The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, the university’s academic museum-gallery, launched the first book-length project on the artist Zimoun. With essays by five international curators and writers, the book is a dual-language publication, 175 pages, with an extensive full-color image section surveying the artist’s extensive practice. The book is available for purchase at NYUAD's bookstore.
Zimoun is a Swiss artist from Bern who makes “sound sculpture” or “sound architecture installations.” His work has won numerous awards, and has been exhibited throughout the world, with major solo exhibitions in Paris, Korea, Brazil, the US, and beyond. This book is published on the occasion of his first exhibition in the Arab world. While he has a serious and devout curatorial and critical following across the field of sound composition and installation art, this marks the first monograph about his unusual practice.
Chief Curator Maya Allison at NYUAD Art Gallery is editor of the book and has commissioned essays from international scholars and curators, including curator Guido Comis, writer Alexander Scholz, Swiss art historian Karine Tissot, journalist Alessandra Burotto, and artist Monica Bate. The book is designed by the Swiss duo “Binnenland” who have developed a new font specifically for this book.
Published by Akkadia Press, the book was unveiled at a book launch and Suhoor celebration, marking the closing week of the Gallery’s current exhibition, Zimoun. Anne Renahan, of Akkadia Press, spoke to Allison, the book’s editor, about the specialized process of making Arabic-English dual language books about art.
Zimoun marks the first time the artist has exhibited his work in the Gulf. Curated by Allison, this exhibition features five immersive audio-visual installations, including a major new commission, an expansive room-sized installation. The other four are site-specific adaptations of the artist’s previous installations, and each of the works is both a sound composition and a sculpture that is unique to the Gallery.
Running until June 1, this weekend is the last chance to visit the exhibition. For more information, please visit: https://www.nyuad-artgallery.org/
