The public art trail of 1988 Brisbane World Expo still exists to this day – sculptures dot the streets of the Australian city, playfully leading people to the site of the fair. Expo 2020 Dubai is the next in line with 11 permanent public artworks leaving a memorable and interactive trail for visitors to discover. Strolling into this open-air art museum, you will find your perception challenged in intriguing ways. There is a piece of fabric frozen in the air, a shadow mural of a bicycle without the bicycle and a marble sculpture creased and tied. The public art programme largely derives from 11th-century Arab mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al Haytham’s ‘Book of Optics’.
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‘A POINT IN TIME’ BY KHALIL RABAH tells you exactly where you are standing on the planet. Known as the re-inventor of history, Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah takes an 11th-century instrument used to measure latitudes and enlarges it into a life-sized spectacle. Learn a bit of history while you marvel at it. One of the greatest Islamic mathematicians Al Biruni discovered his city’s latitude, modern day Uzbekistan, at the age of 17 using these tools and the sun.
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The three objects – a black hemisphere, copper cone and a pointed tool – sit on a 10-metre marble square near the Jubilee Park and next to the Garden in the Sky observation tower. Though these make for the perfect Instagram moment, look down at the intricate diagram under your feet – this is the latitude of the Expo 2020 site.
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‘WIND SCULPTURE III’ BY YINKA SHONIBARE is frozen in time, like a cloth flung into the air and caught on a pole. The hand-painted steel sculpture hangs mid-motion in Al Forsan Park, paying homage to the brightly coloured Ankara fabric that originated in Indonesia. British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare traces the journey taken by the patterned cloth, now closely associated with African culture. Hang around, take ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa’-style photos with this six-metre-tall whimsical artwork.
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‘CHIMERA’ BY MONIRA AL QADIRI is an otherworldly creature, a metamorphosis of an oil drill and an octopus. The gigantic ‘Chimera’ sculpture sits in the Opportunity District made by Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri. Its iridescent surface shines with the intensity of pearls, a nod to the UAE’s 8,000-year history with pearl diving, and looks to the future when oil was discovered at the same time.
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‘GARDEN’ BY HAMRA ABBAS invites you into the Mughal gardens of the 16th century. Visitors literally get to walk through it at the entrance of Al Forsan Park. Embedded into the ground, the stone mural paints a utopic scenery, all elements hand-sculptured from marble, lapis lazuli, granite, serpentine, pink calcite and jasper. Kuwaiti-born visual artist Hamra Abbas taps into traditional stone inlay technique from Lahore.
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‘THE PLINTH’ BY SHAIKHA AL MAZROU is a marble pedestal cinched at the top with a yellow tie in the Sustainability District. If you are a fan of Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, then you are sure to enjoy Emirati artist Shaikha Al Mazrou’s malleable rendering of stone. The Carrara marble bends, wrinkled and soft like clay. Just as how a plinth is used to display artworks, Al Mazrou invites likeminded artists to create for the future city of Expo – District 2020.
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‘SONIC PLANETARIUM – DRIPPING LUNAR SEXTET’ BY HAEGUE YANG is a larger-than-life mechanical model of the solar system in the Mobility District. Each of the six spheres is adorned with bells, supported by wheels that children love to turn to make the worlds go round. South Korean artist Haegue Yang takes inspiration from Ibn Al Haytham’s work on perception. He noted how the moon appeared larger or smaller depending on the viewer’s vantage point.
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‘THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE PAVILION’ BY OLAFUR ELIASSON is a two-metre-tall block of glacial ice in theory. Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson reminds us global warming in Greenland and elsewhere on the planet. The near-black bronze sculpture in the Sustainability District appears to be melting with its surface almost disappearing, leaving behind a semi-solid core of ice.
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‘PILLOW FORT PLAYGROUND’ BY AFRA AL DHAHERI is another deceptively soft-looking marble sculpture that kids cannot seem to get enough of. Artist Afra Al Dhaheri revisits her Emirati roots and childhood in this artwork composed of ‘tikkay’ or traditional floor pillows. Where the sculpture dwarfs even adults, it sparks a collective memory of how small we felt in our own childhood pillow forts. Find the playful rendition just behind the UAE Pavilion.
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‘DISTORTED FAMILIARITIES’ BY ASMA BELHAMAR turns the abstract feeling of distortion into a three-piece sculpture. Situated across from the ‘Pillow Fort Playground’, the bendy structures show how it is like to travel from a rural mountainous area into the lofty skyscrapers of a city.
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‘TERHAL’ BY ABDULLAH AL SAADI is an artwork composed of three rocks, each resting against the seating blocks of the Opportunity District. Khor Fakkan-based artist Abdullah Al Saadi maps out Wadi Tayyibah in Fujairah using acrylic paints.
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‘ONE DAY ON TWO ORBITS’ BY NADIA KAABI-LINKE is a fascinating shadow sculpture of a standing bicycle over the course of one day. Detailed lines made of weathered steel are embedded onto the concrete ground, all overlapping one another in a circular path as the sun sets and the moon rises. Berlin-based visual artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke records shadows cast by both light bodies to mark their individual orbits.
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