18 -21.3.2015 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
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held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai
Strategic partner
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“Art Dubai, frankly, is a powerhouse. (…) Other international art fairs pale in comparison to the sheer variety that was on offer, not to mention the programs integral to supporting a region that has had to create the community for Art Dubai to flourish.” Wallpaper, United Kingdom, March 23, 2015 "This art fair is certainly more than a money making machine… in a region where neither freedom of expression nor artistic infrastructure are generous, it has become a catalyst for both." Financial Times, United Kingdom, March 27, 2015 “Every year it evolves and matures without fail: this in and of itself is an impressive achievement. (…) Art Dubai’s 9th edition did feel different. But this could have been due to the fact that the quality was better than ever, and the presentations by 92 galleries from 40 countries were, as always, illuminating.” Ocula, Hong Kong, March 28, 2015
“Art Dubai has become a globally important art event in less than a decade.” The European, United Kingdom, April 10, 2015 وبات منصة،"الالفت أن آرت دبي تخطى صفة املعرض ".للحوار والنقاش بني الفنانني والقيّمني واملهتمني بالفنون 2015 مارس19 ، دبي،البيان
“At a time when cultural frontiers are closing and horizons narrowing, Art Dubai is broadening the international conversation about art. For that reason it is the world’s most important and radical art fair. (…) It is the art fair that makes a difference” The Guardian, United Kingdom, March 17, 2015
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“It is worth noting is that Art Dubai has transcended the label of being a fair into becoming a platform for dialogue and conversation between artists, curators, and art enthusiasts.” Al-Bayan, Dubai, March 19, 2015
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“With its roots in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, it is the biggest fair of its kind in the region and continues to gain international interest and critical acclaim, whilst also making great strides in highlighting and supporting the abundant artistic talent in the Middle East.” Buro 24/7, Middle East, March 16, 2015
“Amid 92 galleries, talks, new discoveries of works and artists, there was an underlying sense that the fair was coming into its own.” Ocula, Hong Kong, March 26, 2015
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“Dubai is coming into its own as the cool new kid in art school, and is now beginning to be regarded as a global art hub.” Art Slant, Los Angeles, March 23, 2015
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“It’s now the largest showcase of Arab artists to take place anywhere in the world and it shows no signs of shrinking.” Time Out, Dubai, March 9, 2015 “Don't be sniffy about oil-rich states; Art Dubai funds the world's most radical art.” The Guardian, United Kingdom, March 17, 2015
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Introduction
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Art Dubai 2015
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Art Week
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Galleries
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Contemporary
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Modern
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Marker
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Committees
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Honorary Board of Patrons
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Board of Patrons
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Curatorial Advisory Board
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Visitors
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Visitor Profile
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Attendance by Region
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VIP Programme
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Museum Groups
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Marketing and Outreach
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Design
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Press
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Press Attendance
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Press Coverage
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Broadcast and Newswire Media
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Marketing
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Digital Media
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Outreach
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Art Salon
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Art Dubai Commissions
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A.i.R Dubai
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Film
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Radio
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The Abraaj Group Art Prize
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Education
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Children's Art Programmes
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Campus Art Dubai
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Internship Programme
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Forum Fellows
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Global Art Forum
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Sessions
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Contributors
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Terrace Talks
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Collateral Exhibitions
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Partners
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Participating artists and speakers
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Art Dubai Team
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Contents
Projects
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art dubai 2015 Art Dubai would not be possible without the support of its partners; in particular, we would like to thank The Abraaj Group, Jumeirah Group, Emaar and Julius Baer. For the second year, Mashreq Private Banking was the exclusive partner of Art Dubai Modern. Our extensive year-round educational programming is run in partnership with The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. Art Dubai 2015 was the largest and most global edition of the fair to date. We welcomed 92 galleries and artspaces from 40 countries, presenting booth exhibitions across three distinct gallery programmes: Contemporary, Modern and Marker. Marker turned its focus to Latin America and the historical and contemporary connections between this region and the Arab world. Together the galleries featured the work of more than 500 artists from every corner of the world. From the Jumeirah Patrons Preview, March 17, to the closing of the fair, March 21, visitor numbers were strong with a total attendance of 25,000 guests, ranging from the world’s leading arts professionals to UAE-based enthusiasts.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Alongside the gallery halls, Art Dubai presents an extraordinarily extensive not-for-profit programme, including a series of dynamic commissioned site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects; an exhibition by winners of The Abraaj Group Art Prize; the criticallyacclaimed five-day Global Art Forum; a live radio station; film and video screenings; The Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program for children and teenagers; plus an engaging programme of curator-led tours, book launches, talks and other onsite events.
INTRODUCTION
The fair saw its highest-ever turnout from universities and colleges, welcoming more than 500 UAE and GCC-based students on specially organised tours. One hundred-plus museum groups and more than 400 curators and museum representatives attended the fair, confirming Art Dubai’s role as the meeting point in the Middle East and South Asia, and the global fair of choice for the art world.
Art Dubai both illustrates and acts as a catalyst in the ever-growing and deepening international interest in the arts scenes of the Middle East; the fair is recognised as the crucial cultural hub linking Africa, the Arab world and Asia.
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100+ international museum groups, participating in bespoke, Gulf-wide programmes
400+ press attended Art Dubai, including 50 hosted journalists from 26 countries Global Art Forum: 5 days of talks, presentations and exhibitions in Kuwai and Dubai, featuring 50 contributors
Education: 1,000 children taking part in workshops at the fair, while 500 students participated through organised tours Campus Art Dubai: a year-round art school with bespoke courses for 400 members
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
25,000 visitors, including 400 museum directors and institutional representatives
Art Dubai Projects: 11 artists and artist collectives creating sitespecific projects and commissioned performances, at the fair and around the UAE
INTRODUCTION
92 galleries from 40 countries, showing over 500 artists
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ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
At Art Dubai, we find ourselves increasingly invested in the complex weave that connects the East with the East and the South with the South—providing a point of connection for all those institutions and individuals in Europe and America who are seeking to engage with an art world that is resolutely global.
INTRODUCTION
In 2007, when Art Dubai was founded (as one of the first major fairs in Asia), the prevailing rhetoric was one of exchange between East and West. Now, as the fair approaches its tenth anniversary, the zeitgeist has taken a palpable shift towards more nuanced relationships built along trade routes and webs of communication; Dubai has truly emerged as a global hub and a gateway to both East and West Asia, not only for business and travel, but also in terms of contemporary art and culture.
We pride ourselves on placing outreach and collaboration at the heart of the fair, working in partnership with institutions across the UAE year-round.
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ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
With such an extensive programme of public events, this year Art Week launched a new website, interactive mobile app as well as social media channels to complement its yearly print guide. 25,000 copies of the guide were distributed across the UAE and beyond.
INTRODUCTION
ART WEEK Art Week brings together Dubai’s thriving creative industries for a week-long celebration of arts and culture. In addition to pillar events such as Art Dubai, Design Days Dubai and the Global Art Forum, visitors enjoyed an extensive programme of events taking place around the city including gallery openings, SIKKA Art Fair, talks and other special programming. Now the focal point of the region’s cultural calendar, Art Week has established Dubai as a meeting point for the art world and has helped to sustain and develop the region’s arts industry by actively building audiences and patrons.
Art Week marked the start of the second edition of Dubai Art Season, an initiative by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority.
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ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
GALLERIES Galleries
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ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“Art Dubai, however, continues to flourish. Antonia Carver, the fair director, described this edition as more global than ever with the inclusion of 92 galleries from 40 countries and 500 artists. It was bigger, more mature, with more solo booths, more installations and more performances. Several Indian and international galleries returned to the fair.” The Hindu, India, April 12, 2015
Galleries
"This year’s fair seemed both thoughtful and confident, with less glitz and more substance, as galleries responded to a steadily maturing regional market.” The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom, March 24, 2015
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INTRODUCTION Art Dubai is an international fair with its roots in the Middle East and South Asia. Known as a particularly global and innovative event, Art Dubai features three gallery programmes— Contemporary, Modern and Marker—offering audiences the opportunity to discover the work of more than 500 artists through histories and across geographies.
artdubai.ae/galleries
Galleries ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
According to an independent survey of 667 visitors that attended the fair in 2015, 94% rated the gallery halls as goodexcellent. 63% of visitors said that having the opportunity to discover new artists from different eras and regions is what differentiates Art Dubai from other art events. 29
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“It grows every year and now it boasts the largest showcase of Arab artists anywhere in the world and is one of the most global art fairs of the world when looking at the range of art and artists exhibited.” The National, UAE, March 1, 2015 “L’édition 2015 d’Art Dubaï a montré que l’événement gagnait en confiance: galeristes et collectionneurs européens étaient là et le monde arabe a trouvé son nouveau centre d’épanouissement.” “The 2015 edition of Art Dubai showed that event was gaining in confidence: gallerists and European collectors were present and the Arab World found its new blooming center.” Diptyk, April-May, 2015
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“Over the years, Art Dubai has become a fixture on the region’s art calendar and is trying to position itself as a meeting point between Africa, Asia and other parts of the Middle East.” The Wall Street Journal, United States, April 8, 2015
“The 72 galleries exhibiting in these halls were selected via a stringent independent committee process to create a diverse list of more than 500 artists. The result is a rare chance in the region to experience art from both prominent galleries and figures from the contemporary art world alongside new names and fresh up-and-coming art spaces for visitors to discover.” Time Out, Dubai, March 9, 2015
Galleries in Art Dubai Contemporary are selected by a committee comprised of gallerists and guest curators, including Chantal Crousel, Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris); Lorenzo Fiaschi, Galleria Continua (San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins); Ursula Krinzinger, Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna); Sunny Rahbar, The Third Line (Dubai); and Andrée Sfeir- Semler, SfeirSemler (Hamburg / Beirut). The Guest Curator 2014-15 is Kate Fowle, chief curator at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow) and director-at-large at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Always aiming to foreground quality and a curatorial approach, Art Dubai has a close relationship with its galleries: the artists they represent, and the works they select, reconfirm year-on-year the fair’s role as a site of discovery and diversity.
Galleries
CONTEMPORARY In 2015, Art Dubai Contemporary was extraordinarily diverse; the halls featured 71 galleries from 35 countries, from the world’s most influential galleries to dynamic young artspaces. Likewise, the artists ranged from emerging and upcoming practitioners from lesser-known art capitals to household names. The works they presented covered all artistic media—including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video, photography and performance.
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··AB Gallery, Lucerne ··Agial Art Gallery, Beirut ··Aicon Gallery, New York ··Albareh Art Gallery, Manama ··Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid ··Art Factum Gallery, Beirut ··Art Twenty One, Lagos ··Atassi Gallery, Damascus ··Athr Gallery, Jeddah ··Ayyam Gallery, Dubai / London / Beirut ··Hannah Barry Gallery, London ··Bolsa de Arte, Porto Alegre / Sao Paulo ··Laura Bulian Gallery, Milan ··Canvas Gallery, Karachi ··Carbon 12, Dubai ··Carroll / Fletcher, London ··Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai ··Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins ··CRG Gallery, New York ··Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris ··Dastan’s Basement, Tehran ··Elmarsa, Tunis / Dubai ··Exhibit 320, New Delhi ··Experimenter, Kolkata ··Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai ··Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan ··Galerie Imane Farès, Paris ··Selma Feriani Gallery, London / Tunis ··Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch, Rome ··Honor Fraser, Los Angeles ··GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide / Berlin ··Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Rome / Milan ··Green Art Gallery, Dubai ··Grey Noise, Dubai
Galleries ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
··Grosvenor Gallery, London ··Gypsum Gallery, Cairo ··Leila Heller Gallery, New York ··Inda Gallery, Budapest ··In Situ/Fabienne Leclerc, Paris ··Galerie Iragui, Moscow ··Galerie Jaeger Bucher, Paris ··Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels ··Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai ··Kalfayan Galleries, Athens / Thessaloniki ··Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna ··Kurimanzutto, Mexico D.F. ··Latitude 28, New Delhi ··Lawrie Shabibi, Duba ··Galerie Lelong, Paris / New York ··Victoria Miro, London ··MA2Gallery, Tokyo ··mor charpentier, Paris ··Galleria Franco Noero, Turin ··Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris / Brussels ··Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore ··Pechersky Gallery, Moscow ··Pi Artworks, Istanbul / London ··Raster, Warsaw ··Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York ··Schleicher/Lange, Berlin ··Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg / Beirut ··Gallery SKE, Bangalore / New Delhi ··Galerie Tanit, Munich / Beirut ··Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Talinn ··Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris / Brussels ··The Third Line, Dubai ··Viltin Gallery, Budapest ··Wentrup, Berlin ··WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town ··Yay Gallery, Baku
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MODERN Launched in 2014, Art Dubai Modern features artists who proved influential in the twentieth century, especially the vibrant period of the 1940s to 1980s. In 2015, each gallery presented a solo to two-person show, with work by masters from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Galleries were asked to submit proposals for booth exhibitions by artists whose work has proven highly influential during the twentieth century and on later generations of artists. These proposals were reviewed by an independent advisory board, made up of curators and historians with a particular interest in modernist practices of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. The 2015 Art Dubai Modern curatorial committee included Savita Apte, an art historian specialising in modern and contemporary South Asian art and chair of The Abraaj Group Art Prize; Catherine David, a renowned curator with extensive experience in the Middle East, whose exhibitions include Documenta X; Kristine Khouri, a researcher and a writer based in Beirut and co-founder of the History of Arab Modernities in the Visual Arts Study Group; Nada Shabout, an art historian specialising in modern Arab and Iraqi art, and curator, among other exhibitions, of ‘Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art’, at Mathaf:
Galleries
Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar (2010); and Bisi Silva, a curator specialised in modern and contemporary African art and founder/ director of Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos).
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
For the last two years, Mashreq Private Banking has been the exclusive partner of Art Dubai Modern.
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··Shafic Abboud (Agial Art Gallery, Beirut) ··Shahid Sajjad (ArtChowk, Karachi) ··Gouider Triki / Hatim Elmekki (Elmarsa, Tunis / Dubai) ··Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam (Gallery Etemad, Tehran) ··Mahmoud Hammad (Green Art Gallery, Dubai) ··Shafic Abboud / Abdallah Benanteur ··(Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris) ··Farid Belkahia (Le Violon Bleu, Tunis) ··Mohamed Melehi / Mohamed Hamidi ··(Loft Art Gallery, Casablanca) ··Dia Azzawi / Marwan (Meem Gallery, Dubai) ··Bruce Onabrakpeya (Mydrim Gallery, Lagos) ··Ernesto Shikhany / Manuel Figueira (Perve Galeria, Lisbon) ··Jamil Molaeb (Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut) ··Kourosh Shishegaran (Shirin Gallery, Tehran / New York) ··Aref El Rayess (The Park Gallery, London) ··Project Space: Kaveh Golestan, The Fantastical Polaroids of Kaveh Golestan, circa 1976, Presented by Archaeology of the Final Decade, Curated by Vali Mahlouji
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“Now in its second year, the Modern section was once again the strongest and most impressive category of the fair. All of the pieces in the section were of museum quality, and many of them were being shown for the first time in decades.” Blouin ARTINFO, United States, March 25, 2015
Galleries
“Despite his decades of robust art exhibition experiences at home and abroad, master printmaker, Dr. Bruce Onobrakpeya has rated his solo show at the just held Art Dubai 2015 as one of the most exciting events in his career that spans over 50 years.” The Guardian, Nigeria, April 19, 2015
“L’art moderne a brillé cette année à Art Dubaï.” “Modern art shined at this year’s Art Dubai.” Maroc Hebdo, Morocco, March, 2015
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"يقوم معرض دبي للفنون بتعريف جمهور عريض من النقاد املتخصصني وعشاق الفنون التشكيلية والجميلة بإنجازات وابتكارات فناين العالم العربي ودول مجلس التعاون الخليجي الذي يتمتع بذائقة خاصة من حيث البيئة الرحبة وروح التواصل الوثيق واستلهام الرتاث ".الفني العريق 2015 فرباير19 ، البحرين،أخبار الخليج "Art Dubai introduces large audiences of specialized critics and art lovers to the accomplishments and innovations of the Arab World and Gulf artists, who enjoy a unique taste of spacious environment, the spirit of deep communication, and drawing inspiration from an ancient artistic heritage.” Akhbar Al-Khaleej, Bahrain, 19 February, 2015
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MARKER Marker is Art Dubai’s curated programme of galleries and artspaces, which focuses each year on a particular theme or geography. This section exemplifies the fair’s role as a site of discovery and cross-culture exchange, and is a feature of Art Dubai’s extensive notfor-profit programming. In 2015, Marker turned its focus to Latin America, and the connections between this region and the Arab world—from hundreds of years of migration to today’s trading relationships, via a shared sensibility and approach to art practices. Marker 2015 took a broad and open look into what it is to produce and work with art in Latin America today. Curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Marker presented—for the first time—a multidisciplinary approach, dwelling on its broad theme through honed, specific lines of enquiry. The programme, located within the Art Dubai Contemporary gallery halls, included artists’ books, sound projects, performance and film, as well as drawing, painting and installation. Teixeira de Freitas worked with artists and commercial and noncommercial organisations across this region to develop this dynamic programme.
