Inspired by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi exhibition, The Creative Act: Performance, Process, Presence, the It’s Alive: Activating Sculpture workshop invited participants to explore the creative process using a range of forms and materials that produce movement and sound. Held at Manarat al Saadiyat on 3rd June, the workshop invited adults and teens to create mini moving sculptures based on the kinetic artworks of Jean Tinguely and Günther Uecker.

The works of Jean Tinguely and Günther Uecker foregrounded contemporary reality through the use of materials, subject matter, and methods drawn from both daily life and mainstream culture. Starting in the 1950s, Jean Tinguely used nontraditional scrap materials and motors to create kinetic, performative, and often self-destructing sculptures that ‘were meant to portray a certain craziness and rush in this technological civilisation’. Günther Uecker, on the other hand, has used nails as his signature material for works that reflect a variety of influences ranging from the social to the spiritual. He treats his artworks as arenas for active, physical work as well as vehicles for commenting on human experience and behaviour.

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