Abu Dhabi: It is not just the countless number of books on offer, including a selection from the Angelica Library in Rome, that are drawing in the crowds at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec).
The fair’s vast selection of programmes is engaging the public through events such as talks on digital literacy courses, story-telling sessions, a special children’s corner with ongoing science and fun activities and even live cooking sessions by some of the country’s top chefs at the Show Kitchen stand.
One of the 1,260 exhibitors has taken public engagement to a whole new level by appealing to the community to share their photographs that are related to the UAE to be used as part of an ongoing art exhibition.
Lest We Forget is an initiative that has been exhibiting at Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse 421, in the Mina Port area, since November 2015 and is making its debut at the book fair.
The exhibition at Warehouse 421 features old analogue photographs from Emirati families aimed to show the history of the UAE as recorded by the general public. The one of a kind exhibition is divided into several sections, including examining the relevance of items in photographs through installations and interactive digital media that brings the stories behind the photographs to life.
The exhibition has been a huge success and has received an overwhelming response from the public. The creators are now appealing to the members of the community to share their photographs and personal stories so that they can be included in the initiative’s archives and future exhibitions.
Visitors, from all backgrounds, can take their photographs that are in some way related to the UAE directly to the stand in Hall 12, scan them into the digital archives and record the story behind the photograph on an audio recorder.
The stand is already one of the busy corners at the fair with people rushing in to share their photographs and stories.
“A lot of people have been coming up and asking how they can participate. They like it, they really do like it because they enjoy the authenticity of it, they enjoy the collaborative spirit. They like the sharing of the photographs and some of the people like to feel that they are part of something that is creative,” said Dr Michele Bambling, creative director of Lest We Forget.
“The way Lest We Forget works is we don’t create an exhibition catalogue showing what is being created in the exhibit. What we do is we create an archive of publications that shows the content that we are responding to when we build our exhibition,” she said.
“A lot of what is offered by the public end up being in our publications as much as in our exhibitions,” she added.
The initiative is also showcasing a book created by Emirati women that contains around 150 pictures from people’s private photo album collections and the story behind each photograph.
Lest We Forget is preparing for an upcoming exhibition, the details of which have not been released yet. However, Dr Bambling did share the theme of the event and the items they are looking for.
“For our upcoming exhibition we are exploring aspects of tangible and intangible identity and we welcome anyone who would like to share what is very important to them in terms of their identity. For example a special garment, or a piece of jewellery or patterns of henna, these forms of expression we would love to learn about and welcome people to participate.”
As the project is ongoing, items can also be taken directly to Warehouse 421.
ADIBF runs until May 3 at Adnec. For more details visit www.adbookfair.com.
