2011
EXHIBITING GALLERIES
AB Gallery, Lucerne/Zurich
Agial Art Gallery, Beirut
Aicon Gallery, New York/London
Aidan Gallery, Moscow
Albareh Art Gallery, Manama
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF),
Alexandria*
ARTSIDE GALLERY, Beijing/Seoul
Artspace Gallery, Dubai
Assar Art Gallery, Tehran
Atassi Gallery, Damascus
Athr Gallery, Jeddah
Ayyam Gallery, Beirut/Cairo/Damascus/Dubai
Bait Muzna Gallery, Muscat
Balice Hertling, Paris
BISCHOFF/WEISS, London
Bolsa de Arte, Porto Allegre
Carbon 12, Dubai
Cardi Black Box, Milan
Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai
Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
Connoisseur Contemporary, Hong Kong
CRG Gallery, New York
Dirimart, Istanbul
Etemad Gallery, Dubai/Tehran
Experimenter, Kolkata
Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern, San Francisco
Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Geneva
Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
Galerie Christian Hosp, Berlin
Galerie El Marsa, Tunis
Galerie Hussenot, Paris
Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich
Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
Galerie L.J., Paris
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels
Galerie Piece Unique, Paris
Galerie Tanit, Munich/Beirut
Galleri K, Oslo
Galleria Continua, San Gimignano/Beijing/Le Moulin
Gallery Isabele Van Den Eynde, Dubai
Gandhara-art, Hong Kong/Karachi
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Green Art Gallery, Dubai
Green Cardamom, London
Grey Noise, Lahore*
Grosvenor Vadehra, London/New Delhi
Horrach Moya, Mallorca
Hosfelt Gallery, New York/San Francisco
HOTEL, London
Hunar Gallery, Dubai
In Situ/Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
Johann König, Berlin
Kalfayan Galleries, Athens/Thessaloniki
Lakeeren, Mumbai
L'Atelier 21, Casablanca
Liu Ding’s Store, Beijing*
LTMH Gallery, New York
Lucy Mackintosh, Lausanne
Mah Art Gallery, Tehran
Makan, Amman*
Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York
Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art,
Vienna/Salzburg
October Gallery, London
Paradise Row, London
Pi Artworks, Istanbul
Pilar Corrias, London
Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York
Rodeo, Istanbul
Rose Issa Projects, London
Ruangrupa, Jakarta*
Salwa Zeidan Gallery, Abu Dhabi
Selma Feriani Gallery, London
Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut
Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Tashkeel, Dubai
The Guild, Mumbai/New York
The Third Line, Dubai
Traffic, Dubai
VILTIN Gallery, Budapest
x-ist, Istanbul
*Participating in MARKER, a new stand section in Art Dubai curated by Nav Haq
GLOBAL ART FORUM_5
The Middle East, North Africa & South Asia (MENASA) region’s leading platform for cultural debate and discussion, the Global Art Forum 2011 focused on key issues that bring together the arts scenes of the region with the rest of the world. Having celebrated its fifth edition in 2011, the Forum was put together by a curatorial committee chaired by Shumon Basar and included Tirdad Zolghadr, Antonia Carver and Claudia Cellini, and focused broadly on the theme of Changing Audiences. Specific strands – explored through keynotes, panels, workshops, conversations and performances – looked at the mutual sympathies between fashion and art, and how artists see their role in relation to new audiences.
Global Art Forum_5 was presented by the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) in partnership with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH) and the Ministry of Culture, Kingdom of Bahrain.
Global Art Forum_5 started in Doha at the newly opened Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. This leg of the Forum, co-curated by the Forum Committee and Mathaf's Director, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, and Head of Education, Michelle Dezember, addressed the timely topic of engaging, creating and maintaining audiences in which established cultural institutions as well as ephemeral initiatives shared their experiences.
The Forum moved on to Dubai and began with the theme of Fascination: When Art Met Fashion, which unraveled the relationship that has developed between fashion and art over the last few decades, including the role of magazine-as-broker and also how fashion houses have become some of the most notable patrons for contemporary art.
The Forum’s attention then transitioned to Disappointment Management: Artists & Audiences, which looked at how and if artists reinvent their roles in relation to new kinds of audiences.
In 2010, the Global Art Forum launched an artist-in-residence commission programme that responded to the ephemeral, discursive nature of the discussion series. As this year’s commissioned artist, Natascha Sadr Haghighian’s print and web-based project involved developing a trail of bibliographic references through the four days of talks.
New this year was a series of practical workshops that ran alongside the Forum aimed at regionally-based artists, curators and arts practitioners. Well-respected arts professionals offered advice and training in often-neglected areas such as art law, creating and managing contracts, relationships with galleries, curators and critics.
