UAE ‘Land Art Generator Initiative’ that combines aesthetics with clean energy generation receives entries from over 40 countries

The UAE Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), a first-of -its-kind inter-disciplinary collaboration in the world that will bring together artists, architects, scientists, landscape architects, and engineers to design and construct a series of land art installations that generate clean energy, has received an overwhelming response to its first International Design Competition with entries pouring in from over 40 countries.
The goal of LAGI is to design and construct a series of land art installations across the UAE that uniquely combine aesthetics with clean energy generation. The LAGI viewing platforms will become tourist destinations that draw people from around the world to experience the beauty of the collaborative art creations in the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, the art itself will continuously distribute clean energy into the electrical grid with each land art sculpture having the potential to provide power to thousands of homes in the UAE.
Robert Ferry, Principal, Land Art Generator Initiative, said: “We are absolutely delighted at the fantastic response to the inaugural edition of the competition. We have received hundreds of entries from top universities, established artists, leading architecture firms, electrical engineers and scientists worldwide. It is gratifying to see that there are so many people who care so deeply about the health of our natural environment and the beauty of our constructed one.
“As a country that has made great strides in renewable energy projects and as patrons of art and culture, the UAE is the ideal location for the first edition of the competition. It is also an opportunity for the UAE to lead the rest of the world in a collaboration between art and energy infrastructure that will create financial and cultural dividends. Since the installations will function as aesthetic power plants, eventually they will provide return on investments made in constructing them and the investors could even be eligible for carbon offset credit financing.”
All the entries will be on public display at Marble Walk (B1 Level), Dubai International Financial Centre until June 30, 2010. Visitors are being encouraged to stop by any time during the week and write down their favourite entries in order for LAGI to arrive at a winner of the popular vote in Dubai.
Between July 1st and August 1st, a select jury panel consisting of18 local and international artists, architects, academicians, industry leaders and writers will review the entries. The eminent panel members include Omran Ali AlOwais, Architect – Musanada, Abu Dhabi; Brett Steele, Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture and AA Publications, London; Jeanette Ingberman, Co-Founder/Director, Exit Art, NYC; Lukáš Sokol, Architect and Urban Planner at the Urban Planning Council (UPC) of Abu Dhabi; Reuben S. Andrews, M.A., M.Phil., PGDPR, Senior Executive-Information & Media, Consumption Sustainability at DEWA, Dubai; Georgeta Vidican, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi; James Wines, Principal, SITE | Architecture, Art & Design, New York City; and Andrea Polli, Digital Media Artist Director of the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media (IFDM) Programme at the University of New Mexico.
Elizabeth Monoian, Principal, Land Art Generator Initiative, said: “The jury will be looking for outstanding outdoor public art work that is stimulating and inspiring while at the same time produces real, usable renewable energy- a fusion of perfect art and energy.”
All the designs will be posted on the LAGI blog site (http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/)—about three per week during the autumn. So stay tuned beginning this August for some ideas that give a new interdisciplinary relevance to public art and open a window onto the future of sustainable cities everywhere!
For further info, please contact: Lisa George/Hiba Al Hafidh, Iris Public Relations MFZE, Dubai, UAE. Mobile number: 00971508718561/050 349 1679. E-mail: lisa@irispr.net/hiba@irispr.net