Prada Mode Abu Dhabi ‘is a place for humanity', says curator Theaster Gates

The National

11-02-2025

Prada Mode has taken over a space in Abu Dhabi's MiZa district. The event has been curated by American multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates. Gates lives and works in Chicago where he is a professor at the University of Chicago in the department of visual arts and the college. But his work has shaped his city in many ways, with a practice focused on space theory, land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and experience in urban planning and preservation, Gates 'redeems spaces that have been left behind'. This is particularly apt in MiZa, which, while it has never been left behind is certainly undergoing a regeneration – and finding a new purpose – as a home for the creative industries. This is the third time Gates has worked with Prada Mode on a curatorial mission. 'The first one was a celebration of the black image. The second one was a celebration of black and brown people in London, almost like one of my black artists retreats,' explains Gates. 'And this one is a celebration of the Middle East and the UAE.' 'The company is amazing to work with,' he says of Prada. 'The production team is an amazing production team. If it were just a party, it would probably not be my jam.' Gates certainly has bigger ambitions for the project than a simple space to party. The space he has created offers two tonally and sonically distinct experiences - one encased in a square, the other in a circle. The cylindrical structure is reserved for performances that require quiet and active listening from the audience, while the square operates as a more freeform space, open to conversations and chatter. 'It's a place for humanity, it's a place for all of the diasporic folk of this region to come home and to share their ideas, to share how they are changed, to share how they're even more nuanced than when they left so I'm excited to learn,' says Gates, alluding to many of the guests and performers from the Arab diaspora. Musicians Saint Levant and Bayou were also spotted at the event. 'Folk love Prada,' says Gates. 'We're here because a brand has an amazing connection here. On one level, it's Prada saying 'thank you' to its constituents. And then when given the charge, Prada Mode can be anything the artist wants. If the artist is bombastic, it can be a bombastic situation. But I tried to listen to Abu Dhabi first.' Gates is well-known for his large-scale urban regeneration projects in Chicago, which blur the line between art and property development. One thing his works have in common is their desire to bring people together. "I think in some ways the goal of Prada Mode is to bring these disparate worlds that normally wouldn't come together, together,' he says. Art may not unify "but it can congregate" and bring in people from other places, he adds. Prior to Tuesday's opening of the space – which acts as a travelling members' club – Gates spent time discovering the emirate, in particular, the Mina Zayed area. 'You can feel that there's a real desire to say 'yes' to culture in new ways,' he says. He believes Abu Dhabi is still developing its cultural independence and voice and being involved in the city's efforts to celebrate its local culture is meaningful, as it helps showcase and nurture the creative scene. 'Seeking and searching was part of what made a person's humanity so deep and now we have everything at our fingertips,' he says, while he ponders one of the event's themes focused on interiority in a time of overwhelming technology. He certainly seems to be on a mission of seeking during his sojourn in Abu Dhabi. 'What do I think I could learn from an Islamic country?" he says. "I think I can learn the importance of having a life of ritual that is consistently seeking god all day every day, right?' 'We've already borrowed from India, we've already borrowed yoga as a meditative practice,' he says of this hunger within him, but wider Western societies want something they can't quite put their finger on. 'They're hungry for an interior life and they're hungry to connect their minds and their bodies.' Gates once said that when art is present, things are better. But is this always the case, even when he thinks of the difficult time the region and the world are going through? 'I really believe that there are so many other agencies and entities that could precede the artist in being at a front line of some sort,' he says. 'You know there was a time when I was a bit more outdoorsy than I am now. "When you pitch a tent, you just start with one stake. It's like a point in geometry. You need a point. I think that there are moments when artists can be a necessary first point, a locational point. Somebody has a stake and they put it in the ground.' Prada Mode is open as a member-only club on Tuesday and Wednesday and opens to the public on Thursday and Friday