Brahim Alaoui | Jack Bankowsky | Shumon Basar | Wafaa Bilal | Pierre Bal Blanc | Germano Celant | Stuart Comer | Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy | Chris Dercon | Liu Ding | Omar Saif Ghobash | Masoud Golsorkhi | Isabelle Graw | Nav Haq | Malak Helmy | Wassan Al-Khudhairi | Joerg Koch | Vasif Kortun | Sylvia Kouvali | Jo Backer Laird | Helmut Lang | Carol Yinghua Lu | Shaina Anand & Sebastian Lütgert | Suhail Malik | Penny Martin | Chus Martínez | Salwa Mikdadi | Saeed Al Naboodah | Hans Ulrich Obrist | Rémi Paringaux | Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi | Grazia Quaroni | Rashid Rana | Natascha Sadr Haghighian | Noura Al Sayeh | Slavs and Tatars | Philip Tinari | Francesco Vezzoli | Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
GLOBAL ART FORUM ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: MirrorAudience
In 2010, the Global Art Forum launched an artist-in-residence commission programme that responded to the ephemeral, discursive nature of the discussion series. That year, Haig Aivazian and Shumon Basar were commissioned to take the discussions at the forum as source material for a series of performance-lectures. As last year’s commissioned artist, Natascha Sadr Haghighian’s work with the programme as it evolved prior to the fair. Sadr Haghighian’s print and web-based project involved developing a trail of bibliographic references through the four days of talks; the completed project is hosted here. Sadr Haghighian’s compilation of recommended reading and viewing matter for each themed discussion at the Forum embraces the idiosyncratic nature of the journeys that we typically take while researching online, and plays with the idea of bibliographical reference – and, more generally, also what it means to 'provide' knowledge or information.
Natascha Sadr Haghighian is represented by Johann König, Berlin.
Please follow the navigation on the right to view the Mirror links for each Global Art Forum Day.
The artist has dedicated the first Mirror as a special memorial to Ahmed Basiony, who lost his life in Tahrir Square in February 2011:
MIRROR 0
GLOBAL ART FORUM_5 TALKS SCHEDULE
Monday March 14
10.45–11.15 | Audiences: How Much Do We Really Care?
Chris Dercon, Director, Tate Modern, London
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
11.15–12.30 | Producing Audiences
Chair: Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Director, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Brahim Alaoui, Director of the Cultural Program, 2010 Marrakech Art Fair, Marrakech
Pierre Bal Blanc, Director, CAC Brétigny, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Brétigny, Paris
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Curator of Contemporary Art, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
13.30–15.30 | Discussion: Soft Institutions
Moderator and introductory remarks: Chus Martínez, Agent, Member of Core Group; Head of Department, Curatorial Office of the Artistic Director, Kassel
Artists’ presentations:
Shaina Anand, Artist, Co-Initiator of CAMP and Pad.ma, Mumbai
Wafaa Bilal, Artist, New York
Sebastian Lütgert, Artist, Programmer, Writer, Co-Founder of Pad.ma, Berlin/Mumbai
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
Wednesday March 16
14.00–14.45 | Ever Diaghilev
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes, and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London
Francesco Vezzoli, Artist, Milan
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
14.45–15.30 | High Price. Art between the Market and Celebrity Culture
Isabelle Graw, Art Critic, Professor of Art Theory and Art History, Staatliche Schule für bildende Künste (Städelschule) Frankfurt am Main; Co-Founder of Texte zur Kunst; author of High Price. Art between Celebrity Culture and the Market (2010), Berlin/Frankfurt
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
15.30–16.30 | Fashion Houses Art Patrons
Chair: Philip Tinari, Editor-in-Chief, LEAP, Beijing
Germano Celant, Director, Fondazione Prada, Milan
Grazia Quaroni, Curator, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
16.30–17.00 | Global Art Forum _5 Artist in Residence
Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Artist, Frankfurt/Bayqongyr
17.15-18.15 | Restoration and Reclamation in Bahrain
Chair: Bashar Al-Shroogi, Founder, Cuadro Fine Art Gallery, Dubai
Noura Al Sayeh, Archiect; Curator for Bahrain Pavilion Reclaim for the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, Bahrain
Mohammed Bu'Ali, Writer and Filmmaker, Bahrain
Camille Zakharia, Photographer, Bahrain
Thursday March 17
14.00–15.00 | Magazines: A Short History of Collusion
Chair: Shumon Basar, Writer and Editor, London
Jack Bankowsky, Editor-at-Large, Artforum, New York
Masoud Golsorkhi, Editor-in-Chief, Tank, London
Isabelle Graw, Art Critic, Professor of Art Theory and Art History, Staatliche Schule für bildende Künste (Städelschule) Frankfurt am Main; Co-Founder of Texte zur Kunst; author of High Price. Art between Celebrity Culture and the Market (2010), Berlin/Frankfurt
Joerg Koch, Founder and Editor-In-Chief, 032c, Berlin
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
15.00–15.45 | Transfer - Film and Fashion Imagery
Chair: Stuart Comer, Curator: Film, Tate Modern, London
Penny Martin, Editor-in-Chief, The Gentlewoman; Professor of Fashion Imagery, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, London
