Through an Arab lens | Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi tells the unfolding story of the UAE

Museums are not simply places; they are stories woven crossed clip and land. The recently inaugurated Zayed National Museum successful Abu Dhabi proves this arsenic its 5 tapering falcon wings emergence dramatically supra the skyline. Anchored wrong is simply a 60-foot vessel with a prow rising to 11 feet — the precise vas I erstwhile encountered successful a schoolhouse textbook connected the Indus Valley Civilisation. Reconstructed with assistance from assemblage scholars, researchers and boatmen from Kerala, utilizing wood, coir and bitumen, the Magan vessel is simply a Bronze Age marvel. It links this godforsaken federation to Meluhha, the maritime trading larboard of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Boats similar these erstwhile carried copper crossed the Arabian Sea to ports connected India’s occidental seashore 3,000-4,000 years ago. Without a nail, bolt oregon screw, revived from engraved drawings and materials described successful cuneiform penning connected past tablets, the vessel did a two-day oversea proceedings successful the Arabian Gulf, sailing 50 nautical miles, earlier being anchored astatine the museum.

More than a onshore of petroleum

The depository positions itself arsenic a spot wherever the satellite and civilisation are interpreted done an Arab lens. “The past present is from the position of the United Arab Emirates. It is not the different mode around. It is not from a British perspective,” says Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi.

With a monolithic 30-metre faceted mound, tipping the chapeau to the godforsaken topography, the depository has been designed by British designer Norman Foster. The wingtips relation arsenic thermal chimneys, creating cooling aerial currents that propulsion retired lukewarm aerial from the building. The architects telephone them ‘Canadian vents’; Khalifa Al Mubarak calls them ‘barjeel’, an past wind-tower plan that has agelong kept homes and nationalist spaces chill crossed the region.

Walking done the space, I realise that museums are not conscionable astir contested objects; they are a civilization speaking to itself, a corporate representation that interprets the satellite and repositions our spot wrong it. Here, an aged conception dissolves — the thought of the UAE arsenic simply a onshore of petroleum, soil dunes, day palms, oversea and buying malls, stripped of history. Instead, it evokes awe arsenic it lays retired a tapestry linking oasis, horses, java pots, dates, h2o infrastructure, and falcons, tracing the land’s communicative from the palaeolithical, pre-Islamic epoch to the modern one. “One of the surprises for maine was uncovering a Bronze Era sword wrong a burial mound successful Al Ain. It was oxidised, but we learnt that radical were buried with their idiosyncratic goods. The restored sword showed the warrior mentality of the people,” Khalifa Al Mubarak says during the tour. It is this bid of communicative that shapes the visitant experience.

Celebrating the UAE

The depository houses 1,500 objects, sourced from each 7 emirates, wrong six imperishable galleries, combining archaeological artefacts, historical objects, audiovisual and sensory experiences, and modern installations and reconstructions. It besides pays tribute to the beingness and times of Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founding begetter of the UAE. The circuit begins with the 600-metre outdoor Al Masar Garden, featuring a ghaf (Persian mesquite) histrion from 1 of his residences. Inside, replicas of horses person been recreated from breeds descended from those helium rode, and a replica of his 1966 Chrysler Newport and his camel instrumentality travel the exhibits.

The communicative celebrates the nation’s enduring enslaved with falcons too. “Falcons were cardinal to endurance arsenic they helped hunt during hard times. They are our family,” says the curator of a assemblage depicting a onshore that is portion desert, portion oversea and portion municipality carnival. One diorama illustrates the past Tethys Sea and the enactment of fossil fuels, represented done solid micro-organisms symbolising the country’s modern wealth. Another show presents 1 of the oldest known pearls, an 8,000-year-old find discovered successful 2017 connected Marawah Island, linking pearl-diving to the country’s agelong history.

The taste district

Built connected Saadiyat Island, the depository joins a constellation of institutions reshaping the UAE’s taste landscape. It is astatine walking region from the Louvre Abu Dhabi, connected an artificial land crowned by a alloy dome disposable from space, which houses artefacts ranging from Renaissance paintings to bronzes from Tamil Nadu. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is nether construction, portion the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi presently hosts Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old skeleton considered the parent of humanity, connected indebtedness from Ethiopia.

By bringing these intertwined quality narratives together, Abu Dhabi is forging a caller ocular past of the state — 1 successful which the Zayed National Museum asserts its suzerainty implicit civilization and our corporate quality heritage.