For the curated section ‘Special Projects’, 1x1 art gallery presents works by Cristiana de Marchi and Vivek Vilasini, two artists whose practices are characterized by several elements of connection, beyond their formal differences.

A keen interest in political and social phenomena, a research-based methodological approach, a fervent physical participation in the making, and an inclination for complex and expanded projects, are all common aspects that sustain the creative process of these two artists, who have both been part – although not concurrently – of the circle gravitating around Hassan Sharif and built strong relations in the UAE.

Most works by de Marchi and Vilasini presented at Abu Dhabi Art are time based, both in conceptual and substantial terms: time is an essential constituent as it physically affects the paper and leaves a trace of its stratification in Vilasini’s environmentally engaged City-Fifth Investigation, as well as it permeates de Marchi’s Possible Worlds and The Seven Seas, two series that reflect on the concept of utopia and universalism, and in Constellations, where the idea of time is poetically embodied in the astronomic sequence abstracting from the history of migration.

Vilasini’s Between One Shore and Several Others (Study for Republic of India - Election Symbols), in its bright Investigation of the incidence of political parties in India, finds a soft counterpoint in de Marchi’s White (MENASA), where borders are monochromatically scar-rendered, not negated yet neutralized.