The Louvre and the Guggenheim are not the only institutions building state-of-the-art cultural facilities on Saadiyat Island. The New York University’s branch in the United Arab Emirates has opened a gallery, performing arts centre and High Line-style elevated park as part of its second satellite in the region. The Rafael Viñoly-designed campus, financed by Abu Dhabi’s royal family, opened last fall and is already beginning to attract artists. The collective Slavs and Tatars is completing a three-month residency and preparing to open an exhibition on campus.
“Mirrors for Princes”, opening today, takes over NYU Abu Dhabi’s entire 7,000-sq-ft gallery (until 30 May). The show is titled after a medieval genre of literary advice designed to groom future kings. (Machiavelli’s The Prince is the most famous example.) “These were guidebooks for future rulers, but they were also a gift to—and a subtle critique of—the sitting ruler,” says Slavs and Tatars’ co-founder Payam Sharifi.
The centrepiece of the show is an audio installation featuring excerpts from an 11th-century Turkic example, read in a chorus of languages. Surreal sculptures of tongues and grooming products reference other qualities—such as strong rhetoric and a carefully manicured appearance—that successful rulers had to cultivate. The final gallery space will be converted into a teahouse and reading room filled with texts that inspired the exhibition.
Before they began their residency on campus, the members of Slavs and Tatars were “quite sceptical about the franchising and the business of universities”, Sharifi says. But NYU Abu Dhabi’s diverse student body and global outlook won them over. “Whether it’s Oxford or Yale, most universities have a majority culture,” Sharifi says. Because most of the UAE’s population is expatriates, “this is probably the first truly global university,” he says.
Slavs and Tatars acknowledge that their decision to show at NYU Abu Dhabi may raise eyebrows due to the larger controversy surrounding labour conditions on Saadiyat Island. (Although NYU issued a “statement of labour values” in 2009, a recent report from Human Rights Watch called for “more serious enforcement of worker protections”.) No strangers to controversial venues, Slavs and Tatars also participated in Manifesta’s recent biennial in Moscow. “Boycotting can come from a position of arrogance,” Sharifi says. “We are not interested in provoking, because when you provoke you either preach to the choir or turn people off. We believe that engagement is more productive.”