The NYUAD Project Space presents MUJO, a captivating multichannel film and sound installation by the Purring Tiger creative collective. The installation features recorded videos of the MUJO dance performance accompanied by live music and will be open for viewing until 3 November 2024.
The performance takes place in the desert, with visuals projected onto a vast dune, where dancers and sounds fluidly assemble and disassemble, portraying a cathartic struggle of emotions and change. The performance explores the notion that while we strive to shape and build, everything ultimately dissolves like sand. With its title translated from Japanese as “impermanence”, MUJO pays tribute to life’s diversity and its transient beauty.
The MUJO Installation is an extension of the live performance, expanding upon it. The artwork deconstructs and re-imagines the body’s relationship with natural elements: sand, water, and wind. Through multiple video and sound layers, the piece explores repetition, juxtaposing stillness and movement, and playing with notions of intimacy and distance.
The installation comprises a 30-minute video projected onto multiple surfaces throughout the NYUAD Project Space. At the far end of the room, three projections run side by side, each filmed from different angles. Suspended in the centre of the room are delicate, paper-thin façades held by strings, creating uneven, angular shapes. Projections dance across these surfaces, warping as they interact with the unconventional forms. Visitors are invited to move through the space, engaging with the installation from various perspectives.
About the artists
Purring Tiger is a multimedia installation and performance group founded by Kiori Kawai and Aaron Sherwood. By integrating technology, they merge the human body with sound and visuals to foster immersive experiences. Their work has been commissioned and featured at the Burning Man Arts Festival (NV), Brooklyn Museum (NY), Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall (Greece), and Tokushima LED Art Festival (Japan), among other institutions and art events.
Kiori Kawai (b. 1978, Japan) is a dance performer, choreographer, and installation artist whose practice draws from meditation, Kinetic Awareness, Contact Improv, yoga, and different movement disciplines. This led her to design interactive installations that often incorporate human movement into kinetic sculptures. Touring internationally, Kawai has worked with Serralves Contemporary Museum (Portugal), Transformation Festival (Denmark/USA), and Sharjah Biennial, to name a few.
Aaron Sherwood (b. 1977, USA) is an interactive media artist and musician creating large-scale multi-sensory installations and performances. Delving into themes of consciousness, world-creating, embodiment, entropy, and semiotics, he plays with patterns of emergence in chaotic systems. Often beginning with small building blocks, Sherwood’s installations evolve into complex, interdependent systems where participants are integral to bringing the piece to life. The artist has been commissioned to perform and/or exhibit across the USA, Australia, Europe, in the UAE.
Surabhi Sharma (MUJO’s film director) is an independent filmmaker known for her feature-length documentaries and short films. Her works, which also include fiction and video installations, explore urban transformation through the lens of labour, music, and migration. Surabhi’s films have been screened and awarded at numerous international film festivals, such as the Dubai International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, and are used in academic curricula in North America and India.
To get more information about MUJO, please go to the official website of the NYUAD Art Gallery.
In addition, you might be interested in exploring Brèche, an immersive installation by Sébastien Labrunie. We also recommend that you read our article about four places in Dubai where one can enjoy digital art.
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