Emirate may scale back grandiose plan for three museums amid concerns that art could be subject to censorship It was billed as an unprecedented cluster of cultural glory that would transform Abu Dhabi into the Paris of the Middle East: three centrepiece museums, including the world’s largest Guggenheim and a branch of the Louvre, designed by “starchitects” to rise up among a complex of five-star beach resorts and luxury villas on Saadiyat island in Abu Dhabi.
But six years after the project was unveiled, while several five-star resorts have opened, the only visible signs of the complex are an illuminated model in an exhibition centre near a windswept desert construction site.
Repeated delays and financial concerns have diminished the impact of the scheme, say project insiders and art experts, and some now believe the emirate has no option but to scale back its grandiose plans, possibly even scrapping the Guggenheim museum.
Those concerns have been compounded by reports of the mistreatment of migrant workers labouring on the GBP17bn Saadiyat island complex and worries about whether the art ultimately put on display will be subjected to censorship by the conservatives who hold sway in this part of the world.
Verena Formanek, senior project manager for the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim, admitted it was still a distant prospect. “The light’s on the horizon when the Louvre Abu Dhabi opens. I think that’s the first time I will really feel more secure because then I will see a museum is really open here and this will change a lot.” But she added: “Really, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is far away.” Later this month (APR) the contract to build the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi -- due to open in 2015, three years later than initially planned -- will finally be put to tender. The process was cancelled last year because of financial concerns following the global economic downturn, and plans for the island’s cultural district went into contractual limbo. The tenders to construct the Norman Foster-designed Zayed National Museum and the Frank Gehry-rendered Guggenheim will not be issued until early and late 2013 respectively, said Stuart Magee, executive director of delivery for the emirate’s Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC). The former will now open in 2016 and the latter in 2017, three to four years later than originally scheduled, he said. “Staggering the opening of the museums will allow us to get more bang for our buck in terms of promotion. It also gives people more reason to come back,” said Magee.
In the six years since the Guggenheim project was unveiled, the United Arab Emirates’ art scene has grown enormously, with Dubai now host to a world art fair and a thriving private gallery scene, while Sharjah has a respected contemporary biennial. Dubai-based gallerist Ramin Salsali, twice honoured as a patron of the arts by the UAE vice president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, called on the country’s rulers to replace the Guggenheim with a smaller, home-grown modern art museum. Unlike the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, he said, the project would not stimulate the local economy and cultural development.
“The Guggenheim effect is sexy when you are not on the radar. When you are Bilbao. But Abu Dhabi today -- I’m sorry to say, but the Guggenheim should pay Abu Dhabi to be there, not vice versa. Does Abu Dhabi need the Guggenheim still? I don’t believe so.” The Iranian collector, one of the first to propose inviting the Guggenheim to the UAE, added: “The luck is that the delay may provoke a reconsideration of why we should have a Guggenheim of that scale, with that amount of money. Let us downsize it.” Hossein Amirsadeghi, who chaired the Middle East art and patronage summit at the British Museum in January, questioned the viability of the Guggenheim, given that Qatar was already hosting contemporary art shows in the Al Riwaq gallery in Doha, with a Damien Hirst exhibition due to be held next year. He said Abu Dhabi was quietly seeking a way to scale back the project: “The Guggenheim is a giant Meccano set that no one knows how to put together.” Formanek said that the 30,000-square-metre museum would go ahead. “Most of the people visiting us today don’t know the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, so we needed to work with the Guggenheim brand. No one in the world would have looked at Abu Dhabi without that name.” But she admitted that the process of compiling its permanent collection was problematic because “contemporary art is not always easy. [It’s] completely different in the process of acquiring the work because we represent the government. This is government money. We want to accelerate slowly, not beginning with the contemporary in the sense that we shock people and no one ever came back here.” She would not comment on what art the museum was buying but added that it could not match the estimated GBP1bn the Qatari royal family has spent on modern and contemporary art in the past seven years because it is a government institution. “It wouldn’t be possible because it won’t be accepted.” The museum also had to take care not to distort the art market. “We don’t want to create inflation. Because we know once the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi acquires a work at that price then it’s carved in stone.” She said there was a risk that the western Guggenheim brand and perceptions of contemporary art could provoke an “aggressive response” from conservative Emiratis, so the delay in construction created time to educate the local audience. Several talks and exhibitions on modern, Islamic, classical and ancient art have been held in the Manarat Al Saadiyat visitors’ centre to promote the new museums and familiarise people with visual art, she added.
Rita Aoun Abdo, Saadiyat’s cultural director, said the museums had to grow within the local culture “otherwise they are not viable. They’re based on real dialogue not on shock or controversy. How would you define censorship? Is it based on local or international values? Censorship has always existed and it’s just the respect of what are the values of the place.” William Wells, director of the Townhouse gallery, Cairo, said while financial problems had delayed the museums, the Arab uprisings of last year were making the Emirati authorities nervous about taking the project forward.
He noted that the Guggenheim did not have a signed commitment from Abu Dhabi that there would be no censorship, although the project managers said there was an understanding.
This became problematic after the Arab spring, he said. “No one anticipated that this would happen. I think everyone was thinking about religious issues, no one thinking of this powerful political aspect.” Asked whether there would be censorship, the New York Guggenheim said the Abu Dhabi museum would be international but also reflect and emphasise the specific cultural identity of the emirates and the wider Arab world.
Wells said: “The Guggenheim seems to have all the right reasons to do the project. But this lack of transparency on the side of the museums is starting to mirror the lack of transparency in the rulers.” Similar concerns have been raised by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which last month published a second report on abuses of Asian migrant workers at the Saadiyat island complex. While the group found conditions had improved since its first report last year, which prompted an artists’ boycott of the museums, it said gaps in the protection of workers remained. It called on the Guggenheim and the Louvre to obtain and disclose enforceable guarantees from the Abu Dhabi authorities to uphold workers’ rights.
The TDIC said HRW’s information was out of date and it had put in place independent monitoring of workers’ conditions.
© Guardian News & Media Ltd
