Abu Dhabi (dis)connected Exhibition
Abu Dhabi (dis)connected is finally home!
February 8th 2025 was yet another milestone for our #abudhabidisconnected project: It was the exhibition opening, at the MamarLab, in Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi.
The Exhibition is the latest output of a joined research project between the LSE Middle East Centre and Abu Dhabi University, that kicked off 3 years ago with the constant support from the Emirates Foundation, and that has already presented and published their work on several fora and reports. Prior to this one, we had the honor and pleasure of exhibiting our work at the LSE Old Atrium in London UK, last March.
The executive report of the project can be found and downloaded here: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/121109/?_gl=1*inckwz*_ga*MTMwNzMyMDYzOC4xNjM2OTY3MTY0*_ga_LWTEVFESYX*MTcwMzA0OTk2OC4yMS4wLjE3MDMwNDk5NjguNjAuMC4w
The Research Team (Apostolos Kyriazis, Alexandra Gomes, Kendall Livingston and of course Clémence Montagne and Peter Schwinger) would like to thank all that kindly attended our opening event and walked through the exhibition spaces (especially all of my former and current Architecture students, it was so nice to see you). Some of you travelled long distances to join us, we are humbled.
Thanks to Nour Al Ali - one of our research assistants and now a great ADU alumnus, and Mr. Bassam Mura - our ADU Marketing, Enrollment and Registry Director - for being there as well.
Also big thanks to the three talented artists that enriched our work with their beautiful pieces: Sara Dhafer, Eman Al Hashemi and Khaled Esguerra.
Lastly, a major thanks to our hosts and curators Salem AlSuwaidi and Rashed Almulla.
On Day 2, it was an honor to host - together with Alexandra Gomes and Salem AlSuwaidi - a closed roundtable with a great group of invitees from local authorities and the academy.
We would honestly like to thank Mark Kyffin (head of Architecture at the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi), Adina Hempel , Lina Ahmad , Marco Sosa and Roberto Fabbri (Zayed University) and Jason Carlow (head of the Department of Architecture at American University of Sharjah), for spending some valuable Sunday morning hours with us.
Our topic was the very title of our exhibition: Abu Dhabi (dis)connected.
Whilst there will be a small blog later on the same, I can say that we were honored by their presence and that together we verified our common pursuit for more resilient and socially inclusive cities.
The exhibition will be on for 2 months.
Several parallel events, including a photowalk on Abu Dhabi’s suburbs are also projected to take place.
