Guy Mannes-Abbott, GulfLabor and the
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Boycott
Public Talk /
Artspace, Sydney
Wednesday 5 March, 6.30-7:30pm
GulfLabor:
http://gulflabor.org/
Artspace: http://artspace.org.au/
Guy Mannes-Abbott: http://www.g-m-a.net/
In recent times we have witnessed how complicated and fraught the relationship between contemporary art and humanitarian issues can be. Indeed, we have seen how these platforms can become entangled in a web that creates uncertainty in achieving a shared objective or clarity of purpose: namely, equitable human rights. Artspace is pleased to announce a public talk with Guy Mannes-Abbott, a member of the GulfLabor
Planning Committee. This is a timely opportunity and expanded lens through which to engage in conversation around the development of effective strategies surrounding global humanitarian injustice and the visual arts.
In
2011 a group of internationally influential artists and writers known as the GulfLabor
Coalition moved to boycott the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, seeking improvements in the working and living conditions of the migrant workers who are building the Guggenheim on
Saadiyat Island, where a number of other cultural institutions are being constructed, including:
New York University campus,
Louvre AD, and the
Zayed National Museum (advised by the
British Museum).
GulfLabor's current campaign
52 Weeks of
... has invited artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant labourers building cultural institutions in
Abu Dhabi.
Guy will present some of his research on the complex history of institutional developments within the region, foregrounding the collaborative strategies that GulfLabor have deployed over several years in an aim to influence policy and conditions surrounding workers' rights and highlight the overall mistreatment of manual labourers.
Guy Mannes-Abbott is a writer, essayist and critic who lives and works in
London, UK. He is the author of 'In
Ramallah,
Running' (
2012,
Blackdog Publishing), the longest and latest in a singular series of texts: poems, stories and aphorisms called e.things, which have been exhibited, published and performed alongside the work of leading
British and international artists.
Recently he has collaborated with Bombay-based
CAMP on a film for
Folkestone Triennial (2011), contributed a short story for
Drone Fiction (
Global Art Forum 7,
Dubai 2013) and exhibited a wall text for '
Moderation[s]' at
Witte de With,
Rotterdam (2013).
Images: Guy Mannes-Abbott,
Hans Haacke and
Samer Muscati
Video:
Nick Garner / http://www.dasplatforms.com
Video ©
Rococo Productions 2014.
- published: 07 Mar 2014
- views: 332