Galleries
The section included more than 60 artists from Latin America, plus 45 arts publications: The exhibition Building Imaginary Bridges Across Hard Ground brought together more than 20 Latin American artists and focused on understated but acute relationships between the two regions. The State from Dubai and Tijuana from São Paulo brought together the work of other publishers from their regions.
Artist Maria Jose Arjona developed an enthralling history of Latin American (and influential international) performance, enacted by UAE-based artists and students, trained by the renowned Colombian artist.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Marina Buendia and Maria Quiroga collaborated to select a group of sound works from across Latin America, experienced at the fair in specially designed furniture by Argentinean artist Nicolás Robbio.
Associção Cultural Video-Brasil took over the Art Dubai Cinema with a considered selection of film and video works by both Arab and Latin American artists, curated by Thereza Farkas.
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La Ene - Nuevo Museo Energía de Arte Contemporáneo —a mobile museum of contemporary art from Buenos Aires— occupied a booth within Hall 2 with ready-made and hand-carried works from its collection. Sadud a Ragul, a food kiosk that usually forms a part of the independent project space Lugar a Dudas, run by well-known artist Oscar Munoz, in Cali, Colombia offered homemade Colombian falafel to Art Dubai’s visitors on the terrace.
Galleries ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Marker was curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, an independent curator working between London and Lisbon, involved in curating private collections and a range of independent projects. Recent exhibitions include: ‘An Infinite Conversation’ (Museu Berardo, Lisbon 2014); ‘Apestraction’ by Damián Ortega (Freud Museum, London, 2013); ‘In Lines and Realignments’ (Simon Lee Gallery, London, 2013); ‘The Exact Weight of Lightness’ (Travesia Quatro, Madrid, 2012); ‘Like Tears in Rain’ (Palácio das Artes, Porto, 2010); ‘The Moon is an Arrant Thief’ (David Roberts Art Foundation, London, 2010). She is also actively involved in artists’ books and independent publishing projects. Freitas was Development Organiser for Chisenhale Gallery, London (2011-13); worked on special projects at Alexander and Bonin, NY (2006-12); and on curatorial projects at Marrakech Biennial 'Works and Places’ (2009) and at Tate Modern (2008).
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"With everything from film and sound projects to a performance schedule, and work by 35 artists from across Latin America, this section of the programme is one of the most vibrant and dynamic areas of the fair." Time Out, Dubai, March 9, 2015 “Bridges are made through art, be them imaginary or not. (…) In 2015, Marker will take its visitors on a journey to Latin America. This theme was selected for its connections and shared similarities with the Arab world, which appears in everything from food, language and people, to art.” Fluoro, March 4, 2015 “As the fair matures, it moves closer towards one of global and regional relevance and importance, bringing access to artists, curators, writers and works that may otherwise be overlooked.” Ocula, Hong Kong, March 26, 2015
COMMITTEES
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Art Dubai is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Ruler of Dubai. Art Dubai Ladies Preview is held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment, wife of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs UAE. Art Dubai is hosted by a country with an unrivalled reputation for hospitality and is privileged to have the support of a passionate, collegiate Board of Patrons, chaired by His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development. Our Board of Patrons—based across the globe, but with a particular interest in the Middle East and Asia—take on a crucial ambassadorial and advisory role for Art Dubai.
artdubai.ae/committees
HE Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development honorary board of patrons
Arif Naqvi patron, collector; Founder/CEO, The Abraaj Group; Board of Directors, Endeavor; Board of Trustees, Aman Foundation; Member, Young Presidents' Organization / WEF Arab Business Council / EMPEA Advisory Council / IMD Foundation Board; Board Member, Pakistan Human Development Fund (PHDF) / King Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation & Achievement / Dubai Government Education Endowment Fund / United Nations Global Compact; Dubai
HE Abdul Rahman Mohammed bin Nasser Al Owais UAE Minister of Health; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority; Dubai HE Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani patron, collector; ViceChairman, Qatar Museums Authority; Founder, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; Doha
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Saeb Eigner patron, author (Art of the Middle East: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World and Iran (Merrell, 2010)); Founder/Chairman, Lonworld; Governor, London Business School; Chairman, Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA); London
HE Zaki Nusseibeh Cultural Advisor, UAE Ministry of Presidential Affairs; Deputy Chairman, Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage Authority (ADACH); Advisory Board, Middle East Centre London School of Economics / SOAS; Board Member, Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi / National Center for Documentation & Research / Emirates National School; President, Alliance Francaise Abu Dhabi / Abu Dhabi Classical Concert Committee / UAE chapter of the International 'Friends of Richard Wagner' society; CoFounder, Abu Dhabi Classics Programme / Al Ain Music Festival; Abu Dhabi
COMMITTEES
2015 chairman, art dubai board of patrons
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board of patrons Mohammed Afkhami collector; Director, UBS Warburg; Managing Partner, MA Partners DMCC; Founding Member, British Museum’s Middle East and North Africa Art Acquisition Committee; Dubai Yasmin Teymour Alireza patron, collector; London Faiza Meyassar Alireza patron, collector; Chairman, Al Madad Foundation; London Paula Al Askari patron, collector; Abu Dhabi Maria Baibakova curator; Founder/Director/Chief Curator, Baibakov Art Projects (BAP); Moscow/ London Kito De Boer collector; Director – Middle East, McKinsey & Company; Dubai / Jerusalem Dr Farhad Farjam patron; Founder, The Farjam Collection; Chairman/ CEO, Farbro Group; founder/Chairman, Hafiz Foundation; Dubai/Paris Dr Shayma Nawaf Fawwaz collector; Vice President – Healthcare, Mubadala Development Company; Abu Dhabi Fatima Al-Mazrui Ghobash patron, collector; Co-founder of S*uce; Dubai
HE Omar Ghobash patron; Co-Founder, The Third Line Gallery; exDeputy CEO, Emirates Foundation; Founding Donor/Board Member, Arab Fund for Arts & Culture (AFAC); Board Member, Khatt Foundation; Sponsor, Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize; UAE Ambassador to Russia and Ukraine; Moscow Muna Al Gurg patron, columnist; Director – Retail, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group (ESAG); Chairwoman, Young Arab Leaders; Board of Directors, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Charity Foundation; Dubai Dr Lamees Hamdan collector; Commissioner, UAE Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2009-13; Board Member, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (DCAA) / Dubai Women Establishment (DWE); Fund Curator, Daman Middle East Art Fund; Founder, Shiffa; Dubai Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi patron; Founder/Director, Royal Society of Fine Arts of Jordan / Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts; former Jordan Ambassador to Italy; Amman
Dr Serra Kirdar patron, collector; Director, Muthabara Foundation; Founding Member, New Leaders Group, Institute for International Education (IIE); Founder/ Director, Initiative for Innovative Teaching (INTEACH); Founder, Oxford's Middle East Centre; Chair/ Founder, Copia Luxury Management; Life Fellow, St. Antonys College, University of Oxford; Dubai
Dina Nasser-Khadivi patron, curator; Founder, of DNK Art Consulting; International Consultant, Christie’s; Member, Tate Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee MENAAC / Caspian Arts Foundation Committee / Yarat Contemporary Art Organisation Advisory Board; Geneva / London
Georges Makhoul patron, collector; former President – MENA, Morgan Stanley; Dubai Fatima Maleki patron, collector; Donor/ Committee Member, American Patrons of Tate; London Lisa Mamounas collector; Founder, Culinary Insiders; Member, The Junior Associates – MoMA; New York
Yola Noujaim patron, collector; Senior Architect, ynzdesign; Board of Advisors, Design Days Dubai; Beirut / Paris
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Patricia Millns FRSA, artist, advisor Fellow Royal Society of Arts London, Board Member American University AUD Dubai Elected Member IAPA, UNESCO and Emirates Fine Art Society UAE; Dubai
COMMITTEES
Tariq Al Jaidah patron, collector; Managing Director, Al Jaidah Brothers; Member, Middle East Committee, Guggenheim Museum; Founder/Managing Director, Katara Art Center; Doha
Lekha Poddar patron, collector; President/ Co-Founder, Devi Art Foundation; Founder, Carma; Patron/Founder, Textile Arts of India; New Delhi Lulu Al Sabah writer, collector, curator; CoFounder/Partner, JAMM; Kuwait Sheikha Paula Al Sabah patron; Board Member, Serpentine Gallery; Kuwait 53
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Ramin Salsali collector; Founder, Salsali Private Museum (SPM); Awardee, Patron of the Arts, UAE, 2010-12; Dubai Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal patron, collector; Developer, Alserkal Avenue; Dubai Ahmed bin Shabib entrepreneur; CoFounder/Co-Director, Brownbook Magazine / Cultural Engineering; Dubai Rashid bin Shabib entrepreneur; CoFounder/Co-Director, Brownbook Magazine / Cultural Engineering; Dubai Bashar Al Shroogi patron, collector, curator; Founder/CEO, Cuadro Fine Art Gallery; Dubai Abir Dajani Tuqan author, collector; London Sharaf Ahmed Zaki Yamani collector; Director, Windlesham Advisors LTD; Member, Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation / The Yamani Cultural and Charitable Foundation; London
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PATRONS ADVISORY BOARD 2015 Dana Farouki, patron, collector; Committee Member, The Abraaj Group Art Prize; Trustee, MoMA PS1 / Creative Time; Dubai / New York Ali Yussef Khadra collector, publisher; Founder, Mixed Media Publishing / Canvas / Canvas TV; Regional Consultant, Christie’s; Member, Tate’s Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee (MENAAC); Committee Member, Prix Pictet / V&A’s Jameel Prize / Parasol Future Unit / Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize; Dubai Fayeeza Naqvi collector; Founding Trustee, Aman Foundation / Aangan Trust; Founding Director, Saharay Welfare Organisation; Dubai Zain Masud collector, consultant, Strategic Advisor to the Delfina Foundation, former Assistant Fair Director at Art Dubai; Moscow / London Smita Prabhakar collector; Dubai Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi patron, collector, columnist and commentator; Founder/
Chairman, Meem Gallery; Founder/Director, Barjeel Art Foundation; Sharjah Maya Rasamny collector; patron, Tate Gallery; CoChair, Tate's Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee (MENAAC); London Alia Al-Senussi patron; VIP Relations Manager – Middle East, Art Basel Miami Beach; Director, Albion Gallery, 2005-09; Ambassador, Tate Young Patrons, 2008; Member, Tate’s Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee (MENAAC); Committee Member – Future Contemporaries Group, Serpentine Gallery; Chair, Tate Young Patrons / Aiglon College Charitable Trust, 2009-10; Co-Chair, Parasol Future Unit; London Abdullah AlTurki collector, curator; Creative Director, Edge of Arabia; Co-Chair, Parasol Future Unit; Member, Saudi Art Council / Tate - Middle East North Africa Acquisitions Committee (MENAAC) / Serpentine Gallery Future Contemporary Group; London / Riyadh
Aaron Cezar curator; Founding Director, Delfina Foundation; London Rami Farook curator, publisher; Founder/ Director, Traffic, Satellite / The State; Dubai Lateefa bint Maktoum artist, curator; Founder/ Director, Tashkeel; Dubai
Jessica Morgan DIA Art Foundation, Director, curator, writer; Abraaj Capital Art Prize; London Elaine W Ng editor, publisher, curator; Editor/ Publisher, ArtAsiaPacific (AAP); Programme Advisor - Exhibition Studies and Art Curatorship MA, Hong Kong Art School; Hong Kong / New York
Jack Persekian curator; Founder/Director, Anadiel Gallery / AlMa’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art / XEIN Productions; Founder/ Head Curator, The Jerusalem Show; Head Curator, The Palestinian Museum; Artistic Director/Head Curator, Sharjah Biennial 200409; Director, Sharjah Art Foundation 2009-11; Jerusalem
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Salwa Mikdadi curator, art historian; Co-Founder/ Ex-Director, Cultural and Visual Arts Resource/ ICWA; Co-Founder, Association of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab world, Iran and Turkey (AMCA); Abu Dhabi
Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2000-06; Contributing Editor, Abitare Magazine, Artforum, Paradis Magazine and 032c Magazine; London
COMMITTEES
Curatorial advisory board
Hans Ulrich Obrist curator, critic, art historian; Co-Director - Exhibitions and Programmes, Director - International Projects, Serpentine Gallery; Curator, Museum in Progress, Vienna, 19932000 / MusĂŠe d'Art 57
VISITORS
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VISITOR PROFILE
16% 29%
1
19%
2 3 4 22% 20%
5 6 7
7% 33%
OCCASIONAL COLLECTOR ESTABLISHED COLLECTOR ART ENTHUSIAST WRITER / MEMBER OF THE MEDIA ARTIST ART DEALER / GALLERIST / ART ADVISOR CURATOR / PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATED WITH A MUSEUM OF ART INSTITUTION
VISITORS
ATTENDANCE BY REGION TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 25,000
2%
6%
9%
1 2%
2 47% ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
20%
14%
UAE MIDDLE EAST EUROPE AFRICA AMERICAS AUSTRALASIA REST OF ASIA
92% of visitors, independently surveyed by Repucom, said their overall impression of Art Dubai 2015 was good-excellent. artdubai.ae/visitors 61
3 4 5 6 7
VIP PROGRAMME
VIP PROGRAMME
“…this year’s Art Dubai brought a fresh set of conversations that were perhaps lacking at the other fairs, where the same faces tend to appear.” Ocula, Hong Kong, March 26, 2015 “Dubai is the ideal platform for beginning a serious discussion about contemporary collecting” The Hindu, India, March 25, 2015
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Since 2007, Art Dubai has built up an unparalleled reputation for hosting and developing tours that facilitate networking and shed light on the arts scenes of the regions. Over half of the guests who attended this year, and completed a survey conducted after the fair, stated that the VIP Programme is what sets Art Dubai apart from other fairs. Guests are invited to join three tiers of VIP Programming–from three to ten days, and spanning the Gulf region–while Art Dubai’s specialist Outreach team also develops bespoke programmes for particular groups and associations. We also welcome guests to a series of year-round talks and events, held in the UAE and in different cities across the world. The Collectors Circle is an invitationonly association, developed specifically for collectors and arts professionals. This exclusive programme provides high-level, personalised access to the arts scenes of the Gulf and facilitates connections with collectors, artists and curators of the Middle East and Asia. The VIP Programme also welcomes arts enthusiasts and younger collectors; events each March include the Jumeirah Patrons Preview, the night that celebrates the opening of Art Dubai in style, at the fair’s home at Madinat Jumeirah.
VIP PROGRAMME ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
73% of VIPs and members of the Collector’s Circle who participated in Art Dubai’s independent visitor survey said that they were very satisfiedsatisfied with the VIP programme. 67
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Our Collectors Circle and VIP programmes include: . Invitations to private views and opening nights of major gallery and museum exhibitions across the Gulf . Exclusive access to specialised talks by world-renowned collectors and arts professionals . Visits to Gulf-based collectors’ homes and tours of private collections . Invitations to lunches, dinners and other social occasions, bringing together unique groups of artists, collectors and arts professionals with sponsors, financiers, ministers and other decision-makers Selected Collectors Circle and VIP events in 2015 included: . .
Two days in Kuwait, with tours led by leading curators and museum directors of Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah, The Arab Fund and Sultan Gallery Two days in Doha, with private views of Wael Shawky’s first solo show at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the launch of the Fire Station Artist Residency
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First access to Art Dubai and an exclusive preview of the gallery halls and artists projects, plus an invitation to The Abraaj Group Lounge and preview of the 2015 Abraaj Group Art Prize hosted by CEO Arif Naqvi Specialised preview of Design Days Dubai – Asia’s first design fair–led by Fair Director Cyril Zammit Tour of Al Ain, and private lunch at the residence of renowned culturist and presidential advisor HE Zaki Nusseibeh Exclusive visits to collectors’ homes including the private collections of Dana Farouki, Walid Kamhawi, Mohammed Afkhami, Farhad Bakhtiar and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi Artists’ studio visits including renowned artists Manal AlDowayan, Abdul Qader al Rais and Mohammed Kazem Visit to Sharjah and a tour of the Sharjah Biennial 12 Visit to Abu Dhabi with director-led tours of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection, New York University Abu Dhabi’s Art Gallery and Masdar Institute
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ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
In 2015, Art Dubai hosted over 400 leading museum directors and institutional curators, plus over 100 museum groups - more than any other art fair, worldwide.
VIP PROGRAMME
museum groups Art Dubai specialises in collaborating with the world’s major museums, arts institutions and associations to organise bespoke tours for curators and patrons. Taking in key exhibitions and events, and incorporating visits to artists’ studios, plus special talks and presentations, the Gulf-wide tours typically include Kuwait, Doha, Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and feature the unrivalled, personal hospitality of Gulf-based patrons, artists and cultural leaders.
