The artist speaks about his practice and the significant departure seen in his new digital work for the Julius Baer commission at Art Dubai 2025.
Canvas: What is the starting point and inspiration behind your Directions series that you are continuing for your Julius Baer commission at Art Dubai this year?
The Directions series originated from my fascination with location, movement and the passage of time. My early experiments involved collecting GPS coordinates from various locations, marking them physically in space, and later integrating them into artworks. The inspiration comes from an interest in how geography, place and navigation shape human experiences. Over time, this exploration has evolved into a conceptual dialogue about borders, fluidity and the impermanence of fixed locations.
How is the new installation Directions (Merging) – (تمازج) اتجاهات a departure from previous iterations in the series?
Directions (Merging) is a significant evolution as it incorporates animation as a key medium. I’m grateful to collaborate with Julius Baer for this piece, as it offers a unique opportunity to bring together the coordinates I have been collecting over time, placing them into a new perspective. While previous iterations focused on physically marking and documenting coordinates in various landscapes, this newly commissioned artwork moves into the digital realm, utilising animation to create a dynamic, immersive experience.
The animation enables the coordinates to merge and dissolve in real time, highlighting fluidity and interconnectedness in a way that static installations cannot fully convey. With Dubai’s coordinates at the centre, those of other places will merge and dissolve into one another, rendering them unrecognisable. This convergence challenges the notion of fixed borders and territories, creating a space where geographical distinctions fade into one fluid, interconnected landscape. This not only enriches the themes of transience and impermanence but also engages audiences in a more immersive and participatory fashion, increasing their awareness of their own relationship to shifting geographies and borders.
What can we expect to see from the work at Art Dubai in April?
The new immersive experience, housed at the Julius Baer Lounge at Art Dubai, will draw on the interconnectedness of people, diverse cultures and perspectives, serving as a powerful analogy for the city of Dubai. The work will unite global coordinates with Dubai at its core and will speak to the seamless exchange of resources, the fluidity of nature and the interconnectedness of distant shores, mirroring Dubai’s evolution as a future city and a hub for global communities.
Where are the coordinates that are presented in the work? How did you start collecting them?
The coordinates in my work are gathered from various locations worldwide, reflecting my travels and observations. I initially began this process in 1999 by marking places I had personally visited, capturing their GPS coordinates as a means of documenting my experiences and movements. Over time, I expanded this to include global locations, ultimately using Dubai as a focal point, with other coordinates merging into it. This ongoing collection has enabled me to question concepts of permanence and transience in relation to physical space.
How has this new digital commission been informed by your previous work with light, photography and video?
My practice has long involved experimentation with various media, including photography, video and light-based works. In earlier projects, I employed light and shadows to explore visibility and erasure and used photography to document transient moments. This digital commission builds on those explorations by integrating moving images, projections and immersive experiences to challenge how we perceive location and space. The transition to digital media permits an even greater sense of movement, reinforcing the themes of fluidity and transformation present in my past work.
How does this work speak to Julius Baer’s theme of ‘Future Cities’ and what does it signify in relation to Dubai?
The ‘Future Cities’ next-generation theme examines how cities have enormous growth potential as places where progress is fuelled by the convergence of diverse populations, and are developed through cultural investment in the local ecosystem. Dubai, as a rapidly evolving city, embodies this theme – its growth is shaped by global movement, migration and constant transformation. Directions (Merging) presents a vision where physical boundaries dissolve, mirroring Dubai’s role as a place where cultures and ideas merge. By placing Dubai’s coordinates at the centre, it will invite visitors to converge in a microcosm of the city. The artwork highlights the city’s position as a global hub, emphasising its openness to change and new possibilities.
Art Dubai 2025 runs from 18-20 April
This interview first appeared in Canvas 117: The Maghreb Issue