Rémi Paringaux, Creative Director and Founder, POST, London
Francesco Vezzoli, Artist, Milan
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
15.45–16.30 | Art is Business
Chair: Nav Haq, Exhibitions Curator, Arnolfini, Bristol; 2011 Curator, MARKER, Art Dubai
Liu Ding, Artist, Curator, Beijing
Sylvia Kouvali, Director, Rodeo, Istanbul
Carol Yinghua Lu, Art Critic, Curator; Contributing Editor, frieze; Co-Editor,Contemporary Art & Investment, Beijing
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
16.30–17.00 | Artistic Olympiads and the pressures of national representation
Chair: Salwa Mikdadi, Head of Arts and Culture, Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy, Abu Dhabi
His Excellency Omar Saif Ghobash, UAE Ambassador to Russia, Dubai/Moscow
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation; Chairman of Meem Gallery, Sharjah
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III
Friday March 18
14.00–14.45 | Blah Blah: On the Currency of Talking
Shumon Basar, Writer and Editor, London
14.45–15.30 | Engineers, analysers, and profiteers: in place of the public
Vasif Kortun, Director of Research and Programs, SALT, Istanbul; Curator, UAE Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2011
15.30–16.15 | Why art? The primacy of audience
Suhail Malik, Reader in Critical Studies, Department of Art, Goldsmiths, London
16.15–17.00 | Talk: Hacks, sycophants, pedants and fools: In defense of the press as public
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Writer and Critic, Beirut
17.00–17.45 | Molla Nasreddin: the magazine that would've, could've, should've
Slavs and Tatars, Artists, New York/Kolumna/Moscow
MIRROR I MIRROR II MIRROR III MIRROR IV MIRROR V MIRROR VI
ART PARK
The leading Middle Eastern arts organisation Bidoun Projects returned for its fourth year as a project partner of Art Dubai, again kindly supported by the Emirates Foundation. Bidoun curated the Art Park, an underground project space for film, video and talks, that includes retrospectives of the work of two pivotal Egyptian artists, Sherif El-Azma and Wael Shawky, curated by Bidoun’s Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and Sarah Rifky of the Townhouse Gallery, respectively, among other projects.
Bidoun Video
Sherif El-Azma: Of Cities and Women
Curated by Kaelen Wilson Goldie
From a highly refined riff on film noire to a restless portrait of a city in Super 8 collage, the videos of Sherif El-Azma explore a wealth of different forms, languages, styles and media tropes. Since 1997, El-Azma has composed a rich and varied body of work, challenging how the codes of video convey meaning, and questioning how its idioms relate to matters of gender, class, culture and identity. El-Azma plays with the conventions of soap operas and workplace melodramas to produce videos that seem like straightforward documentaries, pensive essays, or searing sociopolitical critiques yet always appear on the verge of explosion or collapse. This video program includes early experiments, alongside new, more narrative work.
Order in Satellite City, 10’, 1997
Interview with a Housewife, 7’, 2001
Rice City, 19’, 2010
Pilot for an Egyptian Air Hostess Soap Opera, 57’, 2003
Total running time, approximately 93 minutes
Sports!
Curated by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
There is something absurd, and maybe even perverse, about exploring sport through a selection of contemporary artworks. There is, after all, a rather classic, stereotypical division between athletes on one hand and artists on the other. While a number of very earnest exhibitions have been organised around the ideas of sport, competition, masculinity and the body, this video program tries not to take itself too seriously. Inspired by the spring 2011 issue of Bidoun – which explores the random, awkward, embarrassing, idiosyncratic, stubbornly nationalistic and occasionally heroic dimensions of sport – this year’s collective video program treads lightly on its theme.
Mahmoud Hojeij, We Will Win: The Arab-Israeli Conflict in 8 Minutes, 8’, 2006
Marwa and Mirene Arsanios, Ebba, 11’, 2007-ongoing (work in progress)
Ziad Antar, Football, 1’, 2008-ongoing (excerpt from a work in progress), and Terres de pommes de terres, 3’, 2009
Van Leo, Cine-Films-Angelo, 14’ total, circa 1946 (excerpts from four 16mm films)
Haig Aivazian, How Great You Are, O Son of the Desert! Chapter One, Zinedine Zidane: A Genius, a Virtuoso and the Son of a Terrorist Whore, 10’, 2009-ongoing (excerpt from a work in progress)
Wissam Charaf, Hizz Ya Wizz, 25’, 2004
Total running time, approximately 60 minutes
Wael Shawky: Wet Culture – Dry Culture
Curated by Sarah Rifky
Documents of real time actions, Wael Shawky’s works are poetic translations of events that capture illusions of social evolution and modernisation, narrative accounts of history and the communication lapses that map our social imaginaries. His works are precise articulations of intangible social realities that can hardly be put into words. Sharp, poignant and humorous, Shawky’s videos are fake-documents of true stories, in which the viewer is caught in the loose stagings of an open work. Ultimately, it is 'as if' the artist is telling you what the truth really is, and you in turn pretend to believe it.
