Platform 421 announces the launch of the Spring 2023 program under the title “In the Love of the Sun and the Passion of the Moon.”
The seasonal programme, which runs until June 21, includes two major exhibitions and a diverse program of workshops, special events, collective reflection trips, cultural tours and excursions that offer intuitive and tangible ways to contribute to shared new beginnings.
The solo exhibition of the artist Nasser Nasrallah, entitled “The Poetics of Machines”, continues its performances during the period from May 18 to August 27, and deals with the relationship between man and machine from a mythical perspective through an intertwined assortment of drawings, paintings, written texts, textiles and installation works, so the artist accompanies us on a journey to worlds A robotic being living in an unknown space-time.
The detailed drawings and paintings depict a variety of unique robotic figures, displayed in groups resembling a close-knit community of machines. The exhibition constitutes a platform or stage equipped to display improvised narratives that embody the spirit of communication, dialogue and interaction between the society of machines, in an attempt to seek a possible life in what has no spirit, and vice versa, thus indicating the impact of machines on our daily lives and our ever-renewing relationship with these robotic beings.
Nasrallah’s perceptions of machines are not limited to their mechanical properties, but rather he works to impart a kind of personality, emotion, and even a sense of humor to them, as visitors, while touring the exhibition, pass in front of a fax machine that receives instant messages, and a sofa similar to the one in the artist’s studio, creating these elements A sense of familiarity and intimacy, as if welcoming visitors into the artist’s personal world.
Tawleef: The Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition 2023 presents the work of graduate students who completed the two-year Master of Fine Arts in Arts and Media program at New York University Abu Dhabi, and presents projects by Elizabeth Dorazio, Layan Al-Ghoussein, Majd Alloush, Mahra Al-Falahi, and Fabiola Chimenazzo.
The exhibition represents the second collaboration between NYU Abu Dhabi and Platform 421, and it presents the research and experimental works of the first group of Master of Fine Arts students that express issues and ideas in a variety of ways and provide valuable insights about our contemporary global situation.
This collaboration aims to support emerging contemporary practices by facilitating MFA students’ exploration of public spaces as spaces for community engagement and critical dialogue that allow them to work towards an expanded studio practice beyond purely academic or institutional environments.
The program includes two new exhibitions, and the seasonal program includes a range of workshops, dinner clubs, radio gatherings, cultural tours, outdoor night markets and more.
Living Archive, as part of the programme, explores the relationship between memory and life, asking the audience to leave a memory on a seed, embody it and write it down, and then let it pass on to its next life by planting it. When words are released into the earth, they are freed from memory and another life is born because of it. Like us, our memories too can change and grow into something new.
