ABU DHABI.- The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery will launch its third digital archive, Ways of Seeing, as part of its virtual program, TRACE: Archives and Reunions, on Tuesday, June 23.

The exhibition Ways of Seeing was curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, and premiered at Arter in Istanbul, in 2017, then reconceived for the Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain in Brussels, and then again for The NYUAD Art Gallery.

For this special TRACE event, Ways of Seeing curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath join Louma Salamé, director of the Boghossian Foundation and The NYUAD Art Gallery Executive Director Maya Allison to explore how the curators conceptualized the exhibition for each region. Allison notes, “At a time when most travel has been curtailed due to the pandemic, will the concept of ‘region’ shift in light of our heightened virtual existence, across time-zones?” Tracing: Ways of Seeing, will start at 7:30pm GST on Tuesday, June 23, via Zoom.

Launching the same evening, the exhibition’s digital archive will make available a range of materials, including an extensive photo archive, and will bring online a range of published materials, including excerpts from the book publication, and the entirety of the exhibition’s brochure and Youth Guide, for audiences to explore.

Inspired by the multi-layered arguments of visual culture critic John Berger, Ways of Seeing calls for the return of the artist as a skilled technician, who through understanding and handling of the formal properties of the creative process, reminds us that the connection between what we see and what we think we know is never simple and that seeing is, at its core, a political act.

The exhibition held in September 2018 at The NYUAD Art Gallery brought together 26 artists through 41 works, where they featured a variety of media from painting, sculpture, and photography to sound, film, and installation. Artists included Ghada Amer, Frédéric Borgella, James Casebere, David Claerbout, Salvador Dali, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Paul and Marlene Kos, Alicja Kwade, Lateefa bint Maktoum, Gustav Metzger, Shana Moulton, Vik Muniz, Grayson Perry, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Fred Sandback, Markus Schinwald, Hassan Sharif, Cindy Sherman, Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger, John Speed, Thomas Struth, Kim Tschang-Yeul, James Turrell, and James Webb.

The NYUAD Art Gallery’s TRACE: Archives and Reunions is a series of ten digital events and reunions enabling audiences to explore past exhibitions over the course of the summer and into the early fall. The season will culminate in the publication of a six-year anniversary book, a retrospective of The Art Gallery’s journey since its 2014 inception.
The previous two TRACE archives (Speculative Landscapes, launched on May 18, and ZIMOUN, launched on June 9) can be accessed by the public on TRACE: Archives and Reunion’s page.