Telematch Shelter, 4’20, 2005-2009 (2008)
The Cave, 12’42, 2005
Al Aqsa Park, 10’, 2006
Larvae Channel 2, 10’, 2009
Dodge Ram, 8’10, 2004
Telematch Sadat, 14’, 2007
Art Park Performances
Aida, Save me
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
Thursday March 17, 19.00-20.00
“In April 2006, during the Beirut premiere of our second feature film A Perfect Day, an extraordinary incident, ‘unbelievable but true,’ was to disrupt the film release and resonate strangely vis- a-vis our work. A series of disappearances followed. This story measures the distance between recognition and representation of oneself, and recounts this adventure whereby fiction has, all of a sudden, taken the appearance of a document.”
Aida, Save Me is a co-production by the Halles de Schaerbeek, Chantier, Festival temps d’images. It was first presented at MoMA, New York, and will be next performed at Tate Modern, on 20 March, 2011. The work is part of the Cnap Collection.
Going Over: The Social Dimensions of Men's Hair-Styling in Kuwait and Beyond
A lecture presented by Fatima Al Qadiri and Khalid Al Gharaballi, commissioned by DIS magazine and Bidoun Projects
Wednesday March 16, 20.00-21.00
Saturday March 19, 16.00-17.00
Going Over is an illustrated meditation on the global marketing of masculinity through hair, hair products and signature hairstyles, focusing on the microcosm of Kuwait and the 'exiting of trends' by Kuwati youth, in contrast with the hair conservatism of an older generation.
In this presentation, Al Qadiri and Al Gharaballi explore historic comparisons, hair regulation reports from Iran and a case study conducted in Kuwait; the discussion will expose the delicate relationship between hair and culture and, more specifically, between barber and client.
Art Park Talks
Wednesday March 16
17.00-18.00 | Bidoun Library Presentation
The Natural Order: How to find and read bad books about the Gulf and beyond by Babak Radboy
18.00–19.00 | Presentations on projects and cities by the 2011 Global Art Forum Fellows
Emrah Gökdemir (Antakya), Salauddin Ahmed (Dhaka), Mirna Bamieh (Jerusalem), Sumbul Khan (Karachi), Sohrab M. Kashani (Tehran) and Noor Al Suwaidi (Abu Dhabi)
19.00-20.00 | Bidoun Video | Artist's talk
Sherif El-Azma in conversation with curator Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
20.00-21.00 | Performance
Going Over: The Social Dimensions of Men's Hair-styling in Kuwait and Beyond | A lecture presented by Fatima Al Qadiri and Khalid Al Gharaballi, commissioned by DIS magazine and Bidoun Projects
Thursday March 17
17.00-18.00 | Bidoun Video | Curator's Talk
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and Negar Azimi on Bidoun's 2011 curated programme, 'Sports!'
18.00-19.00 | Bidoun Video | Artist's talk
Wael Shawky in conversation with curator Sarah Rifky
Friday March 18
15.30-16.30 | Artists' Talk
Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2011 winners Jananne Al-Ani, Shezad Dawood, Nadia Kaabi-Linke and Timo Nasseri in conversation with curator Sharmini Pereira. Also present: design studio OK-RM, who conceived the ACAP 2011 bookFootnotes to a Project, and ACAP Curator Laura Egerton. (Location: Abraaj Capital Lounge)
16.30-17.30 | Bidoun Library Presentation
The Natural Order: How to find and read bad books about the Gulf and beyond by Babak Radboy
17.30-19.30 | THE BIG IDEA
A dynamic forum for UAE-based artists and designers organised by Bidoun Projects’ Alia Al Sabi and co-hosted by Hind Mezaina
Khalid Mezaina: A Krossbreed Experience: On the journey of creating a contemporary, culturally infused design brand with an unconventional flare.
Clint McLean: The Girl Who Married a Snake
Promise of a Generation: The Accidental Majlis
Butheina Kathem: Re-imagining media: On the role of media in the Arab world
Reem Falaknaz: Community Narratives
Aya Atou: We Got Away With All of It: An exploration of site-specific city and public art in Dubai
Olivier Auroy: “bq”- hip and pious: the first burqa-inspired sunglasses made in the Gulf
Tima Ouzden: DXB Store at Art Dubai
Silvia Natale: Theory of Knowledge in Art
Saturday March 19
13.30-14.30 | Presentation
Typographic Matchmaking in the City by Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFares, Khatt Foundation, including book launch and film screening
14.30-15.30 | Workshop
Writing About Art organised by Bidoun and led by visiting critics
16.00-17.00 | Performance
Going Over: The Social Dimensions of Men's Hair-styling in Kuwait and Beyond | A lecture presented by Fatima Al Qadiri and Khalid Al Gharaballi, commissioned by DIS magazine and Bidoun Projects
ON COLLECTING TALKS
Location: Abraaj Capital Lounge
Wednesday March 16
11.30–12.15
Savita Apte, a Director of Art Dubai, and consultant Nada Raza give an overview of the galleries and artists exhibiting at Art Dubai 2011 (Ladies Only)
17.00–17.45
Ziba Ardalan, Director/Curator of Parasol Unit Foundation for contemporary Art, London, in conversation with Anna Somers Cocks, Group Editorial Director of The Art Newspaper, on commissioning, supporting and exhibiting international contemporary artists.