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Key institutional guests AM Qattan Foundation United Kingdom Aga Khan Museum Canada Agence France-Muséums - Louvre Abu Dhabi, France Asian Art Museum United States Baibakov Art Projects Russia Barjeel Foundation UAE Bass Museum United States Bengal Foundation Bangladesh Birmingham Museum of Art United States British Museum United Kingdom CAB Belgium Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan Afghanistan Centre Pompidou Foundation/Global Art Development United States Centre Pompidou France Cobra Museum Netherlands Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Venezuela / United States Collezione La Gaia Italy Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia Australia Creative Time United States Dallas Contemporary United States Davis Museum at Wellesley College United States Deccan Heritage Foundation United Kingdom / India Delfina Foundation United Kingdom Edge of Arabia United Kingdom Espai d´art contemporani de Castelló Spain Fondation Tanagra Switzerland Fondazione Golinelli Italy FotoFest United States Friends of the High Line United States Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Russia Grazer Kunstverein Austria Grey Art Gallery United States Hammer Museum United States Heart Herning Museum of Contemporary Art Denmark Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden United States Honolulu Biennial Foundation United States IADA International Art Development Association France Il Sole 24ore Italy Institut du Monde Arabe France Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) United Kingdom Institute of Contemporary Art of National Academy of Arts Ukraine Kadist Art Foundation France Katara Art Center Qatar Kochi-Muziris Biennale Foundation India Kunsthalle Basel Switzerland
VIP PROGRAMME ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Kunsthaus Zurich Switzerland Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art (LACMA) United States Lahore Arts Foundation Trust Pakistan Les Amis du, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO), Genève Switzerland Ludwig Museum Budapest Hungary MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma Italy Mathaf:Arab Museum of Modern Art Qatar Mena Arts Foundation Canada Musée d'Art Moderne d la Ville de Paris France Musée National de Art Moderne France Museu Serralves Portugal Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens Belgium Museum Het Rembrandthuis Netherlands Museum of Islamic Art Qatar Museum of Old and New Art Australia Museum of the Americas United States Museum Villa Stuck Germany Nationalgalerie Berlin Germany New Museum United States Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum Lebanon Orientalist Museum Qatar Ostrale Germany Palestinian Museum Palestine Parasol Unit United Kingdom Peggy Guggenheim Collection Italy Performa United States Power Plant Contemporary United States Qatar Foundation Qatar Qatar Museums Qatar Royal College of Art United Kingdom Royal Opera House United Kingdom Saha Association Turkey San Francisco Museum of Modern Art United States Saudi Art Council Saudi Arabia Schleswig-Holsteinischer Kunstverein Germany Schwarz Foundation Germany Seattle Art Museum United States Sharjah Art Foundation UAE Sharjah Museums UAE Society for Asian Art San Francisco United States Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation UAE Solomon R Guggenheim United States Source of Hope Foundation United States Southbank Centre United Kingdom Stedelijk Netherlands Stiftelsen 3,14 Norway
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Swiss Institute United States Tate United Kingdom The Khatt Foundation Netherlands The Menil Collection United States The Metropolitan Museum of Art United States The Museum of Modern Art United States The Photography's Gallery United Kingdom The Serpentine United Kingdom Triennale Brugge 2015 Belgium Varldskultur Museerna Sweden Victoria & Albert Museum United Kingdom Whitechapel Gallery United Kingdom Whitney Museum United States
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
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DESIGN Art Dubai takes a particularly innovative approach to its branding. Each year, we work with guest artists to build a visual identity around our bilingual logo and identity, developed by Kemistry Design. The 2014-15 visual identity took at its starting point the Art Dubai logo itself which makes use of Arabic typography to articulate Art Dubai ( )آرت دبيin a visual way that also represents the aisles and gallery booths of the fair. This kufic script expands and contracts in its various forms, reflecting the annual re-imagining of the design and functionality of Art Dubai’s identity. While the logo remains in its constant flux, each year the visual campaign is reinvented and takes on a new aesthetic. This process echoes the originality of our programme and flexibility of our model of an art fair. This year’s campaign was centred around the image of clouds; a simple and direct, yet ambiguous form that is open to interpretation. The design played on the organic and natural fluidity of the cloud while transposing it onto a constructed form. The design of Art Dubai’s gallery halls was advised by Ibda Design, an international architectural, urban and interior design practice based in Dubai, with offices in Beirut and Tokyo.
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99% of independently surveyed visitors were very satisfied-satisfied with the design of the fair. 79
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PRESs Art Dubai 2015 featured a particularly strong turnout by and support from the media: 406 journalists, writers and art critics, from the UAE and around the world, attended the ninth edition of the fair. Art Dubai also hosted an in-depth press trip that included 50 key international media representatives; their bespoke programme covered the UAE, taking in Design Days Dubai, Galleries Nights in the industrial quarter of Al Quoz, a presentation about Emaar’s forthcoming Opera District and the Sharjah Biennial. Art Dubai and its various programmes, across its three gallery halls–Contemporary, Modern and Marker–as well as the fair’s not-for-profit programming including Art Dubai Projects, the Global Art Forum, Art Dubai Film and The Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program were all previewed, covered and reviewed in over 900 articles between April 2014 and April 2015. Art Dubai's in-house PR team collaborated with the regional PR agency ASDAA to maximise its global outreach to media.
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·HK · Economic Times Daily Hong Kong ·Huffington · Post United States ·Hyperallergic · United States ·IBRAAZ · United Kingdom ·Il · Manifesto Italy ·Kalamon · Lebanon ·Kommersant · Russia ·Kunst · Presse Germany ·Kunstforum · Austria ·La · Repubblica Italy ·Le · Figaro France ·Le · Monde France ·Le · Quotidient De L'Art France ·Leap · China ·Les · Echos France ·MBC · Pan-Arab ·Modern · Painters United States ·Modern · Weekly China ·Monocle · United Kingdom ·Monopol · France ·Mousse · Italy ·Ocula · Hong Kong ·Rolling · Stone Brazil Brazil ·Saudi · Gazette Saudi Arabia ·The · Art Newspaper United Kingdom ·The · Financial Times United Kingdom ·The · Guardian Nigeria Nigeria ·The · Hindu India ·The · National UAE ·The · Times United Kingdom ·The · Times of India India ·The · Wall Street Journal United States ·V · Magazine United States ·Vogue · India India ·Wallpaper · United Kingdom
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·Akhbar · Al Khaleej Bahrain ·Al · Ahram Egypt ·Al · Akhbar Lebanon ·Al · Bayan UAE ·Al · Hayat Lebanon ·Al · Jazirah Saudi Arabia ·Al · Khaleej UAE ·Al · Quds Al Arabi Pan-Arab ·Al · Raya Qatar ·Architectural · Digest United Kingdom ·Art · Asia Pacific Hong Kong ·Art · China China ·Art · Forum United States ·Art · News United States ·Art · Review United Kingdom ·Art · Review Asia Hong Kong ·Art · Slant United States ·Arteconomy · 24 Italy ·artinfo.com · United States ·ARTNET · United States ·ArtNow · Pakistan Pakistan ·Artsy · United States ·Associated · Press United States ·BBC · United Kingdom ·Bloomberg · United States ·Brownbook · UAE ·Buro · 247 UAE ·Canvas · UAE ·CNBC · United States ·CNN · United States ·Conde · Nast Traveller United Kingdom ·Connaissances · des Arts France ·Creative · Time Reports United States ·Daily · Star Lebanon ·Deutsche · Welle Germany ·Die · Presse Germany ·Dubai · TV UAE ·Folha · de Sao Paulo Brazil ·Forbes · United States ·Gulf · News UAE ·HANDELSBLATT · Germany ·Harper's · Bazaar Art UAE ·Harper's · Bazaar Art China
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
KEY MEDIA ATTENDANCE
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PRESS COVERAGE
4%
5%
4% 2%
1 2
13%
3 4 5
9%
UAE ARAB WORLD EUROPE REST OF ASIA RUSSIA / CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS REST OF THE WORLD USA
6 63%
7
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PRINT AND WEB READERSHIP The combined reader circulation and online unique visits for media that covered Art Dubai 2015 is 27.7 million.*
BROADCAST REACH
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Art Dubai 2015 was featured on several television broadcast and radio channels including CNBC, BBC and Dubai TV. The combined global reach of broadcast and radio channels that covered Art Dubai was of over 1.002 billion households around the world.
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MARKETING ART DUBAI WEBSITE Art Dubai’s website features comprehensive information about the fair’s programmes, individual pages for participating galleries, as well as an extensive photo gallery. It is updated regularly, and constitutes an easily accessible source of information for the fair and year-round programmes. ART DUBAI NEWSLETTERS An e-newsletter is sent out every month, announcing news and upcoming events, to Art Dubai’s database of over 45,000 contacts–from collectors, patrons and museum directors to artists, journalists and art enthusiasts. E-FLUX AND ART AGENDA ANNOUNCEMENTS E-flux and Art Agenda announcements are news digests, part of an international network, which reaches more than 90,000 visual art professionals. Between April 2014 and 2015, Art Dubai made six announcements promoting the various programmes of its ninth edition using this service. RADIO Along with regular slots on Dubai Eye 103.8FM, Radio 1 104.1FM, Radio 2 99.3FM and an appearance on the ‘Business Breakfast Show’, Art Dubai is also featured through a weekly programme titled ‘Book of Lee’ hosted by Art Dubai’s Lee Xie highlighting art-related events, initiatives and news from the region and beyond. Dubai Eye serves an audience of more than 91,000 listeners across the UAE.
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
MEDIA PARTNERSHIP AND ADVERTISING Art Dubai partnered with 60 different media —print, online and broadcast—to promote the ninth edition of the fair through an extensive international advertising campaign. The campaign ran from June 2014 to March 2015, and featured over 130 advertisement placements. Art Dubai’s outreach spans advertising online and in print with publications such as The Art Newspaper and on the radio with ARN Radio.
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KEY MEDIA PARTNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Aperture United States Art Forum UAE Art South Africa South Africa ArtAsiaPacific Hong Kong Broadsheet Australia Brownbook UAE Buro 24/7 UAE Canvas UAE Contemporary Practices UAE Depart Bangladesh Diptyk Morocco Harper's Bazaar Art UAE Keleidoscope Italy Motherland India Mousse Italy Selections Lebanon The Art Newspaper United Kingdom The Carton Lebanon The International New York Times (INYT) United States* The Outpost Lebanon The State UAE Tribe UAE WTD UAE
* INYT was the 2015 International Media Partner of Global Art Forum. Printed worldwide in 38 sites, INYT has a circulation of 242,073 and is sold in more than 160 countries The partnership with the Forum consisted of a range of advertising pages valued at $29,200 in both regional and international editions of the newspaper and its magazines.
MARKETING AND OUTREACH ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
The aggregate reader circulation of Media Partners was 51.1 million The total social media following of Media Partners was 27.3 million 87
art dubai blog The Art Dubai Blog is a platform that shares and promotes exhibitions, projects, new work and ideas from the Middle East, South Asia and beyond. It is updated on a regular basis and features reviews, interviews, photo essays, artists’ projects, studio visits, diaries and more. Special series include a focus on Ramadan each year, in which we invite members of the global Art Dubai network to contribute images and texts, reflecting on the holy month in their corner of the world. Taking a playful and behind the-scenes approach, the blog also invites a guest to create a mixtape of favourite tunes that inspire or contribute to their working life.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Contributors to the blog have included: Egyptian news outlet Ahram Online; creative district and supporter of Art Dubai Commissions Alserkal Avenue; Art Dubai Projects artists Fari Bradley, Chris Weaver and Hind Mezaina; Art Bar by Absolut artists Yazan Khalili and Arnar Asgeirsson; Wael Al Awar, founder of IBDA Design, Art Dubai’s architecture partner and Guest Curator of The Abraaj Group Art Prize, Omar Kholeif. The blog also featured a photographic competition organised in collaboration with Arabian Eye that showcased three photographers’ perspectives of the fair.
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
DIGITAL MEDIA
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FACEBOOK FANS 2015: 68,626 2014: 57,514
7%
1% 17%
1
25%
2 3 4 5
25%
6
25%
UAE MIDDLE EAST EUROPE REST OF ASIA AMERICAS AUSTRALIASIA
ART DUBAI
68,626
REGIONAL CONTEMPORARY ISTANBUL ABU DHABI ART INDIA art fair BEIRUT ART FAIR
22,000 21,000 9,488 4,665
INTERNATIONAL ART BASEL (Basel, Hong Kong, Miami) FIAC FRIEZE LONDON FRIEZE NEW YORK THE ARMORY SHOW
330,000 70,000 34,789 28,562 27,010
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
TWITTER FOLLOWERS 2015: 60,700 2014: 48,898
25%
1 2
10%
7% 4%
UAE USA UK KSA OTHER
ART DUBAI
60,700
REGIONAL CONTEMPORARY ISTANBUL ABU DHABI ART Beirut art fair INDIA ART FAIR
16,600 7,244 2,003 986
INTERNATIONAL ART BASEL (Basel, Hong Kong, Miami) FRIEZE LONDON THE ARMORY SHOW FRIEZE NEW YORK FIAC
185,000 112,000 52,700 41,000 23,300
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54%
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3 4 5
94
INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 2015: 17,581 2014: 11,818 Numbers represent 49% growth since December 2014
2015
All social media figures accurate at time of print, April 2015
2014
ART DUBAI
17,581
REGIONAL CONTEMPORARY ISTANBUL ABU DHABI ART INDIA art fair BEIRUT ART FAIR
11,307 10,048 1,231 989
INTERNATIONAL FRIEZE (London / New York) ART BASEL (Basel, Hong Kong, Miami) The ARMORY SHOW FIAC
167,399 168,306 13,861 2,957
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outreach Year-round, our Board of Patrons and other friends and colleagues host private dinners and events, bringing together like-minded patrons, sponsors, gallerists and artists, both in the Gulf and across the world. Art Dubai organises events to promote the fair and its collateral events to various audiences, from media to galleries, art collectors and patrons. In 2014-15, these events included: . Art Dubai Patrons’ and Friends’ Breakfast Reception at the Villandry, London, Oct 2014 . ‘The Flying Elephant’ Boat Party organised with Gallery IVDE, Hong Kong, May 2014 . Art Dubai UAE Press Briefing (for over 45 key print, online, TV and radio journalists), Dubai, Feb 2015
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
In addition to our international outreach events, Art Dubai was represented by members of its team at major international art and culture events throughout the year. Dhaka Art Summit Dhaka, February 2014 Frieze New York, May 2014 Art Basel Hong Kong Hong Kong, May 2014 Art Basel Basel, June 2014 / June 2015 EGGO Buenos Aires, October 2014 Frieze London, October 2014 FIAC Paris, October 2014 1:54 London, October 2014 Art Basel, Miami Beach Miami, December 2014 Kochi Biennale Kochi, December 2014 Art Stage Singapore Singapore, January 2015 ARCO Madrid, February 2015 Jeddah Art Week Jeddah, February 2015 Art Paris Paris, March 2015 Art Brussels Brussels, April 2015 March Meeting Sharjah, May 2015 Berlin Art Weekend Berlin, May 2015
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art salon Art Salon is a platform founded by Art Dubai that provides locally-based collectors and patrons with the opportunity to meet and interact with other like-minded individuals. Gatherings usually take place in an intimate setting and feature high profile regional and international guest speakers. Art Salon aims to sustain and develop the region's art industry by deeply engaging its collectors and patrons. Featured Art Salon guests included: . Henry Kim, CEO and Director of Aga Khan Museum; Toronto . Aric Chen, Curator of M+ Museum; Hong Kong . Mario Bellini, Architect responsible for the design of the Department of Islamic Arts at the Musée du Louvre, Paris . Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and former prime minister of New Zealand . Alexandra de Royère, Art patron, collector and member of the International Committee of arteBA Fundación, Buenos Aires . Asif Khan, Architect and Designer, London
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“Art Dubai now has the most extensive not-for-profit programme of any fair, worldwide.” Buro 24/7, UAE, March 16, 2015
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“Other international art fairs pale in comparison to the sheer variety that was on offer, not to mention the programs integral to supporting a region that has had to create the community for Art Dubai to flourish.” Wallpaper, United Kingdom, March 23, 2015
PROJECTS
“The organic process of give and take has resulted in an array of boundary pushing work on show at Art Dubai, both at its main venue and across hot spots in Dubai.” Al Arabiya, Saudi Arabia, March 20, 2015
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Art Dubai has the strongest not-for-profit programme of any art fair worldwide. Our educational initiatives, artists’ projects and talks programmes aim to: . Nurture and develop the local arts scene by providing an international platform for young artists from the region to present new, dynamic and themed artists’ projects and performances to leading curators and gallerists . Develop a culture of debate and the sharing of knowledge, skills and expertise through educational initiatives and innovative talks programmes . Reflect on the global economic and cultural shift taking place towards the East, drawing on Dubai’s unique position at the centre of East-East, South-South dialogue . Encourages the participation and development of local audiences through interactive, participatory projects
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PROJECTS ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
81% of surveyed visitors said that Art Dubai Projects was an important reason in their decision to visit Art Dubai in 2015. 105
PROJECTS
ART DUBAI PROJECTS The 2015 Art Dubai Projects programme included commissioned site-specific works, a residency programme (A.i.R Dubai) plus a week-long live radio station and cinema. The 2015 residencies, artists’ projects and commissions were curated by guest curator Lara Khaldi.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Having recently completed the de Appel curatorial Programme, Amsterdam, Art Dubai Projects curator Lara Khaldi is an independent practitioner based between Ramallah and Amsterdam and is pursuing her MA degree at the European Graduate School. Khaldi was director of Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, Ramallah (201213) and Assistant Director for programmes at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2009-11). She has co-curated a number of exhibitions including 'Father, Can’t You See I’m Burning?' (de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 2014) and 'Gestures in Time' (Jerusalem show 6 and Riwaq Biennial 5, 2013).
