Before Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens, 3 events to preview its art this September

Dubai: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi doesn't open its doors until 11 December, but the museum has started bringing its artists and ideas to the public early.

A programme of talks, workshops and interactive art is running across Abu Dhabi this month, at Manarat Al Saadiyat and Louvre Abu Dhabi. It features three artists connected to the museum, and offers a first look at the conversations that will shape it.

The first is an artwork visitors can take part in.

Agatha Gothe-Snape, an artist commissioned by Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, has created a phone booth installation that asks members of the public a series of questions. The responses, from personal reflections to memories and perspectives, will build a collective archive of voices from Abu Dhabi.

It runs for a full month, and no registration is needed, so visitors can drop in whenever they're at Manarat Al Saadiyat.

Where: Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Cultural District

The second event is a three-day pop-up dedicated to one artist.

Chant Avedissian, the Egyptian-Armenian artist, is one of the names in the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection. His work reinterpreted Egypt's cultural icons, histories and collective memory through a contemporary lens, and the pop-up celebrates his life, practice and legacy.

Over three afternoons, talks, workshops and interactive activities will explore the influences that shaped his visual language and the lasting impact of his work.

Places need to be booked in advance through the museum's registration page.

3. Abstractions: A Journey Between Islamic and Contemporary Art

The month closes with a conversation at Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Artist Rachid Koraïchi will join curator Abdelkader Damani to discuss abstraction as a shared artistic language across cultures and eras. The talk will cover calligraphy, geometry and contemporary practice, and the links between Islamic heritage and art being made today.

Koraïchi has a long connection with the museum. The Jameel Prize-winning artist was among the first names revealed in the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, and his work Le Chemin des Roses, or Path of Roses, was shown in Seeing Through Light, the museum's preview exhibition at Manarat Al Saadiyat in 2014 and 2015. Calligraphy is central to his practice, drawing on Arabic script as well as Amazigh and Tuareg letters and mystical symbols.

Where: Louvre Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Cultural District

The September line-up is the start of a longer build-up. The museum says it will announce more talks, activations and outreach events across the UAE in the months before it opens, with updates posted on guggenheimabudhabi.ae.

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is a partnership between the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Designed by Frank Gehry, it sits in Saadiyat Cultural District, overlooking the sea.

The museum covers modern and contemporary art from the 1960s onwards, across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image and new media. Rather than following a fixed timeline, its galleries are organised around connected periods, places and themes, so visitors can choose their own route.

Inside, 28 galleries span 11,600 square metres. A further 23,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition space wraps around the building, in its cones and terraces.

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