Thursday March 17
11.30–12.15
From Islamic to contemporary: developing a museum collection: LACMA's Curator of Islamic Art, Linda Komaroff, in conversation with Venetia Porter, Curator of Islamic and contemporary Middle East art, British Museum
16.00–17.00
Michael Danoff on the art of building a private collection
17.00–17.45
Susan and Michael Hort in conversation with author Sarah Thornton
Friday March 18
11.30–12.15
On Collecting Video: Anurag Khanna in conversation with Stuart Comer, Curator of Film, Tate Modern
WORKSHOPS
Last year Art Dubai invited Jo Backer Laird to run the first in a series of practical workshops held during the fair and aimed at regionally-based artists, curators and arts practitioners.
Thursday March 17
11.00–12.00 | The Artist/Dealer Relationship
What sorts of things should an artist expect from a dealer, and what responsibilities does an artist have to a gallery? In choosing a dealer, what can an artist do in advance to assure that he does not wind up with someone who may not have the artist's best interests at heart? Should the artist and the dealer enter into a written agreement and are there consequences to relying on a handshake? What terms should be included in a written agreement?
Friday March 18
12.00–13.00 | How to protect your rights in your work: Copyright and moral rights in the age of the internet
Once you create a work of art, how do you prevent others from wrongfully exploiting it? What rights do copyright laws around the world give you, and how do you assert those rights? What additional protections are provided by moral rights regimes? What are the legal and practical limitations on your ability to prevent others from using images of your work? What alternatives are being proposed as a way to allow limited sharing of images on the Internet?
Saturday March 19
12.00–13.00 | Commissions of Art: Dealing with Museums, Corporations and Governments
When a museum, a corporation or a government agency commissions you to create a work of art, what can you expect when you negotiate the contract? How do you protect your artistic vision in the face of institutional policies and politics? How do you protect your intellectual property and moral rights in the work? Will the owner of the work be entitled to create marketing or merchandising materials based on the commissioned work? How will the costs and responsibilities of creation, fabrication, and installation and maintenance be allocated? Will you be liable down the line for any damages or injury your work may cause?
Jo Backer Laird practices art law at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in New York City. Prior to joining Patterson Belknap in 2008, Ms. Laird served for more than ten years as General Counsel of Christie's Inc., where she was responsible for all of the auction house's legal matters in North and South America.
GLOBAL ART FORUM FELLOWS
In 2011, alongside Global Art Forum_5, Art Dubai launched a fellowship programme that aims to bring together a group of exceptional young curators, artists and arts administrators from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia (MENASA) region. Each year five cities (plus the UAE) from the region are selected – in 2011, Antakya, Dhaka, Karachi, Jerusalem and Tehran - and Art Dubai’s Curatorial Advisory Board and other leading curators, artists and gallerists are asked to nominate potential participants. The final selection is made by the Global Art Forum curatorial committee, based on the applications received.
The intense programme offered the Fellows the opportunity to engage with all aspects of the Forum, the fair and other events in the Gulf. Long-term, we aim to develop something of a “think tank” for the arts in the region – a collection of dynamic individuals who can pool and exchange ideas and experience, and promote best practice.
Salauddin Ahmed was born in 1967, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After receiving his Masters Degree in Architecture in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania, and working with architects such as Robert Venturi and Scott Brown, he returned to Bangladesh in 2000. He founded his own practice in Dhaka, Atelier Robin Architects, and has worked independently and in collaboration with other local and international artists and architects.
Mirna Bamieh was born in Jerusalem in 1983. She received a degree in Psychology / Sociology from Birzeit University in 2006, and is currently perusing a Masters in fine arts from Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Besides her work as an artist, she works as a Visual Arts Program Coordinator / Curator at The Palestinian Art Court- al Hoash.
Antakya-born Emrah Gokdemir studied at Mustafa Kemal University Fine Art Faculty / Painting Department. Since 2005, he has engaged his artworks with A77 Art Collective, a rural collective belonging to the Third World. At the same time he is a founding member of AGUSAD / Antakya Contemporary Art Association.
SOHRAB M. KASHANI is a multidisciplinary artist and an independent curator based in Tehran, Iran. He has held several solo exhibitions and has participated in over 50 group exhibitions and screenings worldwide. Sohrab is the Founder and Director of Sazmanab Project, independent artist-run space in Tehran.
Sumbul Khan is curator at Poppy Seed. She has an MA in Art History from Tufts University (2005) and has taught undergraduate Art History at Framingham State College, Massachussetts, (2005-2006) and The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, (2007-2009). She is co-editor ofBetween Intention and Reception: Art Criticism in Pakistan (published 2009) and has contributed articles on contemporary Pakistani Art for local publications such as Nukta Art and Newsline.
Noor Al Suwaidi studied visual communications at the American University of Sharjah before transferring to the American University in Washington DC to complete her BA in Studio Art. Al Suwaidi’s works range from printmaking and sculpture to paintings with a firm focus on acrylic on canvas. She has recently completed her MA in curating contemporary design at Kingston University in partnership with the Design Museum, London.
