In partnership with the Inloco Initiative art project which involves artistic interventions and creating nomadic galleries across different locations in Dubai, ME Hotel Dubai is hosting Welcome Home / Marhaba al sah. The show features three Inloco art practitioners: Anton Selone, Filippo Minelli, and Neda Salmanpour. It will be open to the public until 21 August 2023.
The artists taking part in the exhibition explore various interpretations of home and bring up such topics as nomadism, the constant search for home, and the history written by people. The art pieces on display raise the questions: what does home mean to a modern man? Does he feel connected to his own ancestry and culture? Does he have a permanent home or just transitory homes he passes through on his life’s journey? Staging the show at the hotel, a place where one usually stays for a short period of time and which might be called such a transitory home, is a contextual statement itself carrying on the reflection on the theme.
At the show, one has an opportunity to look at photographer Anton Celone’s photos taken in the desert. Using a Hasselblad film camera, he captured artists’ creative processes and thus preserved the moment of creation in its authentic setting. Artist Filippo Minelli displays several of his works including the WTAN A/N series. It is a blend of physical and digital landscapes urging spectators to critically consider the artwork’s context. Artist and architect Neda Salmanpour presents her Sandscapes sculptures inspired by the red sand of the Mleiha Desert. She calls this series a “dialogue between strength and fragility”.
About the participants
Anton Selone is a well-known contemporary documentary photographer from Russia. His practice is mostly focused on photographing graffiti. He takes pictures of both graffiti artists during their art making process and their finished artworks. Among the projects Selone has been a part of is Roll Over Russia: Anton Selone & Embily Team. The photographer was invited to document a large-scale tour of the renowned Russian rollerblading team.
Filippo Minelli (b. 1983, Brescia, Italy) is a contemporary Italian artist who resides between Portugal and Lebanon. Interested in both landscapes and public spaces, especially border zones, he travels around the globe and develops his art projects in numerous countries. His nomadic artistic practice encompasses photography, video, performance, and installation. In his art imbued with the aesthetic of protest, Minelli addresses different social and political issues.
Neda Salmanpour (b. 1993, Iran) is an Iranian designer and architect. Basing her practice on research and employing available technologies and materials, she works at the intersection of regional design languages and mathematics. In 2021, Salmanpour won Van Cleef & Arpels Middle East Emergent Designer Prize. She was chosen as a winner for her light sculpture titled Kaleidoscope. It is an onyx floor lamp comprising a stone case with 120 butterflies imprinted inside; when turned on, the lamp produces a delicate show of these insects. Salmanpour specialises in individual design, striving to improve the way people interact with spaces where they spend most of their time.
To learn more about the Welcome Home exhibition, please visit its official web page.
You might also be interested in visiting the 6th Edition of Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics.
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