18-19.3.2012
MATHAF: ARAB MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
DOHA
21-24.3.2012
ART DUBAI, MADINAT JUMEIRAH
DUBAI
The Global Art Forum was launched by Art Dubai at its inaugural fair in 2007. Bringing together art world protagonists for a week of conversation, the Forum has become the region’s leading platform for contemporary art discourse, with a particular emphasis on issues prevalent in the Middle East and Asia.
Global Art Forum_6
In 2012 the Global Art Forum expands to six days and features commissioned projects and research, as well as live debates and presentations.
Now in its sixth year, the Global Art Forum is directed by writer Shumon Basar and is characterized by a particularly innovative and dynamic approach.
Art Dubai’s Global Art Forum_6, presented by the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority [1](Dubai Culture), is in partnership with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art [2](Qatar Museums Authority) and starts in Doha March 18-19 before continuing to Art Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah, March 21-24.
Entitled ‘The Medium of Media’, the Forum is re-inventing itself this year. Along with the familiar array of lectures, conversations, discussions, and workshops, it includes a new roster of commissioned projects that precede and succeed the live days. Thematically, the Global Art Forum_6 looks at the double meaning of the term ‘media’, both within the art world and referring to the world of publishing and reportage. Underpinning this is a look back at the past year in the Arab world, and how fundamental events have been both produced and consumed as media. The Forum is, effectively, a media production about media.
Over 50 contributors to Global Art Forum_6 include: CEO and Wallis Annenberg director of LACMA Michael Govan; Serpentine Gallery co-director of exhibitions and programmes and director of international projects Hans Ulrich Obrist; novelists Douglas Coupland and Amin Maalouf; journalist/critics Negar Azimi, Josephine Bosma and Sukhdev Sandhu; art market reporter Georgina Adam; geo-strategist and author Parag Khanna; film-producer Anna Lena Vaney; artists Shezad Dawood, Constant Dullaart, Huda Lutfi, Wael Shawky and Michael Rakowitz; curators/director Aaron Cezar, Jack Persekian, William Wells and Nat Muller; Al Jazeera presenter Ghida Fakhry Khane; Demotix founder Turi Munthe; commentators Mishaal Al Gergawi and Yasmine El Rashidi; as well as filmmaker Sophie Fiennes with a special screening of Over Your Cities Grass will Grow.
Commissioned projects include a series of PowerPointsTM by writers and artists, curated by Victoria Camblin, including Ayshay+Kari Altmann, Douglas Coupland (Keynote) , Goldin & Senneby, LuckyPDF and Alex Provan (Triple Canopy); The Gulf Cooperation Colloquy dictionary by Qatari artist-writer Sophia Al Maria; a publication entitled Some Medium Stories (TL;DR), edited by Michael Vazquez featuring Emily Dische-Becker, Tom Francis, Kristine Khouri, Nicholas Sautin and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie; and a Middle East News Archive blog by Mariam Wissam Al Dabbagh. Two new collaborations between Art Dubai and Mathaf will be announced: an interactive Arabic Art Glossary, led by curator Lara Khaldi, and a project with Al Jazeera news network, Doha. Commissioned works will be made available, in both Doha and Dubai, at the new Forum-Forum space, which will include UAE research by Brusselssprout and blogger/photographer Hind Mezaina as well as works by artists Hala Ali, Isak Berbic and Banu Cennetoglu.
The programme begins in Doha with presentations of the new commissioned projects as well as discussions on the relationship between news-makers and history-making in the Arab world, and the increasing phenomena of artists turning to the medium of feature film making.
The Forum subsequently moves on to Art Dubai, March 21-24. Here, continuing the theme of ‘The Medium of Media’, the Global Art Forum_6 invites critics, historians and experts to discuss Marshall McLuhan’s legacy; the Beatles’ last ever concert; the past and future of ‘Net Art’; how news shapes art and financial markets; the Crusades told through the medium of puppetry; archiving Emirati TV; and much more.
The Global Art Forum is also continuing Forum Fellows for the second year. Led by art-critics Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and Murtaza Vali, the programme invites writers Rayya Badran, Jyoti Dhar, Rijin Sahakian and Shahira Issa to interact with the rich themes and subtexts of the Fair, as well as the challenge of writing through past and present in times of political crisis.
The Global Art Forum is part of Art Dubai’s discussion programme that includes Terrace Talks, a series of conversations on the relationship between the Gulf and wider Asia.
About Shumon Basar
Shumon is a writer, curator, Editor-at-Large at Tank magazine and contributing editor at Bidoun magazine. In London, he directs the Cultural Programme at the AA School. Recent projects there include Format: The Shapes of Discourse, and the exhibition Translated By (with Charles Arsene-Henry), which tours to CCA Kitakyushu and SALT in Istanbul. He is writing a novel set in Dubai entitled World!World!World!
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Official Media Partner
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