Portrait of a Territory

Overview

Sharjah Art Foundation presents a solo exhibition of new work by Lebanese photographer Ziad Antar that features photographs of the UAE coastline that were taken between 2004 and 2011. This exhibition is curated by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at Musée National D’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou Paris.

While Antar began by randomly photographing the coast, he later worked to systematically document the coastline, Emirate by Emirate, completing the series as part of a Sharjah Art Foundation Residency in 2011. The resulting photographs portray the borders between each Emirate and the sea as a place of contact and engagement with the outside world. The work reveals traces of history drawn on the landscape as well as the recent past of these young countries that have been built upon trade and commerce.

Viewed in succession, these photographs tell the story of an economic boom and its hazards through images of both monumental architectural structures and the abandoned work sites of unfinished construction projects, as well as through the daily lives and activities of the middle classes.

This exhibition consists of 211 black and white and coloured photographs. Installed along walls that wrap around the centre of the exhibition space, the photographs will be hung in a single line that is fractured and segmented, reflecting the physical geography of the United Arab Emirates.