terrena

Terrena is a site-responsive expedition-style field laboratory for mid- and late-career land artists, offering a research-based platform for deep, sustained inquiry for monumental and ephemeral works.

The inaugural edition, taking place in November 2026, convenes a cohort of leading land artists for a six-week expedition on Socotra, an island of singular ecological and geological identity. Artists will live and work across three mobile field camps—anchored in the island’s coastal zone, desert interior, and endemic dragon blood tree forest—encountering landscape not as backdrop but as co-author.

Each fellow has the opportunity to create an emphemeral site-specific work during the program, but the expedition also gives space for a space for in-depth research, planning, material testing, and dialogue towards future large-scale works. The program culminates not in a traditional exhibition, but in conceptual prototyping, with the potential to return in a more ambitious solo expedition to realize permanent landworks, contingent on environmental stewardship and regional support.

Drawing from lineages of land art, environmental stewardship, and terrestrial semiotics, Terrena exists outside the logic of conventional residencies and fellowships. It is not a retreat, but a field laboratory.

In collaboration with Abu Dhabi Art Hub, who oversee the island's only artist residency, Terrena is designed as a collaborative venture between local partners and transnational artistic networks. Its long-term vision is to seed a cultural infrastructure for land art in Socotra, positioning the island as a locus of ecological advocacy and aesthetic experimentation in large-scale works of art.

We seek artists by invitation whose practices are rooted in sustained engagement with landscape as site of political, ecological, and aesthetic inquiry. This field laboratory is designed for mid- to late-career practitioners with a demonstrated history of working at scale, often in remote or extreme environments, and with a capacity for long-form, context-responsive creation. Ideal candidates operate at the intersection of art, fieldwork, and environmental thinking.

artists

weeks

field camps

Funding Terrena positions the UAE at the forefront of a global dialogue around site-responsive and ecologically attuned artistic practices. The UAE not only amplifies its cultural leadership but also asserts its role as a steward of artistic experimentation in environmentally significant territories. This program becomes a form of cultural soft power—one that aligns the UAE with values of sustainability, global connectivity, and intellectual rigor,

cultural and environmental tourism

cultural diplomacy through public art

While ephemeral works will emerge during the initial fellowship, Terrena is designed to lay the groundwork for a second phase of permanent, large-scale land installations—transforming Socotra into a singular destination for cultural tourism. These monumental works would become iconic markers within the island’s landscape, drawing visitors, scholars, and media attention for decades to come.

promote Socotra's profile

UAE as a center for innovation in arts

Supporting this program enables the UAE to shape how Socotra is imagined globally—not merely as a site of geopolitical interest, but as a locus of cultural production and environmental significance. Land art works of the scale and caliber envisioned through Terrena often become iconic destinations in themselves. By funding such a program early in its development, the UAE secures not only naming rights and diplomatic credit, but also long-term tourism and media dividends.

Much like the country’s investment in museums, biennials, and architecture, Terrena exemplifies a commitment to forward-thinking, globally relevant cultural programming. However, it expands the geographic and conceptual footprint of that investment—beyond urban centers and institutional walls—into a more elemental, immersive form of cultural production.