Residencies 2012
Artists-in-Residence (A.i.R.) Dubai
In 2012, Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, and Tashkeel, launched an annual residency programme for artists and curators to be based in Dubai in the lead-up to and during the fair and Art Week 2012.
Tashkeel commissioned UAE-based filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour, of Veritas Films, to capture AIR Dubai 2012 in this 30-minute documentary:
A.i.R. Dubai included six three-month artists’ residencies plus a curator’s residency, all based in the Creek-side historic quarter of Bastakiya. As part of the residency, international artists Fayçal Baghriche, Magdi Mostafa and Deniz Üster were commissioned to make new performative or site-specific work for Art Dubai Projects. Alongside UAE-based artists Hadeyah Badri, Zeinab Al Hashimi and Nasir Nasrallah, they were also invited to make work for Open Studios exhibitions that ran as part of Sikka Art Fair during Art Week.
The artists were nominated by representatives of the partner organisations and guest curator, November Paynter, Associate Director of Research and Programs at SALT in Istanbul and Director of the Artist Pension Trust, Dubai.
Curator-in-Residence
In collaboration with ArtAsiaPacific, A.i.R. Dubai launched an open call for curators from around the world to apply for the opportunity to carry out in-depth research, and engage in curatorial activities and critical writing over a three-month residency in Dubai. The 2012 curator-in-residence, selected by AIR. Dubai’s selection panel with HG Masters, Editor-at-Large, ArtAsiaPacific, was Alexandra MacGilp.
Based in London, Alexandra MacGilp is interested in film, video, performance and installation practices and working with archive materials. MacGilp has curated multi-media exhibitions with accompanying talks and performance programmes in London, Hamburg and Kabul, often working as part of a curatorial collective with Cassandra Needham. She contributes regularly to EXIT Express and artvehicle.com, which she co-founded in 2006.
Artists-in-Residence
Hadeyeh Badri studied Visual Communications and Design at the American University of Sharjah. She is the co-founder of Möbius Design Studio, a collective engaged in experimental processes, and conceptual and formal investigations. Her work is an exploration of typography, photography and other media.
Fayçal Baghriche lives and works in Paris. A collector of narratives and traces and an assembler of objects and films, he proposes images that thwart the identification reflex. Recent international exhibitions include ‘Architecture of survival’, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008); ‘Second Hand’, the Museum of Modern Art, Paris (2010); and ‘The Future of a Promise’ at the 54th Venice Biennial (2011).
Zeinab Al Hashemi is a young visual artist based in Dubai, who specialises in multi-media design and sources her ideas from elements of popular culture. She is also the creator of Dibs & Dips, the first Emirati pop art modern bakery concept.
Magdi Mostafa is a Cairo-based artist who works primarily with site-specific, research-driven sound projects, multimedia installations and experimental music. Exhibitions include ‘Invisible Presence’, Malawian museum, Cairo (2009); ‘The One & the Multiple’, La Capella de Barcelona (2010); ‘Sound Cells (Fridays’)‘, Cairo Opera House (2010).
Nasir Nasrallah is a Sharjah-based visual artist. His practice is driven by the need to experiment with new concepts and methodologies and to transform raw materials into art. Nasrallah’s first solo exhibition was held at the Sharjah Art Museum (2009). Other international exhibitions include The Fine Arts Creative Gulf Artists, Kuwait (2009) and Sana’a International Forum for Plastic Arts (2009). Nasrallah is vice chairman of the Emirates Fine Arts Society.
Deniz Üster is based in Glasgow and Istanbul. Her work often implies processes of transmutation, and draws upon the language of alchemy. Uster’s work has been featured in ‘Light Courses’, Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul (2010); ‘Encrypting Signs on the Fabric of a Rhizome’, La Giarina Gallery, Verona (2011); ‘Confessions of Dangerous Minds, Contemporary Art from Turkey’, Saatchi Gallery, London (2011).
