Mary Ellen Carroll: The Circle Game

As part of our Art Week 2016 programming, The Circle Game is a major new multi-form work by conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll that invites the public to interrogate the history, present and future of Dubai.

Two LED signs are to be installed high overhead asking, ‘When did you arrive?’ and ‘When will you return?’ These are familiar questions asked of people who live in Dubai. And they are questions that could also be asked of the city itself.

A 15 metre high tower erected in the central Yard gives visitors a unique vantage point, a view across the low-lying industrial buildings of Al Quoz towards “old” Dubai and further towards Deira, the original city-centre. The platform connects these two areas of the city and will serve as a space for public programming during and after Art Week, including talks on urbanism, music, poetry and storytelling that open up a dialogue with Dubai and its citizens.