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Artists commissioned to create new works for Art Dubai Commissions 2015 included: Jerusalem-based artist Jumana Emil Abboud; Brazilian site-specific living installation artist Maria Thereza Alves; sound artists Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver; Mehreen Murtaza, whose work is influenced by the legacy of experimental scientific research; and Umashankar and the Earchaeologists, a collective comprised of Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Nida Ghouse and Umashankar Manthravadi.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
The commissions were developed with local and international partner organisations creating a collaborative model designed to extend the life and influence of the project beyond the fair in March 2015. This year’s programme featured partnerships with foundations and institutions including Alserkal Avenue, the British Council, Maraya Art Centre and Tashkeel.
PROJECTS
art dubai commissions Art Dubai Commissions invites upcoming and established artists, predominantly from Asia and the Middle East, to create new works at the fair and in the city at-large. Artists are encouraged to engage audiences and interact with the fair, its economy and format, embracing the theatrical nature of the event.
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The critically acclaimed, interactive Art Dubai Commissions featured: JUMANA EMIL ABBOUD A Happy Ending: Eyes Trapped in Jars, Dwellers in the Well, Glossary for a Happy Ending: Bodies and Beings from Magical Palestine – installation of drawings on balloons, performance and an artist book by Palestinian artist Jumana Emil Abboud, supported by Maraya Art Centre. Abboud utilised drawings, poetry, objects and performances to create a project that reintroduced the mystical world where magical beings and bodies exist among us. The installation, in Hall 2 of Art Dubai Contemporary, saw floating balloons adorned with eyes, referencing a Palestinian folk tale in which eyes and souls are released from being trapped in a jar. Other accumulated folk stories were told by performers to visitors, while an artist's book depicted drawings of these tales. MARIA THEREZA ALVES Wake: The Flight of Birds and People – a major, site-specific living installation by Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves, commissioned in collaboration with Alserkal Avenue. The project was presented in two parts: Seed Catcher was an installation of plant and rubble which recalled a naturally occurring formation found in Dubai able to catch wayward seeds, located in the main courtyard of Alserkal Avenue; the second part was an indoor exhibition where research, as well as archival and new photographs, drawings and found objects, were exhibited alongside a small garden of non-native plants. Since 2001, Alves has been working in different cities around the world on Wake, a project investigating the history of human movement through seeds that remain dormant and plants that are claimed by more than one territory. FARI BRADLEY AND CHRIS WEAVER Variations for a Space and its History – a sound and sculptural intervention and performance by Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver, sound artists and musicians who were artists-in-residence at Tashkeel, Dubai, 2014-15. Supported by Tashkeel, the project took as its premise the site of Madinat Jumeirah and its history and pre-history, manifested as noises that resounded in the space. For the performance, the artists developed a script sung by a performer each day that referenced the frequencies of the architecture in Madinat Jumeirah. The sculptural element of the
PROJECTS
installation alluded to the muqarnas, an Islamic architectural motif, representing the vast difference between the physical and acoustic map of a mosque. MEHREEN MURTAZA Deep Earth Object – a site-specific installation by Pakistani artist Mehreen Murtaza, commissioned in collaboration with Alserkal Avenue. Interested in cyberpunk culture and pseudo-science, the artist's research into UFO sightings in Dubai as well as materials and metals used in Al Quoz, the industrial quarter surrounding Alserkal Avenue, culminated in a spherical sculpture reminiscent of a crashed object of other-worldly origins. Emerging from the ground amid a scene of debris, the object posed the threat of excess as well as a foreboding of catastrophe. ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
UMASHANKAR AND THE EARCHAEOLOGISTS Unsound Evidence – Umashankar and the Earchaeologists, a collective comprised of Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Nida Ghouse and Umashankar Manthravadi, has embarked on a two-year ‘acoustic archaeology' commission. Using Manthravadi's own experimental ambisonic microphone system, the collective looked at how sound can influence our understanding of ancient—and contemporary—sites, and traveled across India to measure and document these occurences. The project, supported by the British Council, manifested through an audio essay performed at the fair this year, building up to a multifaceted project at Art Dubai 2016.
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A.I.R dubai For the last four years, Art Dubai has partnered with Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and Tashkeel to run Artists-in-Residence (A.i.R) Dubai, an annual residency programme which gives international and UAE-based artists and curators the opportunity to be based in Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood (formerly known as Al Bastakiya), in Dubai. Through an open call for UAE-based artists and a nomination process for international artists, the three-month residency sees six artists working together in studios, and taking part in an expanded outreach programme of talks, reading groups, screenings, publications and open studios. The residency culminates in an Open Studios exhibition, held parallel to SIKKA Art Fair, an artist-led fair run by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, as well as a presentation of projects at Art Dubai each March. A.i.R Dubai supports artists by providing a platform to develop their practice and create new work, while facilitating exchange between the artists, the local communities, and the broader cultural landscape. Through the course of the programme, participating artists are commissioned to produce sitespecific works for Art Dubai Projects, and take part in a series of artists’ talks, workshops, Open Studios, and other outreach and
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
In 2015, the residency programme, curated by Lara Khaldi, was particularly diverse: UAE-based artists included the established, Khorfakkan-based artist Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim; photographer and writer Hind Mezaina; Sharmeen Syed, whose practice references architectural research; and multimedia artist Jessica Mein. The artists joining them in the residency from abroad are the Amsterdam-based, former Rijksakademie resident Mehraneh Atashi, who works in photography, video and installation and has been recently pre-occupied with the concept of entropy, as well as Beirut-based artist Rheim Alkadhi, who weaves poetic collages from objects, texts and images.
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community programmes at the residency house in Al Fahidi. The programme also aims to nurture and encourage intercultural dialogue through contemporary art.
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A.i.R Dubai 2015 projects included: MEHRANEH ATASHI This is a surface where violence, passivity and dream convert to landscape and What if the only witnesses are the birds – the former was a sculptural work that relied on different materials found in the UAE, such as crude oil, food containers, LED light and polyester casts of the artist's own hands, all placed in an uncanny constellation together. The second installation was an intervention on the fountain in front of Mina A'Salam hotel, in which an acrylic sculpture was placed atop the water feature in communication with the birds that frequented the area. RHEIM ALKADHI Objects at an Art Fair: Program of Four Interventions and On the Labor of Lovers – durational performances activated along roaming contact points in the corridors and halls of Art Dubai during which objects were offered to visitors. On the Labor of Lovers comprised moist towelettes, cut, sewn and folded, and presented to guests as refreshment. The moist towelettes were made from the clothes of unknown inhabitants of the city. Synaesthetic Fragrance was a scent that had no smell, nothing but colour. In Supplication Activity, viewers were asked to write their deepest desires on the back of any bill of sale, to be sealed in a metal locket by wax from a scented candle from Dubai Mall. Hairs of the Oppressed involved giant eyelashes worn in a theatre of inverted scale. MOHAMMED AHMED IBRAHIM Land Shift and Fresh and Salt – a land art intervention and sculpture, Land Shift was an exchange of a piece of land from Oman with another from Dubai. These exchanged surfaces conflated borders, value and property. Fresh and Salt comprised a sculpture made of salt water stones from the coast of the UAE and fresh water stones from the Caspian sea, wrapped with copper wire. JESSICA MEIN Safety First and Avesso – three installations using discarded building materials as a primary source material. Mein produced works that engaged with both the site of the fair as well as the city of Dubai. Avesso, an intervention on a billboard on Al Khail Road invoked questions about infrastructures and their surfaces, while the artwork under the same title at Madinat Jumeirah responded to the context of both the
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hotel and Art Dubai. For this installation, Mein re-purposed four dilapidated hoarding panels used by the hotel during preparation for events. Safety First was a construction fence built to block part of the scenic view of the creek between Madinat Jumeirah and Mina A'Salam hotel.
SHARMEEN SYED Of a Radical Hospitality: episodes of conditions, transgressions and impossibility – audio tour and installation based on research of horticultural and gardening histories in Dubai and Madinat Jumeirah as a site. Through an audio guide leading the audience through Art Dubai Modern to a garden installation of native plants, one learnt about the fluctuations of hospitality. In the garden, plants sat quietly in a gravel patch, while bearing witness to a history of migrations whilst playing welcoming host.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
HIND MEZAINA It may have been where the tales of Sinbad and Aladdin came from –a video installation based on research into the developments that have been happening in Dubai since the 1970s and 80s through still photography and archival material. Focusing on the area of Deira, Mezaina took images of the fast changing construction sites and areas around them. A monitor placed next to the video displayed archival footage from the 1960s and 70s, shot in Deira. The material she used in her script was taken from various resources, fiction, fact and especially PR language.
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film Art Dubai Film is a programme of video and film by and about artists. Besides artists’ videos shown in the gallery booths, our notfor-profit programme includes a Cinema space at the fair each March, featuring unique programmes created by guest curators and collaborations. In 2015, as part of Marker: Latin American, curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Videobrasil were invited to present curated programmes in the Art Dubai Cinema. MOVING IMAGES Art Dubai’s Film programme also included Moving Images, a partnership between Dubai International Film Festival, Sharjah Art Foundation and Art Dubai, dedicated to artists’ films and filmmakers’ art in the Arab world.
ART DUBAI CINEMA Developed exclusively for the Art Dubai 2015 edition of Marker: Latin America, this programme gathered film and moving image works screened across the last four editions of the Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil. It featured emerging artists including Guilherme Peters and Edar Santos, one of Brasil’s pioneering video makers, and a number of contemporary Brazilian artists in
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Associação Cultural Videobrasil Based in São Paulo, Videobrazil is an international institution dedicated to the fostering, dissemination and mapping of contemporary art as well as the public cultural promotion and the exchange between artists, curators and researchers. Throughout its history, the institution has amassed a significant collection of video works and recordings and productions that cast an eye on the vast and ambiguous contemporary context of the geopolitical South. Over the course of 30-plus years, the collection was built through a gradual research and databankbuilding process, leading up to the establishment of a digital Video Library. As for its artwork acquisition policy, the collection incorporates productions shortlisted for the Southern Panoramas show, held biennially during the Festival via the partnership between SESC São Paulo and Associação Cultural Videobrasil, as well as works donated by artists relevant to the collection’s curating framework. The Association keeps over 4,500 items in its collection/archive, including publications from its library, printed material and unedited video footage.
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conversation with counterparts in Lebanon including Akram Zaatari and Ali Cherri, highlighting relationships between Latin America and the MENA region championed by Videobasil since its founding.
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In 2015, Art Dubai Radio was hosted by Campus Art Dubai Core’s class of 2014-15 UAE-based artists, writers, researchers, curators and architects. Working with ideas of slowness and the construction of heritage culled from this year’s Campus Art Dubai theme, set by leaders Uzma Z. Razvi and Murtaza Vali, each participant contributed to the radio through a range of interviews, readings, mixtapes, performances and unique sound works.
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radio Art Dubai’s annual week-long dedicated radio station enables audiences near and far to have unique access to the fair’s daily life. It also offers a glimpse into some of the many conversations that take place around its conception, through a variety of sound projects created by Art Dubai participants. Working with a guest presenter each year, audio content is disseminated worldwide via web-stream and podcast free for all to hear.
Campus Art Dubai’s Core 2014-15 programme participants included Asma Alahmad, Rahel Aima, Rasha Al-Duwaisan, Saira Ansari, Vikram Divecha, Sham Enbashi, Zahra Jewanjee, Raja’a Khalid, Ahmed Makia, Hind Mezaina, Karim Sultan, Sharmeen Syed, Saba Qizilbash and Faysal Tabbara.
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art bar by absolut As part of Art Dubai's not-for-profit programming, the fair also featured the Art Bar by Absolut which saw Palestinian artist Yazan Khalili commissioned to produce a large-scale bar installation, titled The Island. Working closely with artist Arnar Ásgeirsson, Khalili created a space that was neither here nor there; a space that doesn’t belong to this world; secluded and adrift. Through realities and fiction and façades, the notion of belonging, isolation and the theatrical nature of life itself were explored and confronted.
PROJECTS ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Born 1981, Yazan Khalili lives and works in and out of Palestine, having received a degree in architecture from Birzeit University in 2003. Khalili was one of the founding members of Zan Design Studio (2005) and a finalist in A.M. Qattan Foundation’s Young Artists Award (2006), as well as an artist-in-residence at Delfina Foundation in London (2008) and The Danish Film School (2006). He held the position of Production Coordinator at Sharjah Art Foundation working on Sharjah Biennial 9 & 10. Khalili taught ‘Politics of Production’ at the International Art Academy, Palestine, and co-curated the Young Artist of the Year Award (2012), alongside Reem Shilleh. He also curated ‘The City | The Image’ symposium with Goethe Institute, Ramallah (2012). Born in 1982 in Reykjavik, Iceland, Arnar Ásgeirsson lives and works between Reykjavik, Amsterdam and Berlin. Having graduated with an MFA from Sandberg Institute in 2012. Ásgeirsson’s practice involves video works, drawings, installations and sculptures with performative aspects. Exhibitions and screenings include: ‘Small Worlds’, Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz, 2015; ‘A Farmer and his Dog, Lost & Found: Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ’, Amsterdam & Nordic House, Reykjavik, 2014; ‘Disappointing Sculpture’, Kunstschlager, Reykjavik, 2013; ‘Beneficial Genetics For The Right Time’, RongWrong / Fons Welters, Amsterdam, 2012; and ‘On the Streets of Venice’, Venice, 2011.
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THE ABRAAJ GROUP ART PRIZE
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The abraaj group art prize The Abraaj Group Art Prize is the leading award for artists based in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region. Now in its seventh year, the prize awards artists annually on the basis of proposals rather than completed works or previous exhibitions. The number of works that have been created and go on to form The Abraaj Group Art Collection has now grown to 27. Since its inception, the prize has evolved considerably and the works are increasingly exhibited in major international biennials– including the Sharjah Biennial 11 and the Biennale of Sydney and world-class museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art, Washington D.C. The Award reflects The Abraaj Group’s wider investment philosophy, which is to take viable business with great potential and create regional and global champions.
THE ABRAAJ GROUP ART PRIZE ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
The Selection Committee for The Abraaj Group Art Prize comprises leading experts in the field of visual arts including: Savita Apte, Chair, The Abraaj Group Art Prize; Antonia Carver, Director, Art Dubai; Dana Farouki, Patron, Trustee, MoMA PS1 / Creative Time, Dubai/New York; Salwa Mikdadi, art historian, Co-Founder/Ex-Director, Cultural and Visual Arts Resource/ICWA, Co-Founder, Association of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab world, Iran and Turkey (AMCA); Abu Dhabi; Jessica Morgan, Director, Dia Art Foundation, New York; Fayeeza Naqvi, Patron, Founding Trustee, Aman Foundation / Aangan Trust; Founding Director, Saharay Welfare Organisation, Dubai; Member, TATE MENAAC & SAAC committees; Frederic Sicre, Managing Director, The Abraaj Group. 125
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The 2015 Abraaj Group Art Prize winner was Yto Barrada. Her newly commissioned work, Faux DĂŠpart (False Start), was exhibited at Art Dubai in an exhibition entitled 'Before History' alongside previous work by the shortlisted artists Sarnath Banerjee, Setareh Shahbazi and Mounira Al Solh conceived by guest curator Omar Kholeif who worked closely with the artists as the project evolved.
artdubai.ae/abraaj-group-art-prize
THE ABRAAJ GROUP ART PRIZE ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Omar Kholeif is a writer, curator and editor. He is currently Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, Senior Visiting Curator at Cornerhouse and HOME, Manchester as well as Senior Editor of Ibraaz Publishing. Previously he headed up Art and Technology at SPACE, London and was Curator at FACT, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool. Kholeif has also been Artistic Director at the Arab British Centre, London and founding director of the UK's Arab Film Festival. In 2012, he was a co-curator of the Liverpool Biennial. He was a founding editor of Portal 9, an Arabic-English journal of urbanism and architecture. His most recent publications include, You Are Here: Art After the Internet (2014), Virgin with a Memory (For Sophia Al-Maria) (2014) and Jeddah Childhood circa 1994 (2014). In 2015, he curated the Cyprus Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
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Questioning how one fabricates a history, ‘Before History’ explored the layering of time through historical artifice. As its starting point, the exhibition considered the notion of history as a constructed sphere, constantly in flux, simultaneously being buried and excavated. In a world where everything is hypermediated through screens, how is one able to construct a sense of an individual history? The artists in the exhibition both individually and collectively posed questions about the sedimentation of culture. ‘Before History’ aspires to function as a meditation on how lived experience can act as an allegory of the geological processes that govern our world. It takes its inspiration from the accelerated nature by which history has been formed in the twenty-first century, and considers the decades that preceded it. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, which took the form of two artist books and was published for the first time in collaboration with the renowned international art publishing house Sternberg.
