Knowledge transformed to art

Interacting with artists and examining their work at an exhibition may be one of the best ways to grasp the concepts and techniques artists use in their work. Since it involves direct interaction with the artist, the experience may offer much more to students than theory classes.

Students at the American University in Dubai had the chance to interact with Swiss artist Hannes Brunner last week when he visited the university and displayed his latest artwork in an exhibition titled Search Engine's Bodily Reply.

The mood

The exhibition, as described by students, was based on modern ideas and concepts that seem confusing at first but are interesting once explored.

"The exhibition represents a different way of looking into different worlds that involve the internet and the links between them," said Loujaina Mounir, a graphic design student.

"I enjoyed the part where you read the riddles to understand what's behind them," said Asmaa Saeit, an interior design student.

The artist

Hannes Brunner, who previously taught at the New York Institute of Technology in Abu Dhabi and occasionally visits Dubai for exhibitions, has a background in photography and sculpture. He started working with different media in Europe and has lived in New York, Germany and Switzerland. Since 2004, he has been working both as an artist and an art teacher.

"This exhibition lies between the line of architecture, expressive objects and different media," he said. "It is based on a question that spurred a one-year research project, which is, 'what happens when we get used to asking essential questions related to life in general?"

According to Brunner, when we ask complicated questions about life, being, love and death, as also simpler questions, an unexpected exchange of knowledge takes place. People usually seek answers everywhere, more commonly today on search engines, and they receive the knowledge without taking time to filter what is true and what is false, he added.

Relevance to the Arab world

The artist researched topics relevant to Dubai and the region and transformed the outcomes into a physical installation made up of text and pictures in 3D format. There are so many pictures, differing in topic, that a glance makes the images seem more like a 'rush' rather than individual pictures, according to the artist.

"I thought, why not construct something out of the global knowledge as a visual instalation? The logic is that of the search engine but the representation became substantial when I introduced it into real space," he said.

Among the topics in his exhibition are medieval scholar Ibn Khaldun's sociological theories. Brunner said they captured his interest as he started exploring sociologists of the Middle East. "This is catering ... to the region as well as my own personal interest. Ibn Khaldun's theories on the city and group feeling are marvellous, and I think they should be introduced more to the world outside the Middle East," he said.

Students helped the artist set up his exhibition and lingered for a while, studying the instalation, asking questions whenever possible and contemplating the artwork.

"It's definitely different, but it's very good for us to see something like this and learn from it. I really like the layout," said Butrus Karam, a creative advertising student.