On the occasion of the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi, Emirati designer, curator and photographer Omar Al Gurg presents a specially curated installation with Deutsche Bank, featuring a selection of photographs from his 2021 expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro.
Omar Al Gurg: Everyman’s Mountain, explores the mountain’s evolving landscapes and subtle ecological narratives, documenting a living ecosystem shaped by natural forces and human presence. Through a sensitive photographic approach, Al Gurg draws attention to the intricate relationship between landscape, environmental change and the resilience of nature.
The Moorland series specifically focuses on terrain recovering from a fire believed to have been caused by honey harvesting. Through close observations of plants and trees beginning to regenerate within the charred landscape, Al Gurg captures the gradual return of life to a site marked by disturbance. Attentive to light, atmosphere and often-overlooked details, his photographs transform this landscape into a quiet reflection on resilience, renewal and nature’s enduring capacity to recover.
The project is also accompanied by Al Gurg’s book, Kilimanjaro: Everyman’s Mountain, which extends this visual exploration into a compelling photographic journey through the mountain’s striking beauty and ecological uniqueness. The publication serves as a tribute to Kilimanjaro as a living, evolving environment, inviting reflection on the forces that shape its landscapes and the delicate balance between human activity and the natural world.
The presentation also reflects a shared interest in sustainability and ecological regeneration, a commitment embodied by Bruno Bianchini, a sustainability advocate and business leader whose work focuses on systemic change and environmental responsibility.
For more than 45 years, the Deutsche Bank Collection has championed pioneering international artists, establishing itself as one of the leading corporate art collections globally. Through its ongoing engagement with contemporary art and visual culture, the collection continues to create opportunities for artistic perspectives that encourage new ways of seeing and understanding the world.