When a meter equals a bahr
by Matthew Conboy
portfolio special mention call 'Urbanautica Institute Awards 2023', 2023
Category: Anthropology and Territories
When a meter equals a bahr, catalogues life as an expat in the United Arab Emirates. It borrows its form from the highly structured rhythm of Arabic poetry that nonetheless flows and moves among remarkably divergent topics and themes. Images of daily life, the landscape, architecture, people, and animals are intricately linked to encourage appreciation on both macro and micro levels. These stories of love, loss, death, and life are connected by the cultural landscape of a country that has been inhabited for more than 100,000 years yet only existed as an independent country for 50 years.
Review by URBANAUTICA
Observing places in their constant transformation and shaping through the acts of building and inhabiting, and through their affirmation via constructions, infrastructures, models, and settlement dynamics, represents a useful way to understand how societies coexist in a territory and based on which conveniences. Space also measures the strength and vectors of power, and expresses concepts of land use and division. Finally, it reflects the constant search for identity, a glue that fosters a sense of belonging. The dizzying proclamation of certain Middle Eastern countries as financial meccas, and their international acceptance as protected destinations for new speculative ventures and recreational entertainment, offer a preview of the emergence of new forms of monetary statism, and duty-free urban planning that reform global trade towards a financial neo-feudalism.Conboy's curious, vernacular, and detached gaze seems to break this spell.
also from Urbanautica Institute Awards 2023