Nadim Karam's Politics of Dialogue Installed at UWC Maastricht

Lebanese artist Nadim Karam (born 1957 in Senegal) has inaugurated his public artwork Politics of Dialogue. The Merry-Go-Round at the UWC United World College in Maastricht, marking the school's tenth anniversary. The installation, originally created for the 2019 Venice Biennale and previously displayed at the Marinaressa Gardens, consists of seven elongated figures (representing politicians) arranged in a circle (governments) on a rotating platform (the world). The figures face each other, morphing into megaphone-like shapes, and appear locked in repetitive dialogue while a hypnotic carousel melody plays. The work critiques ineffective communication in an age of hyperconnectivity, echoing the artist's long-standing practice of creating public art in response to political and social crises. Karam's earlier works include the Era of Anxiety cycle during the Lebanese civil war and the Shout and Silence series shown in Beirut, Prague, Dubai, and Melbourne.