Warehouse Project, 2016 (still)
For Warehouse project, Vikram Divecha has, as part and for the duration of his concept, bartered possession of real estate at Alserkal Avenue with a general trading company requiring storage facilities, without relinquishing the warehouse’s intended function as an art space. In exchange, the trader has allowed their goods and activities to be exhibited from 14 March – 11 June 2016.
Divecha facilitated the exchange by brokering an arrangement between Alserkal Avenue and the general trading company for up to a four-month period. The arrangement, in effect, diverts the flow of these commodities through the Warehouse Project, turning it into a spatial node in the global economy of capital circulation. While serving as a temporary storage space, the warehouse itself also transforms into a situation that conflates art, commerce and commodities. The site of exchange becomes one of intersection. The market replaces the artist and becomes a visible hand that sculpts the form and volume of stock. The situation reframes the towers of cartons as fluctuating sculptures, as a fax or phone call could quickly reconfigure them.
The situation is initiated when shipments of toys (Zippy, Hello Kitty, Little Tikes, i-Que Intelligent Robot, etc.), arrive from China. At unpredictable times these goods, each with their own stock-keeping unit (SKU), will move through various nodes, to be distributed across the GCC. Before they are delivered to their ultimate destination, their brief stay at Warehouse project reveals their alternative potential - to step out as art. Located within two circuits of reality, the goods are consumed by an art audience, whilst remaining concealed as standardized units. This instantly accrued surplus ‘art’ value is subtracted the moment they are pushed further to feed another consumption cycle.
The situation is isomorphic. Warehouse 82, set among vibrant galleries in Dubai, exhibits itself as one multivalent unit among many others. Alserkal Avenue acts as the mechanism of that transformation. Real estate, art and commodities become equivalent containers in this neighbourhood, as capital makes no distinction between the modifiers ‘cultural’ and ‘economic’. We are surrounded by a broader assortment of SKUs, each one registering the Avenue’s own transition from industrial to cultural. As spectators, moving in and out, we participate in this situation, witnessing the performance of capital.