Art aficionados can look forward to discovering Useless Palace project in the new gallery
Dubai, UAE, February 2023 – Bold and uncompromising. The street art movement starts here as Inloco Gallery comes to Dubai. The latest addition to the buzzing art scene, Inloco Gallery has opened its doors at Al Khayat Avenue where art enthusiasts can immerse themselves in urban art that reflects a modern art form like no other.
Inloco Gallery launches with a bang as it introduces its first project. Everything started in December of 2022 at Mleiha Archaeological Centre in Sharjah. The language of street art is a dialogue with the local meanings and textures, as well as their transformations achieved through the artistic will and intention. Mleiha desert — a focal point of the territory’s distinctive features and a genius loci for the UAE. A group of 10 international artists explored the desert and were inspired to create an artistic project as a result of their expedition.
This resulted in the Useless Palace project, which offers a glimpse into the fascinating exploration of an abandoned space in a desert. It is a story filled with the spirit of adventure and opens up various layers, such as philosophical reflections, mind-blowing landscapes, and artistic humor, for the viewers to analyze and dissect with their imagination.
To create the site-specific projects, various locations and spots in the abandoned village in Sharjah were assigned to artists, who turned them into their own workshops for the duration of the intervention. The dialog between the audience and the environment, which is an important principle in street art, has been changed: in this uninhabited desert, the artists took the role of the audience upon themselves.
Useless Palace was created by a team of 10 international like-minded urban artists brought together by Inloco Gallery: 10.203 GROUP, Filippo Minelli, Lokher, Neda Salmanpour, and Anton Selone — each brining their unique vision to the project. The exhibition will feature canvases and sculptures made during the artistic intervention in the desert, found objects and digital works created with the assistance of AI technologies.
The creation of Useless Palace was captures by cinematographer Chromometrage, who created a short-film documentary. The film follows the artists on their fascinating journey to explore and transform the abandoned space in the desert.
The exhibition was presented on the 28th and 29th of January during QUOZ ARTS FEST in two locations. The film screenings took place in the soon-to-be gallery namely Inloco Construction Zone for the days of the festival; The Useless Palace exhibition took place at Inloco Pop- up Gallery and will continue showing until 30th of March. There, viewers witnessed the Useless Palace exhibition with stunning works of art and found objects from Mleikha.
“We have witnessed Dubai’s art scene flourishing throughout the years. With Inloco Gallery heading to the city, we are committed to fostering artistic development among the art lovers of the UAE. The art world continues to evolve and adapt and we are dedicated to supporting and promoting street artists and their visions while challenging the conventional art forms,” comments Anastasia Kopijevksy, Inloco Gallery Director.
Inloco Gallery is sincerely grateful to Mleiha Archaeological Centre for the opportunity to explore and find inspiration in the desert of Sharjah.
Useless Palace Exhibition | 28.01 – 30.03
Inloco Pop-Up Gallery
WH 12, Al Khayat Avenue, Al Quoz
Mon — Sat, 10am — 6pm
Inloco Construction Zone
WH 5, 4 19 Street, Al Khayat Avenue, Al Quoz
10am — 10pm
About Inloco Gallery:
Inloco Gallery is an art gallery committed to promoting and supporting street artists, fitting urban contemporary into the wider context of contemporary art, and at the same time preserving and highlighting its uniqueness. It aims to assemble a representative collection of works by cutting-edge street artists and promote their vision. Scheduled to open its permanent space on Al Khayat Avenue in Fall 2023, meanwhile Inloco Gallery will create pop-up and outdoor projects capturing the essence of urban art and initiating a dialogue between international and local artists researching OAE traditions and history. Filippo Minelli, Maxim Ima, Dusto, Lokher, Xeato, Nikita Nomerz are only a few of the prominent artists Inloco Gallery has collaborated with.
Inloco Gallery is part of INLOCO Initiative, consisting of projects supporting and researching urban art since 2017 — Inloco Gallery, Street Art Research Institute, Nuvo Bureau for public art and Street Art Storage — the newly opened center for urban art in Saint Petersburg.
About The Mleiha Archaeological Centre:
The Mleiha Archaeological Centre is a truly fascinating place and a great way for the whole family to catch a glimpse of ancient UAE life. Located in the emirate of Sharjah, the centre blends history, nature and culture with warm hospitality and exceptional service, creating a unique leisure experience in a striking natural setting.
About the authors:
10.203 GROUP is a team of like-minded artists, consisting of 6 authors of the street wave: Maxim Ima, Dusto, Turben, Xeato, Ivan Ilinskii, Sergey Kk. The creative method of the team consists of self-curation and dialogue between representatives of contemporary art, each of whom has a unique perspective on the creation of works.
Filippo Minelli is an Italian artist who creates performances and installations. The author focuses his view on the study of the interaction of landscape and society. The main themes of the artist’s work are the study of politics from the side of anthropology, the decontextualization of the use of smoke substances, the change in the function of flags.
Lokher is an Algerian author who, along with traditional canvases, practices the introduction of his works into the street space. After graduating from the Algerian School of Art, the artist continued to work with colors and shapes that he uses when creating works. Often the realism of the artist’s street works collides with the surrealism that is inherent in his easel works.
Neda Salmanpour is a designer and architect who creates recognizable sculptures. Having been educated at the University of Sharjah, the artist focused on creating installations, as well as exploring the relationship between design and mathematics.