THE ABRAAJ GROUP ART PRIZE
SARNATH BANERJEE Historical tradition is preserved in the satirical work of Sarnath Banerjee whose series Temporary Autonomous Zones (2012) involves a dying ritual of ink and brush drawings on paper. Invoking a folkloric sensibility, Banerjee’s work explores the evolution of nation estates as solitary islands of utopia.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
YTO BARRADA In Faux DĂŠpart, Yto Barrada questioned the authenticity of history and museology through the study of paleontology in Morocco.
SETAREH SHAHBAZI Setareh Shahbazi further embodies the act of historical layering in the photographic series Spectral Days (2013-ongoing). Here, the artist collects found personal photo archives, and layers them through a series of effects, which involve numerous acts of printing, physical tampering, and subsequent reprinting. MOUNIRA AL SOLH In the single-channel video The Mute Tongue, 2010/2015, Mounira Al-Solh explores the performed possibilities of language, taking Arabic proverbs as her starting point. For this work, the artist invited a Croatian performer to enact a series of nineteen proverbs that are used in daily life in Lebanon and in other Arabic-speaking countries. 129
EDUCATION
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“Once the bustle of its mid-March commercial activity dies down, Art Dubai goes back to being what it is most of the year: a laboratory. In its relatively short existence, the fair has carved out a place for itself in the local ecosystem as an experimental space of educational initiatives. Initially conceived as a single platform to build opportunities for artists, Art Dubai’s programing has diversified for the general public, young and old.” The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom, March 24, 2015
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"Art Dubai has really transformed into something different. Before, it was more of a trade event; it was more about selling and less about educating. These days, it’s really about the educational aspect.” Savoir Flair, Dubai, March 16, 2015
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education Education has been at the heart of Art Dubai since its launch in 2007; the fair now has the largest education programming of any such event worldwide, providing opportunities for children through to students, graduates, collectors and enthusiasts. Art Dubai Education includes our flagship community school Campus Art Dubai; Forum Fellows; artist-led children’s programmes; artists’ talks; the critically acclaimed Global Art Forum; and in 2015, 89plus, the long-term, international, multi-platform research project. Our education programming is run in partnership with Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and with the support of the Dubai Design District (d3). The fair attracts a high level of attendance from universities and colleges, welcoming this past year more than 500 UAE and GCC based students on specially organised tours.
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EDUCATION ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
75% of independently surveyed visitors said that Art Dubai's non-commercial and educational programming is an important feature that differentiates the fair from other art events. 135
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"سلطان سعود القاسمي' :التأثري العميق لهذه الفعالية ً عمليا قبل عشر سنني وكانت يف املجتمع املحيل بدأ حصيلته تزايد الشبان اإلماراتيني الذين يقول الواحد منهم ً فنانا '.كان ذلك أمراً غري مقبول، ألهله بثقة 'أريد أن أصبح لكن الناس انتبهوا إىل انخراط عدد متزايد من الشباب والشابات يف هذا املجال 'صار أهلهم يطمئنون لسلوكهم هذا املجال ،وال شك ان ارت دبي لعب دورا كبريا يف هذا األمر فالعوائل ال تخرج اىل معارض يف لندن او اوروبا خاصة ووجود غالرييات كثرية من الشرق االوسط ثقفت الناس فنيا وال شك ان االثر عىل املجتمع االمارايت واملجتمع العربي يف االمارات كبري"'. القدس العربي ،لندن 16 ،مارس 2015
EDUCATION ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“‘The profound effect of this event on local society, over the past ten years, has resulted in an increase in Emirati youth confidently saying to their families ‘I want to become an artist.’ This used to be an unacceptable statement. However, people have paid attention to the enrollment of an increasing number of young men and women in this sector,’ says Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi. ‘Their families became more at peace with them taking this path, and it is undoubted that Art Dubai has played a big role in this. Families do not go to galleries in London or Europe in particular. The presence of a large number of art galleries from the Middle East has educated people in the arts and there is no doubt of the significant effect this has had on the Emirati and Arab society.’” Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, 2015
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THE SHEIkha manal little artists program The Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program was launched at Art Dubai 2013. A partnership with The Cultural Office, the programme features artist-led workshops, tours and other projects, the programme provides access to skills and ideas for UAE-based children and teenagers aged 5-17 with the long-term aim to encourage young people to get involved and excel in the arts. In 2015, the programme expanded, and featured workshops conceived and led by Bogota-based artist Nicolås Paris, whose work is informed by three essential interests: architecture as a model, education as a system, and drawing as a tool. Working alongside Paris were UAE-based artists, designers, architects and teachers including Sofia Chatzisatanti, Khalda El Jack, Tulip Hazbar and Malda Smadi who were interested in developing their skills in children’s art education and pursuing experimental practises. UNLEARNING workshops encouraged children and teenagers (aged 5-17) to tap into their imaginations via performance, drawing, poetry and conceptual art.
Children’s Programme Coordinator and visual artist Basil AlZeri also created maps that explored thematic educational ventures focusing on the idea of 'Looking Closer' at art.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
2015 also featured the return of Discovery Tours (for ages 5-7, 8-12 and 13-17), led by UAE-based and international artists and educators including Noor Alé, Layan Attari, Hind Bin Demaithan, Alia Dawood, Rania Jishi, Sara Masinaei, Nadine Nour el Din and Melissa Paul.
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The children’s programme catered to 1,000 young artists and was held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment, Wife of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs UAE, and forms part of the activity of The Cultural Office.
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The Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program grew this year to include artist-led workshops in UAE schools in the lead up to Art Dubai. The workshops took place in Jumeirah Model School and Al Ittihad Private School with children in grades 1 to 7. While the workshops were aimed at children, UAE-based artists and teachers were also set to gain new insight into the latest methods of engaging children and teaching art, and Nicolas Paris has developed special guides for parents and teachers, as well as new materials for children.
artdubai.ae/children
EDUCATION ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Nicolﾃ｡s Paris is a Bogota-based artist, whose practice mediates the construction of dialogue environments between the observer, the exhibition space and the institutions, to develop events and places which encourage the exchange of reflections. His work has featured in Illuminations, 54th Venice Biennial; A Terrible Beauty is Born, 11th Biennale de Lyon (2011); The Ungovernables, 2nd New Museum Triennial; The Imminence of the Poetics, 30th Saﾌバ Paulo Biennale (2012); and To Know and Not to Know, 43 Saloﾌ］ (inter) Nacional de Artistas in Medellin, Colombia (2013). 141
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“Campus Art Dubai, an educational offshoot of the commercial fair, provides sustenance of a more intellectual ilk—a vital inter-artist forum for critique and exchange. …Sharjahborn, Brooklyn-based curator and educator Murtaza Vali, a tutor at this year’s Campus Art Dubai, values the contact with artists in the program. ‘I would never have been able to know their practices so deeply,’ he admits. ‘It was a very organic, real critical space—like being on the inside of something that is just starting.’ That such a forum is provided by the premier commercial motor of the UAE arts scene is perhaps testament to Art Dubai’s sincere commitment to educational outreach and the elastic roles commercial structures can take on in this context.” ArtAsiaPacific, Hong Kong, May/June 2015
Campus Art Dubai 3.0 began in October 2014 and ended in March 2015, culminating at Art Dubai with a presentation via Art Dubai Radio, which featured a programme of interviews, mixtapes, soundscapes and unique works by the Core class participants. The class was led by writer/curator Murtaza Vali and anthropologist Uzma Z Rizvi; other tutors included Salwa Mikhadi, Haig Aivazian, Yasser Elsheshtawy, Chris Weaver, Michelle Wong, Trinidad Raco, Omar Kholeif, Sultan Al Qassemi and Sheik Abdul Basit Al Arakani.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Campus Art Dubai has been developed in part to foster informal education and critical practise in the UAE. The programme provides a setting within which participants pursuing art practise, curatorial work and critical writing engage with peers as well as experts in their fields, through group critiques, workshops, visiting lectures and one-on-one mentorship.
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campus art dubai Campus Art Dubai is a school for artists, curators, writers and cultural producers based in the UAE. The programme consists of a Core class of 16 participants, which meets every fortnight, as well as a much larger Community programme, in addition to seminars and talks open to the public.
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The participants selected for Campus Art Dubai 3.0 Core class were Ahmed Makia, Asma Alahmad, Faysal Tabbara, Hind Mezaina, Karim Sultan, Rahel Aima, Raja’a Khalid, Rasha Al-Duwaisan, Saba Qizilbash, Saira Ansari, Sham Enbashi, Sharmeen Syed, Vikram Divecha and Zahra Jewanjee. This year’s Community programme saw over 400 participants engaging courses on 'International Art Arabic', public lectures and presentations, and practical classes aimed at encouraging their practices and careers. Campus Art Dubai is part of Art Dubai’s educational programming and is held in partnership with Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, and is supported by Dubai Design District (d3). In 2014-15, Campus Art Dubai was hosted by a variety of UAE-based art institutions including A4 Space in Alserkal Avenue, Tashkeel and Dubai International Film Festival.
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EDUCATION ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
In a survey of participants, 100% of responders agreed that programmes like Campus Art Dubai are needed in the UAE and 91% felt that they had met fellow participants or visiting tutors who they expect to work and collaborate with in the future. 82% of respondents said that they would apply again to be considered for participation in later iterations of Campus Art Dubai. 145
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participant feedback* “Campus Art Dubai has become a community space/place, that I want to come back to.” “CAD was an amazing experience. It is a such a great platform for young committed artists to unite and to pick each other’s brains, exactly what Dubai needs.” “Campus Art Dubai is great! I am a secondtime attendee and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think it's a great way to meet people involved in the arts in Dubai. The core group critiques and seminars are really, really good and the public program this year was brilliant. Although it has only been running for a few short years I feel like it has already become an indispensable part of the art programming in Dubai.” “Campus Art Dubai is one of the most valuable aspects of the larger Art Dubai experience. It creates a discursive community that provides the needed and necessary network of creative professionals in the region. I have enjoyed every moment of it and am committed to supporting it in the future.”
*From a survey of Campus Art Dubai participants conducted in April 2015
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internship programme Since Art Dubai’s Internship Programme was initiated in 2007, over 500 students and recent graduates from 40 nationalities and 20 educational institutions have participated in the scheme and gone on to find further work experience opportunities and permanent placements within Art Dubai and its partner organisations. One third of interns have been UAE Nationals and the remaining came from across the Arab World and elsewhere. Internships are typically intensive three-month placements during which participants engage in a particular area of the organisation. In addition, Art Dubai works with around 60 interns and volunteers at the fair itself each year.
artdubai.ae/internships
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
In keeping with previous editions of the Forum Fellows, the 2015 edition of the fellowship programme was plotted along two axes; the first, a series of discussions addressing the topic of new technologies, to which the 2015 Global Art Forum was devoted. The fellows engaged with invited speakers from the fair and beyond and explored the online developments that are increasingly marking criticism, curatorial prose and art journalism. Particular attention was paid to the tension between timeliness and rigor; between keeping up with the present while acknowledging a complicated past. The second axis was an intensive writing workshop, for which the participants presented and critiqued each other’s work on a daily basis.
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forum fellows Each year, Forum Fellows brings together a select group of exceptional young curators and writers working in the Middle East. In the long-term, this intense programme aims to develop an alumni group of dynamic practitioners who exchange ideas and experience, and promote best practise.
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In 2015, the fellowship focused on writing, and was led by writer and curator Tirdad Zolghadr. Fellows were funded and supported throughout the week of the fair and took part in daily three hour workshops, attended Global Art Forum, as well as other events on the VIP Programme, and took the opportunity to network during the fair and via its various programmes. Fellows selected for the 2015 programme were: Rahel Aima, Liane Al Ghusain, Mirene Arsanios, Kareem Estefan, Yara Saqfalhait and Stefan Tarnowski. Rahel Aima is a writer based in Dubai, editor-in-chief of The State, and an editor at The New Inquiry. She holds a degree in Anthropology from Columbia University. Her research interests include internet aesthetics, non-western futurisms and the #gccccc. Liane Al Ghusain is a writer based in Kuwait. Her fiction has been featured most recently in Berlin Quarterly and The State. She holds a BA and MA in English and creative writing from Stanford University and has done postgraduate work at the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Program in Beirut. Mirene Arsanios is a writer and founder of the literary magazine Makhzin. Her writings have appeared in both arts and literary magazines such as Bidoun, Cura, The Rumpus, Ink & Coda and Enizagam. She runs 98editions, a small Beirut press dedicated to cross-genre writing. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bard College.
Stefan Tarnowski is a writer and art labourer based between London and Beirut. He was Assistant Director and then Education Programme Director for the Beirut Art Center, and has participated in Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program. His most recent articles featured in ArtAsiaPacific and Camera Austria.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Yara Saqfalhait is an architect and researcher based in Ramallah. Her practice explores using space and spatial practices as research tools. Her essay Open Space in a City Terrified of the Void was nominated during the Berkeley architectural essay competition in 2011. She currently works at The Palestinian Museum.
EDUCATION
Kareem Estefan is a Brooklyn-based writer and the associate editor of Creative Time Reports. He writes about contemporary art and culture for publications including Art in America, Art-Agenda, BOMB, The New Inquiry and T Magazine. Estefan holds an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts and a BA in Comparative Literature from New York University.
Julius Baer was the exclusive supporter of Art Dubai’s Forum Fellows programme 153
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“The fair’s non-commercial components such as its Global Art Forum series of talks and debates consolidated Art Dubai’s positioning as the thinking man’s art fair.” The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom, March 24, 2015 “The intellectual context within which art is appreciated was never lost at Art Dubai events as its regular feature Global Art Forum, once again lived up to its expectation.” The Guardian, Nigeria, March 21, 2015 “For contemporary art in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, this is the leading fair, so interested curators always go, often taking part in the excellent talks programme.” The Telegraph, United Kingdom, April 7, 2015
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
“As a kaleidoscope of technology's progress through time, it scanned the past and present looking for the designed and unintended effects of innovation.” The Times, Kuwait, March 22, 2015
GLOBAL ART FORUM
“Art Dubai has had an adventurous “Forum” programme since its launch in 2007, and since 2012 it has even ranged across borders; located in Doha and Dubai for three years, this year for the first time its twin homes are Kuwait and Dubai. With an impressive range of speakers and debates, it has become something of a highlight in a region where open debate is not always easy.” The Financial Times, United Kingdom, March 6, 2015
“..the Global Art Forum – the, at times irreverent, brain of Art Dubai.” Daily Star, Lebanon, March 24, 2015
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global art forum Featuring live talks guided by a curated theme, the Global Art Forum brings together a diverse line-up of participants, including artists, curators, musicians, strategists, thinkers and writers. The ninth edition of the Global Art Forum took on the theme of technologies and their impact on the world of art and culture. Titled ‘Download Update?’, the Forum was co-directed by Turi Munthe and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, with Shumon Basar as Director-at-Large. In 2015, the Global Art Forum was a search engine through technology's progress. ‘Download Update?’ scanned the past and present looking for the designed and unintended effects of innovation. Technology is never just a man-made product, but a feedback process of re-making who we are, our relationship to each other and the world between. Technologists, entrepreneurs, CEOs, historians, philosophers, filmmakers, artists and museum directors took the measure of technology's dreams and the ensuing changes in artistic, social and political reality.
GLOBAL ART FORUM
In 2015, the Forum began in Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah in Kuwait (March 14-15), supported by The Tamdeen Group, and in association with Nuqat and Sultan Gallery, before continuing at Art Dubai (March 1820). The Forum was presented by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, and was supported by Dubai Design District (d3).
