How The A.R.M. Holding Art Collection Is Leading the Way for Corporate Arts Patronage in the UAE
Featuring some of the most prominent names in Middle Eastern and international contemporary art, the A.R.M. Holding Art Collection reflects the company’s ethos of building communities as well as being an enabler of multicultural dialogue and innovation.
The headquarters of private investment and property development firm A.R.M. Holding are located in a one storey building in Dubai’s Al Wasl district, nestled inside a residential community and overlooking the city’s impressive skyline of high-rise towers. The minimalist office block houses an exceptional collection of contemporary artworks, featuring artists from the region and beyond, including the likes of Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Moath Alofi, and Lamya Gargash, amongst others.
Hung in the reception area of the company’s entrance hall is a small work by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam. Composed of hand-painted pieces of paper and recalling a cityscape bearing unmistakable signs of destruction, Azzam’s collage shows the impact of conflict on his community, evoking the need for reconstruction and renewal.
Further into the company’s offices, a work by Japanese artist Katsumi Hayakawa shows a dense urban landscape seen from above. Known for his three-dimensional works made from cut paper, Katsumi’s work resembles the architectural models one might find in urban planning and design offices.
Centred around the theme of ‘Constructing Identities’, all of the works in the A.R.M. Holding Art Collection are in some way connected to the topics of architecture, urbanism or landscape, and their respective roles in building and shaping societies. In linking back to this curatorial concept, they reflect the company’s mission of developing communities through its real-estate projects as well as the value it places on multicultural dialogue and innovation.
“This is the main purpose of a corporate collection,” says Pablo del Val, Artistic Director of Art Dubai and curatorial advisor to the A.R.M. Holding Art Collection, “corporate collections are an extension of the philosophy and the ethos of their companies. Sometimes, not everyone understands what a company does and stands for. A corporate collection can help people grasp this more poetical part of a corporation and why it was created. The most important corporate collections really speak a lot about who is behind them.”
Some of the artworks, such as Hamra Abbas’ Construction Drawing 1 (Square), a marble inlay work featuring a circular web of lines of black granite on a white marble background, directly recall architectural compositions.
Others, like Emirati sculptor Shaikha Al Mazrou’s Focal Point, a steel installation resembling soft paper, or else German painter Thilo Heinzmann’s O.T., a painting made with pure and unbound pigment, do so in a more abstract way, through notions like materiality and colour.
“There’s an entire dialogue among all of the works about the main subjects that A.R.M. Holding is involved and interested in. They are, of course, discussing what the company stands for, but are at the same time very conscious of where the company is based and what it is like to build communities in a very complex city. If you stop going to Dubai for six months, you will probably find a new place when you return. This is what the company does – building a future that is environmentally-conscious, rich in identities, and that engages and embraces the variety of nationalities and cultures that call Dubai home,” adds del Val.
The A.R.M. Holding Art Collection is part of the company’s wider commitment to supporting art and culture in the UAE.
“Even though we had already supported and nourished creative talent through a multitude of different initiatives as part of the region’s most important cultural events such as Art Dubai and Dubai Design Week, we felt that building and investing in a collection of our own would reaffirm our commitment to the arts and culture community in the UAE,” says Mohammad Al Shehhi, CEO of A.R.M. Holding, “the A.R.M. Holding Art Collection began with the realization that culture and creativity play a key role in enabling and boosting economic development, inspiring positive change and promoting prosperity within our society.”
The collection is one of few in what is currently a relatively sparse landscape of corporate art collections in the UAE. Del Val believes the company can become a model for others to follow.
“It’s very important to understand that the A.R.M. Holding Art Collection began with this social and community purpose at its core and that’s the right way to start. I think that in a couple of years the collection will be one of the leading ones in the country,” he says.
A.R.M. Holding’s pioneering role is also reflected in their contribution to Dubai Collection. Earlier this year, the company became the first-ever corporate patron to lend artworks to the initiative.
Al Shehhi says, “helping support the Government’s vision for the future of culture in Dubai is an honour. The vision they have set out is in complete alignment with our aim to cultivate a collaborative community as well as foster creativity and innovation. We felt it important to lend part of our collection to support the city’s creative community, which has been at the core of everything we do.”
For del Val, the true value the collection adds to its home city goes well beyond supporting the local art scene, “in a country that doesn’t have many museums, A.R.M. Holding preserves some of Dubai’s history for the future. The role that the company plays here is extremely important because it allows these works to be seen, studied, and become a part of the history of the UAE. An art collection helps to maintain and preserve the memory of what happened and gives the country a piece of cultural heritage.”
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