Abu Dhabi turns decommissioned airport into immersive gallery

Abu Dhabi turned an old airport into an art fair. Nomad, a global pop-up art gallery, has taken over the decommissioned Terminal 1 of Zayed International Airport. Visitors check in, get boarding passes, and walk through old security lanes into departure gates now filled with art. Pieces by both local and international artists play with the memory of what the space once was: Persian carpets are folded into paper planes. Chairs are a major theme throughout, a tribute to decades of waiting. In a region that defaults to razing the old for the new, giving a defunct terminal a second life is a sign that some Gulf landmarks are worth preserving.