Long-Contested Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Gets Opening Date
Activists have called on artists to boycott the new museum, citing inhumane treatment of workers.
After 20 years of delays, allegations, and recalibrations, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation will open the doors to its Frank Gehry-designed Abu Dhabi outpost on December 11.
The 30-gallery museum will join seven other cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island, including the Zayed National Museum and Berklee Abu Dhabi.
"The museum’s art collection is uniquely local and global, centred in the region but with works from all continents," Guggenheim Director and CEO Mariët Westermann said in a statement. She expressed that the museum will showcase the "experimental character of art since 1960," including abstractions, storytelling, painting, and moving images.
In the past 16 years, the art activism group Gulf Labor Coalition (GLC) has been calling attention to abuse allegations of migrant workers and violations of local and international labor laws linked to the new museum. In 2015, an offshoot of the group called Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) staged a May Day occupation of the Guggenheim Museum in New York and a May 8 occupation of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice during the Venice Biennale.
"None of the initial reasons for this action have been adequately resolved over the years, despite Gulf Labor's strident efforts, and the art world's generally sympathetic response," GLC Co-Founder Andrew Ross told Hyperallergic after this week's announcement about the December opening.
The Guggenheim Museum and Foundation has not yet responded to Hyperallergic's request for comment.