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89plus: MIDDLE EAST TEAM BUILDING: New in 2015, the Forum featured the launch of a two-year partnership with 89plus, the long-term, international, multi-platform research project co-founded by Simon Castets and Hans Ulrich Obrist, investigating the generation of innovators born in or after 1989. The workshops and interviews scheduled at Art Dubai 2015 were for 15 participants based in the GCC and mainly focused on innovators in art, design, publishing and creativity in general. A presentations took place at the fair where Obrist and Castets were joined by artist and 89plus collaborator Abdullah AlMutairi and was geared towards developing a collaborative project–the first in the region–to be presented at Art Dubai 2016. 89plus was supported by Dubai Design District (d3)
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Abdulla Al Mutairi (Artist), Simon Castets (Director and curator, Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Curator, co-director of exhibitions and programmes and director of international projects), Serpentine
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Particpants include: Rand Abdul Jabbar Sarah Abu Abdullah Meitha Al Mazrooei Hala Ali Majid Al-Remaihi Aya Atoui Yogesh Barve Mohamed Elshahed Riem Hassan Tulip Hazbar Amad Mian Batool Mohammad Natasha Stallard Lina Younes
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DIGITISING ARCHIVES WORKSHOP Relating to the Global Art Forum’s theme of technologies and their impact on the world of art, culture and society, and coinciding with the first Global Art Forum in Kuwait, Art Dubai hosted a two-day Digitisation Workshop led by the Sultan Gallery (Kuwait) and Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong). The workshop featured the participation of the Arab Image Foundation; The Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah; The Khalid Shoman Foundation; Kuwait's National Council for Culture, Art and Letters; Kuwait University; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; The Palestinian Museum and Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation.
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"يمكن النظر إىل مبادرة منتدى الفن العاملي بمحاولة فهم والوقوف أمام أثر التكنولوجيا عىل حياتنا املعاصرة وطرق يستنشق من خاللها املواطن، بوصفها بارقة أمل،تفكرينا ً ويعيد،شيئا من رائحة األمل لفهم ما يدور حوله العربي مجرد حياة بسيطة دون اقتتال،الحلم بحياة عادية ". ألبناء هذه املنطقة،دموي يومي 2015 مارس18 ، الكويت،الجريدة "The Global Art Forum initiative can be viewed as an attempt to reflect upon and understand the effect of technology on our modern-day life and systems of thought. The Forum a glimpse of hope through which the Arab citizen inhales the scent of hope in order to understand his surroundings and return to dreaming of a normal life, a simple life free of bloody daily fighting for the sons of this region." Al-Jareeda, Kuwait, March 18, 2015
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"GAF has come into its own as Art Dubai’s brainy twin—the Elizabeth Wakefield to the fair’s Jessica. And just as Art Dubai has matured, growing more elegant and steady in its purpose, so too has GAF branched out to find exactly what it does best, supplementing its traditional run at the fair with two-day jaunts to Gulfarea destinations like Doha or, beginning this year, Kuwait, where the forum spent the days preceding Art Dubai’s March 18 opening." Art Forum, March 29, 2015
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SLECTED global art forum sessions POKE! How do you tell a story today, when ‘today’ is a dopamineaddicted, tramlined, meme-themed small-screen timehole of all things new? Joumana al Jabri talked shifting perspectives, sensory media, Click-Through-Rates, and asked what creatives can learn from bears. Joumana Al Jabri (Co-founder and co-director, Visualizing Impact) and Turi Munthe (Media and journalism entrepreneur and Global Art Forum 9 Co-director) HERITAGE ENGINEERING: A CONVERSATION WITH GCC The artist collective GCC, in interviews, have stated that one of their primary objectives is to make “contemporary conditions in the Gulf” visible, and one of their strategies is to adopt and re-present the branded, technophilic hypermodernity of power and culture across the region. How is this reflective strategy operationalized? Is it critical? Does it separate and decelerate the present enough to provide a momentary perspective from outside its constant flow? Can the idea of heritage be expanded to accommodate this contemporary? If so, how? And what might the future hold? Murtaza Vali (Critic, curator, editor and Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute) and GCC Collective (Artist Collective) THE ARAB TECHNOCRACY Who is doing what, to whom, for how much, whose lives is it changing, and who owns the end product? Is tech the great leveller, or is it business - political and economic - as usual? Roland Daher (Head of Business Development, Wamda) and Turi Munthe (Media and journalism entrepreneur and Global Art Forum 9 Co-director)
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I THINK I SPAM Cecile B Evans shared the thinking and influences behind her recent artworks. Artificial Intelligence, automation, and the idea that in the future, maybe humans will be augmentation to machines - who are increasingly talking about us behind our backs. CĂŠcile B Evans (Artist) and Shumon Basar (Writer and Global Art Forum 9 Director-at-Large)
Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Artist) introduced by Lara Khaldi (Independent curator and 2015 Curator of Art Dubai Projects and A.i.R Dubai)
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AURAL CONTRACT: THE VOICE BEFORE THE LAW Since 2010, Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Aural Contract has been dedicated to understanding how we are being heard today and the changing nature of testimonies and interrogations in the face of new regimes of border control, algorithmic technologies, medical sciences and modes of surveillance.
WE LIVE IN THE EXOSKELETON OF THE INTERNET In this illustrated conversation, writer and artist James Bridle discussed how human intentions shape technology, and in turn, the world around us. Together with curator and writer Omar Kholeif, they discussed questions of aesthetics, agency, democracy and accountability in the information age. James Bridle (Writer and artist) and Omar Kholeif (Writer, curator and editor)
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LIVE TRANSMISSION: 50 YEARS OF MEDIA IN THE UAE Emirati media pioneer Hessa Al Ossaily joined Dr. Saoud Al Mulla on a panel that discussed media in the UAE. In 1965, while still in secondary school, Al Ossaily worked at Sawt Al Sahel; the UAE's first radio station, as an announcer before moving to the Dubai studios of Kuwait TV, becoming the first national TV announcer. In December 2014, Al Ossaily was recognised by the UAE government for her pioneering role in media. UAE filmmaker and scholar Saoud Al Mulla holds a PhD on the history of cinema in the UAE, and now serves as the Director of the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai. This panel, moderated by Global Art Forum co-director Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, discussed the advent of technology on the UAE culture and the impact it has on shaping the identity of the UAE over the past 50 years. The session was held in Arabic. Dr Saoud Al Mulla (Director, Higher Colleges of Technology – Dubai Colleges), Hessa Al Ossaily (General Supervisor of Programmes at Al Oula radio) and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi (Founder, Barjeel Art Foundation and Global Art Forum 9 Co-director)
THE USE AND ABUSE OF YOUTUBE FOR LIFE The advent of YouTube in 2005 installed the mediatic conditions for new tendencies in appropriationism and associative archaeology and new forms of futurology and forgetting. In their presentation, The Otolith Group speculated upon 21st century cultural practices as a return of Nietzsche’s models of antiquarian, monumental and critical history in the form of interspecies friendship-videos, Dark Enlightenment screeds, Anthropogenic visualisations, OctoDad tutorials and Farocki gifs.
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Georgina Adam (Author and art market Editor-at-Large, The Art Newspaper, art market columnist, The Financial Times), Sebastian Cwilich (President and COO, Artsy), Thomas Galbraith (Managing Director, Paddle8) and Anders Petterson (Founder and Managing Director, ArtTactic)
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VALUES, VIRTUES AND THE VIRTUAL An early wave of “art dotcoms” in the ‘90s was followed in the ‘10s by a second surge of online dealers, matchmakers, auction houses and analysts. The likes of Artsy and Paddle8 have become household names in the art world, but rarely have the protagonists of internet marketplaces been brought together to discuss ideas around selling art online, and the impact of the ‘jpeg revolution’ on existing art market structures and how we view and interact with works of art. Financial Times columnist and art market reporter Georgina Adam lead Art Tactic founder Anders Petterson, Artsy President Sebastian Cwilich and Paddle8 Managing Director Thomas Galbraith in a debate about our online art world.
The Otolith Group (Co-founders Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar) and Shumon Basar (Writer and Global Art Forum 9 Director-at-Large)
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global art forum speakers Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s work deals with the relationship between listening and borders, human rights, testimony, truth and law. Abu Hamdan was the commissioned artist for the 2015 Armory and was included in Art Dubai Commissions 2015-2016. Previous solo exhibitions include ‘The Freedom Of Speech Itself’ (2012) at Showroom, London, and ‘Tape Echo’ (2013) at Beirut in Cairo and Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven. @LAbuHamdan Georgina Adam is editor-at-large, art market, for The Art Newspaper, and writes a weekly column on Saturday for the Financial Times. In 2014, she published Big Bucks, The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st century. In addition to her specialisation in the art market, Adam is particularly interested in emerging cultural centres. @georginaadam Sabih Ahmed is a Senior Researcher at Asia Art Archive. Stationed in New Delhi, he has overseen numerous projects and research initiatives in India, which include digitisation of personal archives as well as bibliography compilations of multi-lingual histories of art. Taleb Alrefai is a Kuwaiti writer and journalist. His publications include: novels, short stories collections, a play and critical works. His articles appear in Al-Jarida Kuwaiti newspaper and Al-Hayat. He won the Kuwait National Award for Arts & Literature in 2002, and was a chairman of Arabic Booker Prize for Fiction in 2009. He is a visiting Professor at the American University of Kuwait for Creative Writing. @talrefai1 Sulaiman Al Askari is a scholar, journalist and former Editorin-Chief of Al Arabi Magazine and former Secretary General of the National Council for Culture and Arts in Kuwait. Al Askari has supervised the publishing of cultural journals, taught at the University of Kuwait, and lectures regularly in national and international symposiums. He holds a Ph.D from the University of Manchester.
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May Al-Dabbagh is Assistant Professor of Social Research and Public Policy, New York University Abu Dhabi. She combines social psychology, public policy, and feminist lenses to conduct research on women and work in Saudi Arabia. She holds a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Oxford University in psychology. Manal Al Dowayan is an artist who uses photography, text and installation to examine Saudi identity, and in particular the role of women in contemporary society. Working mainly in black and white photography, she also experiments with other media and techniques. She has exhibited globally and is currently showing in two exhibitions in Dubai. @ManalAlDowayan
Abdullah Al-Mutairi is a Kuwaiti artist based in New York. He has exhibited at Art Dubai, UAE; Mathaf, Qatar; The Serpentine Gallery, UK; and contributed to Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets ongoing digital natives project 89plus. Al-Mutairi is also a member of the GCC collective, whose work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Fridericianum, New Museum and the Sultan Gallery, among other institutions. @Al_Bedoui
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Dr Saoud Al Mulla is Director, Higher Colleges of Technology-Dubai Colleges and holds a PhD in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, University of Gloucestershire, UK with a research focus on UAE cinema - history and culture identity. Dr Saoud spent over 10 years in teaching and management in the applied media field and remains passionate about media and filmmaking. @saoudAlMulla
Mai Al-Nakib teaches English and Comparative Literature at Kuwait University. Her research addresses issues linked to cultural politics in the Middle East. Her collection of short stories, The Hidden Light of Objects, won the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award in 2014. She is currently writing her first novel.
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Hessa Al Ossaily is the first TV announcer in the country and is known as the “mother of UAE media.” She was Director of the Ministry of Information and Culture's Exhibition Department for more than 30 years and Expo General Commissioner for the UAE at its pavilions at World Expos. Al Anoud Al Sharekh is an award winning researcher and gender politics consultant, who has held teaching posts in Kuwait, Europe and the USA, including a Fulbright Scholarship on Women and Islam. She has published many books and articles on political cultures and GCC kinship policies including The Gulf Family and Popular Culture and Political Identity of the Arabian Gulf States. @AAlsharekh Ayssar Arida is an urbatect, thinker and design entrepreneur. He runs URBATECTURE, urban design thinking from Beirut and London, and advises international organisations in culture, education, urbanism and design. He co-founded toy start-up urbacraft.com in 2014. His research focuses on the dialogue between popular culture, scientific paradigms and urban planning, first introduced in his book Quantum City. @ayssar Amar Bakshi is the founder of Shared Studios, an arts organisation that incorporates technology into built environments to connect people across divides in geography, ideology and identity. Shared Studios’ first major initiative, Portals, retrofits shipping containers with specialised audiovideo communications equipment and places them in cities around the world. @amarcbakshi Gala Berger is an artist based in Buenos Aires and co-founder of Museo La Ene, Galería Inmigrante and Urgente platform. She completed residencies in South Korea, Finland, Brazil and Mexico. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Argentina, Chile, Italy, USA, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico. Berger is also co-founder of the first art book fair in Buenos Aires. @gellowgalica Christopher Bevans is a Design Director for M3/Relativity Media and a Director's Fellow at MIT Media Lab. His client roster includes Pharrell Williams, Jay-Z, Daryl Hall, John Legend, Smithsonian Institute and Under Armour, among others. @cbevans1
GLOBAL ART FORUM
James Bridle is a writer and artist based in London, UK. His writing on art, technology and culture is published by national newspapers and magazines, as well as online, and his work has been exhibited internationally. He can be found at booktwo.org. @jamesbridle Simon Castets is the Director and Curator of Swiss Institute, New York. Along with Hans Ulrich Obrist, he is the cofounder of the research project 89plus, which investigates the generation of artists born with the introduction of the World Wide Web. He holds an MA in Curatorial Studies from Columbia University, New York and a MA in Cultural Management from Sciences Po, Paris. @SimonCastets
Roland Daher leads business development and strategic alliances at Wamda and is the founder of ElementM. He is a big believer in the social impact of entrepreneurship and strives to foster it in the Arab world. Daher is also a computer engineer from ESIB and Executive MBA graduate from London Business School.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Sebastian Cwilich is the president and COO of Artsy, the art collecting and education resource. Artsy provides free access to an encyclopedic database of art, architecture, and design, spanning historical to modern and contemporary art. Previously, Cwilich launched Christie's expanded private sales division, and was a software engineer at AT&T (Bell) Labs. @ artsy and @scwilich
Cécile B Evans is an artist. Evans has exhibited internationally and is the recipient of awards such as Frieze’s Emdash Award and the Palais de Tokyo’s PYA Prize. She is the creator of AGNES, the Serpentine Galleries’ first digital commission and is currently working on a sequel to her recent film Hyperlinks or It Didn’t Happen. @cecilebevans Kate Fowle is chief curator at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and director-at-large at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York. Previously, she was executive director of ICI (2009-13), the inaugural international curator at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (2007-08) and chair of the Master’s Program in Curatorial Practice, which she cofounded in 2002 for California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
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Thomas Galbraith is Managing Director, Auctions at Paddle8. He is responsible for managing Paddle8’s worldwide sales of art, design and collectibles and oversees a teams of specialists based in New York, Los Angeles and London. Thomas has deep experience in the online art landscape, among other positions, having worked at artnet AG serving as Director of Global Strategy. @Paddle8 GCC is a delegation of artists that is critically engaged with politics, business diplomacy and corporate branding in the Gulf. Their softly subversive and critical artistic practice is best exemplified in their exhibition ‘GCC: Achievements in Retrospective’ which debuted at MoMA PS1 and also shown at the Sharjah Art Foundation. The delegates are: Nanu AlHamad, Khalid Al Gharaballi, Abdullah Al-Mutairi, Fatima Al Qadiri, Monira Al Qadiri, Aziz Al Qatami, Barrak Alzaid and Amal Khalaf. Lara Khaldi is an independent curator based between Ramallah and Amsterdam. She recently completed the de Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam, and is pursuing her MA degree at the European Graduate School. Khaldi was director of Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, Ramallah (201213) and Assistant Director for programmes at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2009-11). She is the curator of Art Dubai Commissions and A.i.R Dubai, residencies and projects 2015. Ayesha Khanna is CEO of Technology Quotient, which develops content and technology platforms for the vocational and K-12 educational sectors. From Jan-Aug 2014, she served on the Singapore Ministry of Education’s ASPIRE Steering Committee on higher education reform. She is the Founder of 21C GIRLS, which delivers creative and engaging coding and robotics classes for schoolgirls in Asia. @ayeshakhanna1 Parag Khanna is Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a geostrategic advisory firm. He is also a Senior Fellow of the New America Foundation and Adjunct Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is author of the international bestsellers The Second World and How to Run the World. @paragkhanna
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Omar Kholeif is currently Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, Senior Curator at HOME, Manchester as well as Senior Editor of Ibraaz Publishing. Previously he was Curator at FACT, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool. His books include Vision, Memory and Media (2010) and You Are Here: Art After the Internet (2014). Kholeif was The Abraaj Group Art Prize 2015 Guest Curator. @everythingOK Kristine Khouri is an independent researcher and writer based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her work focuses on modern art history in the Arab world, with an emphasis on institutional and exhibition history and networks. Khouri also frequently collaborates with artists as a researcher. @kristinekhouri
Nuqat is a non-profit organisation for the development of art, culture and society based in Kuwait City. Nuqat has run an annual conference on art, design and creativity since its foundation in 2009 and regularly holds events and workshops in both Arabic and English covering topics in the fields of visual, therapeutic and performing arts in addition to business and entrepreneurship. @Nuqatweets
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Joanne Lisinski is Head of Research at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha. Her work at Mathaf has resulted in the development of the Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab World. Prior to her position at Mathaf, she held various roles in arts heritage and preservation in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.