COMMISSIONS
Abbas Akhavan | for now, for the birds
for now: for the birds is an allegorical body of work referring to absence and ephemerality, consisting of audio sculptures, ephemera and site- specific installations that deal with the invasion of foreign species, the disappearance of shorelines and the shifting lines of economy.
Shaikha Al Mazrou | 107
Being developed during an eight-week residency in Bastakiya, Dubai, while Al Mazrou works alongside Abbas Akhavan and other visiting artists, 107 is a wall installation composed of motherboards, appropriated as ready-mades in an exploration of colour, forum and interaction. The work is typical of Al Mazrou’s practice, investigating of the use of mass-produced electronic waste.
Abbas Akhavan and Shaikha Al Mazrou are both participating in the Delfina Foundation’s international residency programme in the lead-up to Art Dubai 2011, through a new collaboration between the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and Tashkeel, with the support of the British Council. Both artists are also exhibiting in Al Bastakiya as part of Dubai Culture’s Open House programme.
Oraib Toukan | White Elephant, 2011
Engaging with the aesthetic and ideology of the art fair booth, Oraib Toukan points to the art historically loaded idea of the White Cube, an idea that has been sidestepped in the region’s sudden rush for the art fair. Treating the booth as medium, Toukan inverts the fairs partition walls back in on themselves to seal off a large void -- a discreet but obstructive space on prime Fair real estate. What results is an oblique memorial, or a formalist proposal if you will, for the perfect booth.
Hrair Sarkissian | City Fabric | Construction
Hrair Sarkissian has adapted City Fabric, photographs from the city centre of Yerevan, Armenia, and accompanied this project with a series of delicate site-specific sculptures (Construction). In the last decade, Yerevan has undergone a construction boom. Existing late 19th century houses were demolished and replaced with new luxury buildings, with the aim of encouraging members of the diaspora to fulfill their dream of an Armenian homeland. Unexpectedly, or perhaps not, most of the apartments remain unsold. The entrances of these (some unfinished) buildings tend to be covered with large fabrics on which an image of the building itself is depicted, creating a ghostlike town. At Art Dubai, Sarkissian has created a series of new façades for the outside walls of the fair's home at Madinat Jumeirah.
The Mural Project
Bidoun Projects presents a live mural, painted and repainted each day throughout the fair by a group of distinguished artists – Ali Chitsaz and Mounir Al Solh in collaboration with Bassam Ramlawi among them – tasked with depicting the theme of ‘labour.’ The mural’s ephemeral nature pushes back on both the zeitgeist of an art fair – which is elaborately set up only to come down again within the span of days – along with the prevailing modes of the Gulf, in which labour, of all kinds, has played a significant role in the fruition of ambitious new cities.
ARTISTS' TOURS
Art Dubai’s programme of new commissions includes interactive, performative tours devised and led by artists around the gallery halls.
Abhishek Hazra | Cantordust Touring Machine
Abhishek Hazra’s interactive tour plays on the role of the artist or the art expert as having a unique insight into the works on display and the 'circulatory narrative' that builds up around art. The title of Hazra’s tour derives from his online alter-ego, and reflects the artist’s interest in Artificial Intelligence, and our relationships with computers and the online world.
Wednesday March 16, 18.00-18.30 (by invitation only)
Thursday March 17, 19.00-19.30
Saturday March 19, 16.00-16.30
Malak Helmy | Chorus on Fair Dust
In Arabic, Habaa2 is the term used to describe the moment when individual particles of dust become visible to the naked eye. Habaa2's translation into English renders the words Dust, Aerosol, Chaos and Vanity. This tour takes in shadows, ambient chatter, storage pathways, circulating canapés, the air whirring on the booths walls; it is a walk listening to the choreography of backgrounds to sense oneself in the choreography of a foreground.
Wednesday March 16, 17.00-17.30 (by invitation only)
Thursday March 17, 18.00-18.30
Friday March 18, 17.00-17.30
RADIO
The MENASA Studio Dispatches are a series of over 60 five-minute audio works by artists working across the MENASA region, commissioned by The Island and Art Dubai Projects. Each dispatch reflects the artists' current work, ranging in form from spoken word and music to abstract sound collage. As well as creating a living archive of artistic practice across the region, the dispatches interrogate the contemporary notion of the 'studio' and the accelerated expansion of related technologies over recent years, which have transformed the way in which knowledge is produced and disseminated. The project will be presented on radio station Dubai Eye 103.8 FM, on listening posts at the fair and will be serialised for Art International Radio.
The Island is a non-profit organisation that functions as an itinerant embassy for the visual arts. Founded by curators Andrew Bonacina and Victoria Brooks, The Island develops curatorial projects in dialogue with international counterparts and is committed to the development of a collaborative model for working with partner institutions across the globe to engage UK artists with their international peers in cross-cultural projects.
