at pieces of the present as if through a magnifying glass and deconstruct it down to significant elements. Various locations and spots of the “palace” full of artifacts (in fact, all sorts of garbage) were assigned to artists, who turned them into their own workshops for the duration of the intervention. The dialog between the audience and the environment, which is an important principle in street art, has been changed: in this uninhabited desert, the artists took the role of the audience upon themselves. The unfettered choice of instruments and themes provided a different vibe that is similar to street art, where any open space and even the whole world become the canvas.

During a trip to the Mleiha desert in Sharjah, ten artists chose different spots in the abandoned village and created a series of artworks: murals, installations, photos, and canvases, which were later presented at a pop-up exhibition with the same title in Dubai.

Street art is an act of communication with the site, often depicting how it could be transformed by artistic will. An abandoned village in the Mleiha desert was chosen for a large-scale artistic statement as a focal point of the country’s unique features. Lost in the sands and time, this abandoned village became a crossroads of the rich historical past of the Emirates and its vibrant modernity.

The participating artists are: 10.203 / Filippo Minelli / Lokher / Neda Salmanpour.
Location
Mleiha desert in Sharjah, Dubai, UAE
Сomposition of artists
Date: December, 2022

Location: Mleiha desert in Sharjah, Dubai, UAE

In the same way archaeology reconstructs the past by using fragments of material culture, artists take a close look at pieces of the present as if through a magnifying glass and deconstruct it down to significant elements. Various locations and spots of the “palace” full of artifacts (in fact, all sorts of garbage) were assigned to artists, who turned them into their own workshops for the duration of the intervention. The dialog between the audience and the environment, which is an important principle in street art, has been changed: in this uninhabited desert, the artists took the role of the audience upon themselves. The unfettered choice of instruments and themes provided a different vibe that is similar to street art, where any open space and even the whole world become the canvas.

During a trip to the Mleiha desert in Sharjah, ten artists chose different spots in the abandoned village and created a series of artworks: murals, installations, photos, and canvases, which were later presented at a pop-up exhibition with the same title in Dubai.

Street art is an act of communication with the site, often depicting how it could be transformed by artistic will. An abandoned village in the Mleiha desert was chosen for a large-scale artistic statement as a focal point of the country’s unique features. Lost in the sands and time, this abandoned village became a crossroads of the rich historical past of the Emirates and its vibrant modernity.

The participating artists are: 10.203 / Filippo Minelli / Lokher / Neda Salmanpour.