Hans Ulrich Obrist is Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery, London. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris. Since his first show ‘World Soup (The Kitchen Show)’ in 1991, he has curated more than 250 shows. @HUObrist Dan O’Hara teaches at New College of the Humanities, London, and taught previously at the Universities of Cologne and Oxford. His most recent book is Extreme Metaphors: Interviews with J. G. Ballard, 1967-2008. @skeuomorphology
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The Otolith Group is an award winning artist led collective founded by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun in 2002. The Group's work explores the legacies and potentials of liberation struggles, speculative futures and science-fictions. @theotolithgroup Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro is director and chief curator of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in New York and Caracas. He holds a PhD in Art History and Theory from Essex University and was curator of Latin American art at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, and chief curator of the 6th Mercosur Biennial. Jack Persekian is a curator, founder and director of Anadiel Gallery and the Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem. Persekian was born in and currently based in Jerusalem, and is now the Director and Head Curator of the Palestinian Museum. @jackpersekian Anders Petterson is the founder and managing director of ArtTactic Ltd, a London-based art market research and analysis company set up in 2001. Petterson is a regular lecturer on the topic of ‘Art as an asset class’ and ‘Art market analysis’ at Sotheby’s Institute, Christie’s Education and IESA. @ArtTactic Noah Raford is an advisor on futures, foresight and innovation at the UAE Prime Minister’s Office. Raford helped establish the country’s first national foresight unit and is part of a special projects team that identifies emerging opportunities, develops strategic partnerships and prototypes future initiatives. @ nraford Ruba Saleh is the Research and Collections Manager at the Palestinian Museum. She has a PhD in Regional Planning and Public Policy and her research interests include: space and power, spatial barriers and creativity, practices and policies, and informality and conflict. In 2012, she curated the international conference Jerusalem City Portrait at Venice University of Architecture.
Troy Conrad Therrien is Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives at the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, New York. He is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation where he co-founded the Architecture Online Lab and is an editor of the Applied Research Practices in Architecture Journal. @troytherrien
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Laurent Gaveau took the reins of the Lab of the Google Cultural Institute in December 2013. Before joining Google, Gaveau was Deputy Director of Communications at Versailles since 2008, more specifically in charge of the service New Media, Marketing and Partnerships. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris he previously worked at the Opera de Paris, the Centre Pompidou and Universal Music France, first as head of jazz and classical projects, then as head of online marketing for all labels in the group.
GLOBAL ART FORUM
Lana Shamma is currently based in Doha where she heads the Reading & Writing Development Program at Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. As a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, she researched the effect of the film partnerships between the US and Jordan. She received her Masters in Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. @itslanaaa
Murtaza Vali is a critic, curator, editor and Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, USA. He most recently curated ‘Geometries of Difference: New Approaches to Ornament and Abstraction’ at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz and ‘Accented’ at the Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah. @murtazavali Visualizing Impact (VI) specialises in data visualisation on social issues. VI’s visual and tech tools have reached over two million people across four continents and in twelve languages. VI is the recipient of Deutsche Welle’s 2014 The Bobs award for Best Social Activism. Visualizing Palestine, a project of VI, has been featured in the Washington Post, Policy Mic, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and the Guardian. @ImpactVI
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TERRACE TALKS Art Dubai’s extensive talks programme also includes Terrace Talks, a series of conversations that explores the relationships and support-networks between artists, curators and patrons. In 2015, the talks featured a range of speakers: from the President of L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Jack Lang in conversation with HE Zaki Nusseibeh, Advisor to the UAE Presidential Court; renowned Aga Khan Museum director Henry Kim was in conversation with Aisha Khalid and Imran Qureshi; and major collectors and patrons, such as Beatrice Bulgari and Dr Ramzi Dalloul discussed their support for artists and institutions. Talks also took place in Art Dubai Modern for the first time, debating archives with Vali Mahlouji and Sumesh Sharma of Clark House Initiative in conversation with curator Catherine David. Finally, the second ArtNow Award was awarded to the veteran publisher, editor and archivist Jalal Uddin Ahmed who has spent decades supporting and documenting Pakistani artists and their work, and whose approach is illustrative of all that patronage can be.
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These talks were held on the terrace of The Abraaj Group Lounge and were open to Collectors Circle and VIP guests by invitation only.
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TERRACE TALKS speakers Beatrice Bordone Bulgari is an acclaimed costume designer who has worked with Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), Polanski (A Pure Formality), Roger Vadim (Safari), among others. She is the Chair of the Board of The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO) since 2011. Bulgari’s production company, In Between Art Film, works at the intersection of film and contemporary art, currently developing projects with Orhan Pamuk, Pierre Bismuth and Ed Ruscha. Nathan Clements-Gillespie holds a BA and MA from Oxford and a BA from the Université de Paris - Sorbonne. After working in Venice and New York he joined The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO) as Director of External Affairs, working with artists and trustees on realising exhibitions. Dr Ramzi A Dalloul was a senior economist at the United Nations Secretariat. At the UN, Dalloul advised Arab countries on growth and development strategies; he is also a major shareholder in corporate ventures and investment funds in the Middle East and North Africa. Dalloul holds an MBA from Columbia University Business School and a PhD in Economics from Columbia University, New York; he is a member of the prestigious Board of Overseers of the Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York. While an undergraduate student, Dalloul developed an interest in the arts that continued through his studies at Columbia University, New York, and throughout his career. With a particular interest in modern and contemporary Arab artists, he has built up a preeminent collection of works. Catherine David is a curator and art historian, whose research is focused on contemporary art from the Middle East. Currently, David is the deputy director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou. Previously, she has served as curator at the National Gallery at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, chief curator of the Musées de France and the artistic director of Documenta X, Kassel (1994-97). David is a member of the Art Dubai Modern Advisory Committee.
Jack Lang began his arts career by creating and directing theatre festivals in the 1960s and ‘70s. He became Counselor of Paris in 1977 and after acting as spokesman for François Mitterrand’s presidential campaign, became Minister of Culture (1981-86; 1988-1993). During this time, he created the annual Heritage Day or Street Music Festival, both of which are now international cultural celebrations. Mayor of Blois from 1989 to 2000, he was a member of the National Assembly for over 20 years and, in 1997, became President of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the National Assembly. From 2000 to 2002, Lang returned to government as Minister of Education; in 2013, French President Francois Hollande appointed him President of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Over the years, he has founded and run festivals; written numerous articles and reference books; and with a PhD in Law and Political Science, taught extensively at universities in France.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Henry S Kim is Director and CEO of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, an institution devoted to the arts of Muslim civilizations. Kim joined the Museum from the University of Oxford where he taught, curated collections and managed capital projects at the Ashmolean Museum from 1994 to 2012. Kim was educated at Harvard and Oxford in the fields of history and classical archeology.
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Aisha Khalid was educated at the National College of Art, Lahore and at the Rijksakademie where she trained in Mughal miniaturist traditions. Her work has been exhibited around the world at various art fairs and museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Sharjah Biennale among others. In 2011, she was awarded the People's Choice Award at the Jameel Prize and, in 2012 was a winner of the ALICE Award under the artist book category.
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Vali Mahlouji is a London-based independent curator and writer, and a curatorial advisor to the British Museum. Recent exhibitions include ‘Kaveh Golestan – The Citadel’ at Foam, Amsterdam, and ‘Unedited History (Iran 1960-2014)’ at Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome. Mahlouji has been published by the Encyclopædia Iranica, New York; Asia Society Museum, New York; The Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai; Darat al Funun, Amman; and Sharjah Biennial, among many other institutions and media. His book, Perspectives on the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis is due out in 2015 (Black Dog Publishing). MASBEDO are a Milan-based video artists Nicolò Masazza and Jacopo Bedogni, known for their work with Fanny Ardant and Juliette Binoche. Their work has been featured at the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012) and 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). The Lack is in Dubai for its Middle East Premiere after its success at the Venice International Film Festival. HE Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh is the Cultural Advisor in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs of the UAE. As a distinguished patron of the arts, he serves on boards, including the ParisSorbonne University Abu Dhabi, which he helped establish in 2006, and the Board of Trustees for Abu Dhabi University. He has been the recipient of various international and national awards, such as the European Academy of Science and Arts Ring of Tolerance in Frankfurt 2012, the Owais Cultural Award UAE 2013, the Cultural Foundation Pro-Europe European Arab Culture Prize in Leipzig 2013 and the Golden Medal of Arts 2014 from the Kennedy Centre Washington. Nusseibeh holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and was awarded an honorary PhD in Human Sciences by the University of Jerusalem in 2014. Imran Qureshi is regarded as one of the most important representatives of Pakistan’s art scene. His works have been exhibited around the world including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan. In 2009, his work was seen at the 53rd Venice Biennial, and, in 2013, he was named Deutsche Bank ‘Artist of the Year’. Qureshi lives in Lahore, where he teaches at the National College of Art.
Princess Alia Al-Senussi graduated Brown University Magna Cum Laude and holds a Master’s degree from Brown and the LSE and is presently studying for a PhD at SOAS with Professor Charles Tripp in Politics of the Middle East. Amongst other roles, Al-Senussi is the Chairman of the Tate Young Patrons and North African Acquisitions, the Board of Patrons of Art Dubai and the Middle East Circle of the Guggenheim.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Rehana Saigol is a renowned jewelry designer, avid art collector and a founding member of the Pakistan Fashion Design Council. Her jewelry designs have been worn by royalty in the Middle East, and by political leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton. As a student in Lahore, Saigol was actively involved in the debate society and practiced traditional arts such Kathak dancing. She is credited with being the first woman in the world to head a national bridge organisation, and she remains an active member of the World Bridge Federation. She served on the board of governors at the National College of Arts, Lahore, and is also a trustee of the NCA Endowment Trust.
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Sameera Raja is a trained architect from the National College of Arts, Lahore. Several years after her architectural practice, she became the founder of Canvas Gallery in Karachi, the premier art gallery of Pakistan that specialises in miniature, modern and contemporary art. The impact of her influence and dedication to Pakistani art turned Canvas Gallery into the leading private gallery with a roster of preeminent Pakistani artists. Raja has collaborated with various galleries in the Middle East, UK and USA to promote contemporary Pakistani art. One of her feature projects includes a publication of books and monographs on Pakistani art and artists.
Sumesh Sharma is a curator informed by alternate art histories and cultural perspectives that reference socio-economics and politics. Immigrant Culture in the Francophone regions, Vernacular Equalities, Movements of Black Consciousness in Culture are his areas of interest. He co-founded the Clark House Initiative in 2010, with Zasha Colah. An artist union and curatorial collaborative, Clark House Initiative experiments in re-reading histories, and investigates concerns of representation and visibility. 185
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Jalal Uddin Ahmed is an editor, critic and archivist. Ahmed’s prolific career is highlighted by the promotion and documentation of traditional and contemporary Pakistani art. His achievements include affiliating Pakistan with the UNESCO-sponsored International Association of Art Critics in Paris. Alongside his wife, Azra Jalal, they founded Arts in the Islamic World, a magazine that is focused on researching and preserving Islamic arts, and examining and interpreting contemporary arts with a critical eye in order to understand and contextualize new ideas, expressions and movements in Muslim societies and cultures. He is a member of the FOMMA Trust, which is dedicated to the establishment of contemporary museums, art libraries and the publication of a series on prominent Pakistani artists in Pakistan. Ahmed is the recipient of the 2nd Lifetime Achievement award by ArtNow for his significant cultural contributions.
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COLLATERAL EXHIBITIONS ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
rca secret dubai For the first time outside of the UK, the London’s Royal College of Art showcased its innovative exhibition and sale: ‘RCA Secret Dubai’ at Art Dubai. The event was introduced by Paul Smith and included over 1,000 unique postcard artworks—created by some of the world’s leading artists and designers along with rising RCA students and alumni—that were made available for sale to the public during Art Dubai for 500 dirhams each. The UAE and Middle East’s thriving art scenes were also represented, with contributions by local and regional artists and designers. The postcards were exhibited anonymously and only after purchase was the artist’s identity revealed. All proceeds from the sale of postcards by international and regional artists in Dubai, went towards supporting talented students at the RCA at formative stages in their careers as well as supporting the RCA in running courses in Dubai, which will in turn nurture emerging local art and design talent.
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Joining the stellar roster of past contributors to the RCA Secret in London, which includes David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Giorgio Armani, Stella McCartney and Yoko Ono, were highly acclaimed regional artists including Zaha Hadid, Hajra Waheed, Adel Abidin, Najat Makki and El Seed. RCA Secret Dubai also received contributions from further afield from international artists and fashion designers including David Bailey, Chris Bailey, Richard Long, Sir James Dyson, Sir Paul Smith, John Baldessari, Christo and Susan Hefuna.
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“The best part is that all proceeds go towards funding scholarships for foreign students wanting to attend the prestigious London institution so even if you don’t get something you consider to be valuable, you know you have helped out an artist of the future.” The National, UAE, March 20, 2015
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FADA’AAT Art Dubai 2015 also saw the launch of ‘Fada’aat’, a special exhibition presented by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, exploring the spaces created in the intersection between culture, history and innovation. As a prelude to the forthcoming Metro Museums, this unique exhibition was curated by medium and theme, including Islamic manuscripts and coins, maritime heritage, literature, photography and a live artist’s studio: Fada’aat Islamiya – rare Islamic manuscripts were exhibited, dating back to the 17th century, and demonstrating the contributions made by Islamic civilisations from Turkey, through to Iran, South Asia and today’s Arab world. The manuscripts on loan were part of the collection of HE Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al Owais, UAE Minister of Health and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. Fada’aat Eqtisadiya - shedding light on the rich history of Islamic finance, valuable Islamic coins were showcased from the vast collection of coin specialist Abdulla Jasim Al Mutairi. From the 18th century to the present day, the coins offered insight into the history of the pre- and post-federation United Arab Emirates and its allies and neighbours.
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Fada’aat Faniya – there has been an active contemporary arts scene in the United Arab Emirates since the 1960s; the past 15 years has seen a sharp rise in the level of international interest, with Dubai emerging as a regional art hub and crossroads between Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Fada’aat Faniya focused on the micro, rather than macro, picture, aiming to shed light on the process of creation itself. Visitors were invited into the studio of Abdul Qader Al Rais – a painter and pioneer within the contemporary art movement of the United Arab Emirates. With thanks to Abdul Qader Al Rais, Hunar Gallery and Akila film company.
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Fada’aat Bahriya - the UAE is notable for its maritime cultural heritage and rich history of songs and poems that accompanied the divers and sailors on their many–and often dangerous–journeys into the sea. An installation of footage from films shot in the 1940s and ‘50s accompanied by songs, often sung by a specialist singer accompanying the boats, marked different aspects in an imagined voyage.
Fada’aat M’arifya - this library space was a moment of pause, and a chance to peruse a range of books on art and culture, courtesy of Dubai Libraries, plus catalogues tracing the long history of exhibitions curated by the Emirates Fine Art Society. The space also 195
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featured a series of films on artists, loaned by the Dubai International Film Festival, including a profile of Emirati artist Dr Najat Makki, directed by pioneer filmmaker Nujoom Al Ghanem. Fada’aat Photographiya – this space highlighted the role of the photograph in reflecting the unique urban development of Dubai, through a collection of photos by Daniel Cheong, provided by Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum International Photography Award. The exhibition was inaugurated by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the opening of the fair.
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collateral events
. Panel Discussion: ‘Invisible Beauty’, Iraq Pavilion
at Venice Biennial 2015 – The Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq announced its plans for the Iraq Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. A conversation between the Co-founders of Ruya, Tamara Chalabi and Reem Shather-Kubba, and curator Philippe Van Cauteren, Artistic Director of S.M.A.K., Ghent, announcing the artists and recounting their experiences finding them in Iraq and the diaspora.
. Announcement and presentation: Qatar Museums Launch
of The Fire Station – The launch of Qatar Museum’s latest initiative which provides a platform for creative exchange to support artists. Presentation by Hala Mohammed Al Khalifa, Head of Artists-in-Residence Programs, Public Art, Qatar Museums.
. A presentation by The Gujral Foundation : My East is
Your West – Born out of the desire to reposition the complex historical relations between the South Asian states of India and Pakistan, The Gujral Foundation presented My East is Your West at the 56th Venice Biennale. Internationally recognised artists Shilpa Gupta (Mumbai, India) and Rashid Rana (Lahore, Pakistan) collaborated on a shared exhibition that will present India and Pakistan together on a singular stage. As neither India nor Pakistan has a permanent national pavilion in Venice, this presentation provided a unique platform for artists from the Indian subcontinent to enter into a dialogue through the arts.
. Book Launch: Slavs & Tatars Mirrors for Princes, edited
by Anthony Downey – Anthony Downey of Ibraaz interviews the collective Slavs and Tatars. Exploring Islamic medieval advice literature for princes, the book of scholarly essays premieres during Slavs and Tatars’ exhibition at the new NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery on Saadiyat Island.
. Announcement: Launch of the Karachi Biennale 2016
– Using the energy of Karachi as a backdrop, the Karachi Biennale will be a citywide exhibition presenting visual art in public spaces. The exhibition will engage audiences in a dialogue between Pakistani and international art
practitioners, while framing it in a historical context to give a sense of time and place. Speakers include: Amin Gulgee, Nilofer Farrukh, Shakira Masood along with Ayeh Naraghi advisor to the Karachi Biennale.