Artists include:
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Hamra Abbas, Bani Abidi, Adel Abidin, Leena Ahmed & Ian Fletcher (Mauj Media Collective), Ammar Al Beik, Yazan Al Khalili, Ghada Al Khandari, Sophia Al Maria, Maisoon Al Saleh, Anas Al Shaikh, Jananne Al-Ani, Buthayna Ali, Hala Ali, Can Altay, Asli Kal & Koray Kantarcioglu, Faisal Anwar, Kamrooz Aram,Reza Aramesh, Marwa Arsanios, Vartan Avakian & Raed Yassin, Younes Baba-Ali, Rayya Badran, Rana Begum, Neil Beloufa, Doris Bittar, Zoulikha Boubadellah, Osman Bozkurt & Didem Ozbek, Ergin Cavusoglu, Lana Daher & Charbel Haber, Shezad Dawood, Jeanno Gaussi, Abdulnassar Gharem, Amirali Ghasemi, Rokni & Ramin Haerizadeh, Malak Helmy, Raed Ibrahim, Iman Issa, Hiwa K., Bouchra Khalili, Naiza Khan, Khyal Khana, Radhika Khimji, Ahmed Mater,Naeem Mohaiemen, Aman Mojdadi, Huma Mulji, Timo Nasseri, Steve Sabella, Marwan Sahmarani, Faisal Samra,Solmaz Shahbazi, Oraib Toukan, Camille Zakharia
Many thanks to ArtSchoolPalestine, Ashkal Alwan, Darb 1718, Delfina Foundation, Green Cardamom, KHOJ and Vasl Artist’s Collective. This project is supported by the British Council.
MARKER
2011 was the inaugural year for MARKER at Art Dubai. Art Dubai has commissioned curator Nav Haq to invite and develop projects with experimental commercial and non-commercial art spaces from across Asia and the Middle East, most of whom were new to exhibiting within an art fair. These five dynamic concept stands, dotted through the gallery halls, showcased work by emerging artists and were reflexive of the fair as a phenomenon that exemplifies today's experiential turn in the art milieu. The art fair is an example of the experience economy par excellence, embodying the realms of escapism, entertainment, education and aesthetics.
MARKER 2011 has been negotiated as a particular kind of convergence – an energetic space of transfer for people, brands, art, money and ideas.
The initiatives invited to take part were:
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF), Alexandria, presents the second installment of its long-term text projectThe ARPANET Dialogues, an archive of rare conversations within the contemporary social, political and cultural milieu. Excerpted from a series of dialogues that began in 1975 and took place over the US Department of Defense’s experimental instant messaging application ARPANET, the project presented at Art Dubai features a 1976 conversation between economist Samir Amin, anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, political economy Ph.D. candidate Francis Fukuyama and architect Minoru Yamasaki.
Grey Noise, Lahore, presents two separate but related projects by Lahore-based artists Saira Ansari and Mehreen Murtaza that reflect on consumer culture. Ansari’s piece, The Complete ‘Pakistani Art’ Dinner Set, depicts clichés taken from Pakistani art such as men on horseback, geometric patterns and guns, using silhouettes in the style of traditional 18th century portraits. Murtaza's work, Tastes Like Futurism, consists of a series of photographic images that depict the role of food in a future civilisation where, over time, humans have begun engineering culture using patterns of consumption as a basis for creating social concepts.
Liu Ding's Store, Beijing, is a roving platform that reflects on the notion of value and the complex politics of valuation in the art market, consisting of two components at Art Dubai. In Home and Make Real the Priceless in Your Heart, the artist sells a series of deliberately unfinished landscape paintings. Made in a factory according to the artist’s specifications and signed by Liu Ding, customers will be offered the opportunity to finish the painting themselves.Conversations is a section of the store that will organise private dialogues led by the artist with other artistic and cultural practitioners. In collaboration with curator Carol Yinghua Lu, each day of the fair will include a schedule of conversations with collectors, critics, curators and dealers, who in return for their participation will receive one of Ding’s paintings.
Makan, Amman, presents a project that reflects the community-oriented nature of the team’s collaborative projects and residency program. They will open a pop-up bar to serve a range of complimentary drinks at a fixed time each day, and will use these opportunities to lead impromptu themed discussions with attendees.
Ruangrupa, Jakarta, Mini OK-Video Festival presents highlights from this biennial event that they launched in 2003, which has become an important event in the South East Asian art scene. The video works presented are selected from across the festival’s various incarnations, and will present work from Indonesia and beyond.
DXB STORE
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of creativity in the UAE, with young designers and artists, working predominantly in home studios, experimenting with locally-produced materials to produce new objects, clothes and other design products. Many of these practitioners, mostly Emirati nationals and long-term residents, were first featured in and commissioned by the concept store 5 Green (2004-9, run by 9714 and designed by DXB-LAB), and then by other boutiques and galleries, including 50 degrees C, S*uce, Shelter, Traffic and The Third Line.
In 2011, Art Dubai launched DXB store, a not-for-profit space featuring a collection of limited edition products and artist's multiples that are designed, made and sold in the UAE. Highlighting the innovative work of UAE-based artists and designers the collection included newly commissioned objects as well as existing ranges, most unavailable commercially.
