Figurines

2026Steel structure with marble, sandstone, fibreglass, brass7 sculptures; dimensions variable

Iván Argote’s practice reimagines monuments and public space, inviting new relationships between history, memory, and everyday life. Figurines (2026) transforms archaeological objects from sites across Abu Dhabi—including Umm Al Nar and Jebel Hafeet—into a monumental, inhabitable landscape. Enlarging these intimate forms to human scale, the work shifts them from museum artefacts into spaces for gathering, encounter, and play, encouraging visitors to experience the past through direct physical engagement. Inspired by anonymous makers and the objects of everyday life, Figurines questions conventional ideas of monumentality, authorship, and historical value. By bringing archaeology into the public realm, the installation invites us to consider what objects and public spaces from our own time might one day become traces of the present.

Artist's Biography

Iván Argote

Paris, France

Iván Argote works across sculpture, public installation, film, painting, and performance. His practice reimagines public space by questioning historical narratives, monuments, and systems of power through humour, tenderness, and poetic intervention. Blending critique with playful gestures, he transforms public sites into spaces for dialogue, inviting audiences to reconsider how memory and belonging are constructed and how shared spaces might foster new ways of living together. His work has been presented in leading institutions including the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2022); the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2025); and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) (2025). Argote studied graphic design at the National University of Colombia (2004) before earning an MFA from the ENSBA, Paris (2008). He received the SAM Prize for Contemporary Art (2011) and the Audi Talents Award (2013).

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