‘Dynamo’ @ España Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE

Created by Studio Daniel Canogar in collaboration with sound artist Francisco Lopez and AC/E, a Spanish agency that promotes cultural projects, Dynamo 2021 is an impressive display of form and function. Comprised of multiple looped screens with visuals and sound both activated by touch-sensors on the handrails that surround it, the work plays on the mechanical generator of the same name in an interactive exploration of the energy exchange that takes place between the structure and its visitors through shared space.

Studio Daniel Canogar, Francisco López and AC/E, Dynamo, 2021. Source: España Expo 2020, Dubai, UAE.

World expositions have long been hubs for innovation. We still enjoy the creations debuted at prior exhibitions today – including the Eiffel Tower which was specifically built for the 1989 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Hawaiian Ukulele music which became an international sensation after the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, and even the monorail, which transported New Yorkers into the future at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Queens. Fast forward to the present day, and it’s not surprising that one would also find innovations in art at these expositions, including at the latest Expo 2020 Dubai in the UAE, which was postponed due to the pandemic.

The Spanish Pavilion at España Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE. Source: España Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE. Image courtesy of MAHALA.

One of 192 nations taking part in the exposition, Spain’s motto is “Intelligence for Life” and focuses largely on sustainability in the fields of science, technology, production, education and art. In an explosion of colour that’s impossible to miss, as you walk towards the Spanish Pavilion you’re welcomed by a collection of large, truncated cones soaring into the sky in warm, sunset hues of red, orange and yellow. These specially adapted conical structures are not only visually striking, but they also increase airflow and bring down the temperature in Dubai’s tropical desert climate.

Studio Daniel Canogar and Francisco López, Dynamo, 2021 at España Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE. Source: Studio Daniel Canogar.

While meandering through the Pavilion with its array of exhibits and cultural artefacts, an entrance opens into an enormous white rotunda that is reminiscent of the Guggenheim’s spiral structure in New York. At the top of this atrium is a coiled walkway and housed there is one of Spanish artist Daniel Canogar’s most ambitious projects to date, titled Dynamo. Made up of digital screens twisted and turned into various loops, it evokes a Möbius strip on steroids. Suspended from the ceiling of the rotunda, it’s larger than life. The walkway has sensors along the railings, which are activated when people place their palms under them, and the installation's algorithm correlates its visual display to the volume of visitors it senses. It comes alive with a crackling and buzzing sound which gets increasingly louder with the participation of each additional visitor and is synchronised with its digital display of moving specks of light along its sculptural ribbons. It’s as if electric insects are teeming within the sculpture while the white rotunda is bathed in vibrant shades of purple, pink and blue in an almost James Turrell-like manner. As you wind around the ramp, Dynamo is visible from all angles. Cushions are strewn across the floor inviting the viewer to sit or lie down while observing it as it reaches a crescendo, after which it goes back to sleep, waiting to be awakened once again by the hands of the next group of visitors.

Installation view of Dynamo at España Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE. Photo by Nisha Berlia.

By definition, a dynamo is a machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. In this case, Canogar uses the movement and touch of people as the mechanical energy that activates its acoustic and visual display, likened to the electricity being produced in a traditional dynamo. Canogar “invite(s) the audience to imagine innovative forms of collaboration using technology, art and science,” by combining multiple forms of art including sound art, light art, sculpture, architecture, digital media, and programming. It's an immersive multisensory experience, which despite quick-moving and flashing visual and acoustic displays, is oddly meditative, hypnotic, and calming. This highly conceptual work is completely unexpected yet intellectually and physically accessible to its visitors.

Source: Studio Daniel Canogar.

Various art movements in the current millennium call for us to look critically at our sociopolitical world, and Dynamo’s message of imagination, connection, and sustainability is exactly what the world needs in a post-pandemic era. After WWI, Europe witnessed the return to order, and Dynamo argues that in its conception in 2020 and postponed display in 2021-22, we need a return to hope. It is through this kind of creative innovation and artistic collaboration that we will continue to find solutions and move forward to establish a better future.

Dynamo is on view until 31 March 2022 in the Spanish Pavilion at the España Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE.

Nisha Berlia

Contributing Writer, MADE IN BED