Participating artists and designers included: Alia Al Shamsi, Lamya Gargash, Diana Hawatmeh, Raad Haider, Maisoon Al Saleh, The Khatt Foundation, Fadi Sareddine & LOCAL, Khalid Mezaina, Aljoud Lootah, Manabu Ozawa, FN, Loreta Bilinskaite-Monie, OTT, Dinz, Khawla Darwish, Tima Ouzden, Leena Saoub, Hind Mezaina, Rami Farook and Essa.
Last year the DXB Store was supported by Tumi and designed in collaboration with the College of Architecture, Art and Design, the American University of Sharjah (AUS). We would like to thank George Katodrytis for his support.
ABRAAJ CAPITAL ART PRIZE 2011 RECIPIENTS
Hamra Abbas lives and works between Islamabad and Boston, but is currently based in New York. She was born in Kuwait in 1976 and received a BFA and MA in Visual Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore and Meisterschueler from Universitaet der Kuenste, Berlin. Abbas has a versatile practice that straddles a wide range of media. Her recent solo exhibition entitled Cityscapes was exhibited at OUTLET Independent Art Space in Istanbul (2010). She was awarded a Jury Prize at the Sharjah Biennial (2009). Abbas has a new publication about her work, published by Green Cardamom, London.
Jananne Al-Ani was born in Kirkuk, Iraq in 1966 and moved to the UK in 1980. She studied Fine Art at the Byam Shaw School of Art and graduated with an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 1997. She has had solo shows at Darat al Funun in Amman and in London at Art Now in Tate Britain and the Imperial War Museum. Al-Ani works with photography, film and new media. Al-Ani has participated in many ground-breaking exhibitions and publications focusing on art practices from the Middle East both in the region and internationally.
Shezad Dawood was born in London in 1974 and trained at Central St Martin's and the Royal College of Art before undertaking a PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University. Dawood works across installation and film, looking at a discursive model of practice that takes in both mystical and literary/historical narratives. His large-scale interventions often work with musicians, actors and other collaborators across a breadth of global locations including the Middle East, Europe, India and the Americas. Dawood is represented by The Third Line, Dubai, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, Paradise Row, London and Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan.
Nadia Kaabi-Linke was born in 1978 in Tunis, Tunisia. She studied at the University of Fine Arts in Tunis (1999) before receiving a PhD in Sciences of Art from the Sorbonne University in Paris (2008). Her latest solo exhibition was Tatort at Galerie Christian Hosp in Berlin in September 2010. She was awarded the Prize of the Jury at 25th Alexandria Biennial and showed in Sharjah Biennial 9, UAE. Her installations, objects and pictorial works are embedded in urban contexts, and are intertwined with memory, geography and politically constructed identities.
Timo Nasseri was born in Berlin to a German mother and an Iranian father and he continues to live and work in the German capital. Combining Islamic and western cultural heritages, his work is inspired by everything from memories and religious references to the universe, infinity, mathematics, space and volume, ornament, language, eclecticism and exoticism, constructivism, universal principles of science, the inner truth of form and rhythm. He is represented by Galerie Schleicher+Lange in Paris and Galerie Sfeir-Semler in Hamburg and Beirut and has had solo exhibitions at both galleries.
Guest Curator Sharmini Pereira is the director and founder of Raking Leaves, a not-for-profit independent publisher of artists' book projects and special editions, now regularly funded by the Arts Council England. Since 1999 she has worked internationally as an independent curator and writer. In 2006 she co-curated the first Singapore Biennale. She was a Trustee for Book Works, London (2005-2010) and an academic advisor for the Asia Art Archive (AAA), Hong Kong (2005-2009). She currently acts on the boards of several international organisations and journals such as: Arts Initiative Tokyo, Tokyo; In(de)print, South Africa and Camden Council Public Art Advisory Board, London. Sharmini lives and works in London and Sri Lanka.
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
Van Cleef & Arpels hosted Les Voyages Extraordinaires, an exhibition that unveiled the Maison's new High-Jewellery collection, devoted to the writer Jules Verne through four journeys: Five weeks in a Balloon, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.
Maison Van Cleef & Arpels, a partner of Art Dubai for the last three years, presented its latest collection of high jewellery, Les Voyages Extraordinaires, based on four works by the famous 19th century French novelist, Jules Verne.
Echoing with the work of this insatiable writer, virtual explorer and visionary of genius, Maison Van Cleef & Arpels showcased 100 unique and precious pieces of jewellery and watchmaking. These creations are evasions into other worlds of marvels and magic, requiring the Mains d'Or of the Maison in the Place Vendôme to use all their expertise, patience, ingenuity and talent. Their creative audacity is enhanced by the dazzle of shimmering stones that are defined as Stones of Character.
These pieces were displayed at Art Dubai in a decor specially designed by a man devoted to the theatre, Alfredo Arias. For more than 40 years, this stage director, a native of Argentina, has created extraordinary and inspired worlds of fantasy. He has worked with many of the greatest names in the dramatic and lyric arts, and now, with Van Cleef & Arpels and its exceptional pieces of high jewellery that perfectly express the excellence of the Maison.