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. Book Launch: Thinking What’s Thought-Provoking! –
The launch of a new series of books edited by Jalal Toufic and published by Sharjah Art Foundation. Two books: The Dancer’s Two Bodies by Jalal Toufic and The Accident Waiting to Happen by Matthew Gumpert are included in the launch. The author Jalal Toufic will be at the event.
. Reception hosted by The Aga Khan Museum . Book Launch and Discussion: Summer Autumn Winter… and Spring: Conversations with Artists from the Arab World – Curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath and artists Manal Al Dowayan, Hassan Sharif and Joana Hadjithomas discussed how informal conversations between them have evolved into a documentation of several personal and professional positions, moderated by Prof. Nada Shabout. The panel marked the launch of Bardaouil and Fellrath’s latest book, published by Skira Publishing Group.
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• Book Launch: U.A.E. Unlimited Arab Exploration: A Public Privacy – Bringing together recent and commissioned works by a group of emerging Emirati, locally based and GCC artists, ‘A Public Privacy’ will be the inaugural exhibition launching ‘U.A.E. Unlimited Arab Exploration’, a new platform promoted and under the patronage of HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan. The inaugural exhibition, ‘A Public Privacy’ is curated by Mohammed Kazem and Cristiana de Marchi.
. Book Launch: The Journey of a Legend, M.F. Hussain
– Stellar Art Foundation introduced its first publication, including over 250 works by India’s most renowned painter from within the collection. This talk also introduced plans for a 2016 exhibition of the artist’s work in Dubai.
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. Book launch: Sand Rushes In, Sama AlShaibi – Celebrating the launch of Sama Alshaibi’s monograph, Sand Rushes In, Aperture Foundation and Ayyam Gallery presented a conversation with Sama Alshaibi and the book’s editor, Isabella Ellaheh Hughes, with an introduction by Kellie McLaughlin, Aperture Foundation. . Book launch: Nja Mahdaoui: Jafr. The Alchemy of Signs –
Elmarsa gallery and Skira Publishing Group presented Nja Mahdaoui’s first comprehensive monograph. Moderated by Rose Issa, curator and producer, in presence of the authors: Venetia Porter, curator of the Islamic Collections at the British Museum; Martina Corgnati, Italian Contemporary Art specialist; and Charbel Dagher, a prominent voice of the Arab Cultural scene.
. Book Launch: Select: Creative Disciplines Referenced –
Celebrating Kuwait’s manifestation of creativity in its various forms, Select is a book that aims to be a reliable reference on the influencers of the national art and design scene and to facilitate the dialogue with them. Consequently, Select is engaged in a simultaneous revealing and shaping of Kuwait’s creative industry. Presented by Select Founders, Dhari Al-Muawed and Khaled Al-Bannay and The Design Practices Issue collaborators Nourah AlRashed, alongside showcased designers Farah Al-Humaidhi and Anwar Ghader.
. Book Launch and Presentation: Maraya Art Centre,
Khamsa – In celebration of its 5 year anniversary, Maraya Art Centre produced Khamsa, an almanac edited by former associate curator Sara Raza. The book looks at the past, present and future direction of Maraya’s activities and features contributions from former guest curators and artists.
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PARTNERS
Art Dubai 2015 was held in partnership with The Abraaj Group and was sponsored by Julius Baer and Emaar. Madinat Jumeirah is home to the event. The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority is a strategic partner of Art Dubai, and supports the fair’s year-round education programme. Mashreq Private Banking was the exclusive partner of Art Dubai Modern 2015.
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the abraaj group The Abraaj Group is a leading private equity investor, purpose-built for operating in the growth markets of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, Turkey and Central Asia. Through its Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement Track, the company values social investing, thought leadership and value creation as key catalysts for sustainable development and inclusive growth across communities. The Abraaj Group Art Prize was founded in 2008 and is now in its seventh edition. The aim of the prize is to empower potential and give often under-represented contemporary artists the resources to further develop their talent. Following the application and jury process, four artists were shortlisted for the prize and one (of the four) artists awarded the $100,000 commission. The three shortlisted artists received a cash prize and are represented in a group exhibition at Art Dubai (March 18-21, 2015) through previous works, which were carefully selected by the guest curator in liaison with the artist.
PARTNERS ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
The prize reflects Abraaj’s own investment philosophy, which is to take viable businesses with great potential, and create regional and global champions. To date, the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 works were presented at Art Dubai and artworks then went on loan to exhibitions at Biennale de Montreal, Montreal; Boshossian Foundation, Brussels; Villa Arson, Nice; Wien Kunsthalle, Vienna; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Hangzhou; Tensta Konstall, Stockholm; Kochi Muziris Biennial, Kochi; Parasol Unit, London; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; among other venues.
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julius baer Julius Baer is the leading Swiss private banking group, with a focus on servicing and advising sophisticated private clients and a premium brand in global wealth management. Julius Baer’s total client assets amounted to CHF 396 billion at the end of December 2014, including CHF 291 billion of assets under management. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd., the renowned Swiss private bank which celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2015, is the principal operating company of Julius Baer Group Ltd., whose shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker symbol: BAER) and form part of the Swiss Market Index (SMI), comprising the 20 largest and most liquid Swiss stocks. Julius Baer employs a staff of over 5,000, including more than 1,000 relationship managers, and is present in over 25 countries and some 50 locations. Headquartered in Zurich, with offices in key locations including Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Lugano, Monaco, Montevideo, Moscow, Singapore and Tokyo. Julius Baer's client-centric approach, objective advice based on a unique open product platform, very strong financial base and entrepreneurial management culture make it the international reference in private banking.
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Julius Baer were the exclusive sponsor of Art Dubai's Forum Fellows programme.
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emaar Emaar Properties PJSC, listed on the Dubai Financial Market, is a global property developer and provider of premium lifestyles, with a significant presence in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. One of the world’s largest real estate companies, Emaar has total assets of nearly US$ 20 billion and a land bank of more than 238 million sq m in key international markets. With a proven track-record in delivery, Emaar has handed over 38,600 residential units in Dubai and other global markets since 2001. Emaar has over 690,000 sq m of recurring revenue generating assets, and 12 hotels and resorts, with over 1,900 rooms. Today, 54 per cent of the company’s revenues come from its shopping malls & retail and hospitality & leisure subsidiaries and international operations. Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, are among Emaar’s trophy developments.
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Madinat jumeirah Set on a private beach, Madinat Jumeirah Resort is an authentic recreation of ancient Arabia, capturing the natural beauty of the region. Madinat Jumeirah features two grand boutique hotels, Al Qasr and Mina A’Salam, accommodation in 29 traditional summer houses in Dar Al Masyaf, conference and banqueting facilities including two grand ballrooms, a 1000-seat amphitheatre and the region’s only dedicated entertainment centre and multi-purpose venue, Madinat Arena. The facilities are interconnected by 3km of waterways and landscaped gardens. The resort also provides extensive leisure and health facilities including Talise Spa and Talise Fitness, as well as Souk Madinat Jumeirah, a traditional retail and dining experience with 90 boutiques and restaurants showcasing the best of Arabia, including nightlife destination Pacha Ibiza Dubai.
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dubai culture and arts authority Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) was launched on March 8, 2008 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.Dubai Culture plays a critical part in achieving the vision of the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 of establishing the city as vibrant, global Arabian metropolis that shapes culture and arts in the region and the world. The organisation has announced several initiatives that strengthen the historic and modern cultural fabric of Dubai. These include: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards: A first of-its-kind regional initiative to honour patrons of the arts from around the world for their valuable support in encouraging and strengthening the cultural scene of the Emirate; Sikka Art Fair: An annual art fair aimed at promoting Emirati and local artists in the UAE; and Dubai Festival for Youth Theatre: An annual festival that celebrates and fosters the art of theatre in the UAE.
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mashreq private banking Mashreq Private Banking, the second oldest bank in UAE and the largest private sector bank in the Middle East was founded in 1967. The bank has established itself as a leader in corporate banking, consumer banking and wealth management and continues to play a pioneering role in the evolution and advancement of the Regional banking industry. Mashreq has been actively growing its extensive network in UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt in addition to its presence in Europe, USA, Africa, and the Far East. Mashreq’s traditions and values also extend to its Private Banking arm offering clients safety, delivery, consistency, confidentiality and above all continuity. The Private Bank covers a large client base from the region and the rest of the world extending a deep suite of solutions and services that include red carpet banking, investments, financing and wealth structuring. Mashreq’s Private Banking is committed to its client’s diversified needs and with the growing interest in art, client’s have traditionally purchased art for passionate as well as a variety of other personal reasons. We believe we can play an important role in ensuring that our investors’ views on art are understood, preserved and embraced whilst channeled and rationalized suitably.
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The Private Banking business has established its presence among clients and industry peers by participating to a wide range of events and summits, for example the Global Gift Gala during the Dubai International Film Festival and through sponsoring Art Dubai Modern in 2015.
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fair sponsors maserati Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer which was established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna (Italy) by its founder Alfieri Maserati and his brothers. Their passion and talent contributed to the company DNA: innovation, excellence, and challenge, which are reflected in the brand’s claim “The absolute opposite of ordinary”. Today, the company's headquarters and main production location are in Modena (Italy). A second state-of-the-art production location, based on the highest quality standards of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) concept, was inaugurated in Grugliasco, near Turin (Italy), in 2013. Maserati has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993. Its emblem, the trident, was inspired by the fountain on the Piazza del Nettuno in the center of Bologna (Italy). It is a symbol that ties together the brothers, their hometown, and the artistry and craftsmanship for which Bologna and EmiliaRomagna are known. Through major investments into product development, production facilities as well as its worldwide dealer network, Maserati has hit a turning point. In addition to the successful GranTurismo and GranCabrio ranges, the latest generation of Maserati’s flagship sedan, the Quattroporte, and the new sports executive sedan, the Ghibli, provide the cornerstones to the brand’s strategy of producing some 50,000 units annually and gaining a significantly strengthened presence in the global luxury car market. Maserati was the Official Car Partner of Art Dubai 2015, providing collectors and special guests a courtesy VIP shuttle service. maserati.com
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VERTU Vertu aims to deliver the world’s best luxury mobile phone experience for its customers by combining expert craftsmanship and peerless materials with innovative technology and unique services. Vertu mobile phones are handmade in England using the world’s finest materials, with each one assembled by a single craftsman.
vertu.com ABSOLUT The first spirit brand to forge genuinely close ties with art and artists, Absolut has been active in the art world since 1985, when it invited Andy Warhol to create the first in a series of iconic advertisements inspired by the Absolut bottle. Since then, Absolut has collaborated with more than 550 artists on over 850 commissioned projects. Today, Absolut supports acclaimed artists, art writers and institutions in their efforts to present new works, stimulate ideas, bring people together and broaden access to creativity.
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Vertu is renowned for its curated services; a suite of carefully selected exclusive offers, content and assistance especially selected to enhance the Vertu customer’s lifestyle. At the heart of these services is Vertu CONCIERGE, offering luxury lifestyle assistance and enrichment.. Vertu LIFE offers personalised recommendations and privileged access to experiences and events. Vertu CERTAINTY delivers security for customers, their data and their phones.
This global activation offers contemporary artists the opportunity to apply their vision to an immersive art bar installation. Yazan Khalili was the latest artist being given carte blanche to develop a full Art Bar concept, from drinks to décor – so the initiative lead to the development of new bespoke drinking menus as well as the staging numerous fun, inspiring cocktails and high-energy parties. Part bar, part art installation, this concept embodied the idea of creating conviviality around art, and infusing art into conviviality. absolut.com 219
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programme supporters The Cultural Office of Her Highness Sheikha Manal Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum The Cultural Office of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was established in early 2013 to serve as the official platform to develop and activate substantial art movements as milestones within the region. Many existing art related projects have now been directly placed under the cultural office and a lot more of future planned programs will help raise the profile of the pool of talents existing in the region. The Cultural Office combines the best art practices and concepts from around the world and tailors it to respect and preserve the legacy and culture in the Arab world for International recognition. The 2015 Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program was held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment, Wife of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs UAE, and forms part of the activity of The Cultural Office. Tashkeel Established in 2008 by Lateefa bint Maktoum, Tashkeel is a contemporary art organisation based in Dubai committed to facilitating art and design practice, creative experimentation and cross-cultural dialogue. Placing the artist at the core, Tashkeel supports the UAE’s creative community through studio facilities, artists’ residencies, international fellowships, a programme of exhibitions, events and professional as well as recreational workshops. Tashkeel’s exhibition space accommodates up to six main projects a year, as well as a series of small-scale events. The programme includes solo and thematic exhibitions, screenings, workshops and seminars, fulfilling Tashkeel’s commitment to bringing art and culture to a wider audience and engaging the local community. tashkeel.org
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Delfina Foundation Delfina Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange and developing creative practice through residencies, partnerships and public programming, with a specialfocus on international collaborations with the greater Middle East & North Africa (MENA). To date, Delfina Foundation has hosted nearly 150 artists, curators and writers from around the world at its headquarters in London and with partners throughout MENA. delfinafoundation.com ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Alserkal Avenue Alserkal Avenue is an arts and culture hub within the industrial quarter of Dubai; it currently houses over 20 contemporary art galleries, as well as alternative arts and community spaces. A major expansion is currently underway and is due to launch in 2015. The US$ 14 million-project, supported by the Alserkal family, will treble the size of the Avenue, and will create a vibrant arts and culture hub in Dubai. In addition to prominent regional and international galleries, the extension will bring a wide spectrum of creative spaces to life, including a black box theatre, independent cinema, artists’ studios and outdoor performance venue, the extension will redefine the cultural landscape of Dubai and establish Alserkal Avenue as the ideal space for the exchange of ideas and development of home-grown cultural and artistic initiatives. Mehreen Murtaza and Maria Thereza Alves’ commissioned works were supported by Alserkal Avenue. alserkalavenue.ae
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British Council The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educationalopportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We work in more than 100 countries and our 7,000 staff —including 2,000 teachers—work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes. We are on the ground in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, where our English language centres offer courses to almost 6,000 students annually. In the Middle East and North Africa, the British Council has been creating opportunities for artists in the region and the UK through the exchange of ideas and collaboration. We have been supporting the creation of sustainable creative networks and forging connections between established and emerged creative industries in region and the UK. We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publically-funded grant provides less than 25 percent of our turnover which last year was £781 million. The rest of our revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally. britishcouncil.ae Maraya Art Centre Established in 2010, Maraya Art Centre is a three storey non-profit creative space located in Sharjah, UAE. Since its inception Maraya has offered the public an innovative curated exhibitions programme with leading Middle Eastern and international artists, multi-media facilities, video archive, art library and regular public programme of workshops and events designed by its in house team and guest curators. Maraya also has several public art park sites within its local vicinity that feature interactive projects and sculptures. maraya.ae
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Dubai Design District (d3) Dubai Design District, better known as d3, is dedicated to fostering the growth of the Emirate’s design, fashion and luxury industry. It offers businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals a creative community that will be at the very heart of the region’s design scene. d3 is the newest of TECOM Investments’ business parks– with 11 buildings currently under construction. d3 is a purpose built environment catering to the full value chain of the design, fashion and luxury industry–and all with the vision of creating a world class creative community that engages, nurtures and promotes local, regional and global design talent.
Campus Art Dubai 3.0 was supported by Dubai Design District (d3). Art Dubai’s Global Art Forum 2015 was supported by Dubai Design District (d3). dubaidesigndistrict.com
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d3’s facilities will include everything from cutting-edge design institutes to residential, hospitality, retail and office space. The District will be characterised by distinct public areas, unique street furniture and shaded walkways. The development will include a Creek-side esplanade with international and boutique hotels, a pop-up shop area, amphitheatre and a convention centre.
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Tamdeen Group The Tamdeen Group, Kuwait's outstanding property developer and investor, is proud to support the Global Art Forum in Kuwait. One of the Tamdeen Group’s flagship developments, 360 MALL integrates retail, leisure and entertainment in a luxury environment; positioning it as the premier luxury shopping experience in Kuwait offering shoppers and visitors 82,000 sq.m of exciting leisure and shopping experiences. Amongst its stores are a mix of luxury brands, dining and entertainment which have been introduced for the first time in Kuwait. The mall’s elegant interiors include seven different experience zones. 360 MALL marks a milestone in the growth of the retail sector in Kuwait and is clearly setting benchmarks for the industry. tamdeen.com Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah, Amricani Cultural Centre The Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah (DAI) was created to support the loan of objects from The al-Sabah Collection to the State of Kuwait and currently operates under the auspices of the National Council of Culture, Arts, and Letters. Over time the mission has grown to include promoting the fusion of people, cultures and ideas both in Kuwait and in countries hosting DAI exhibitions, which are drawn from the 30,000-piece al-Sabah Collection. The DAI's cultural season programme, now in its 20th year, also foments the fusion of ideas, people and cultures. Throughout the cultural season, the DAI hosts activities and events that share aspects of the world around us, opening its doors to welcome all those who choose to enter and participate. darmuseum.org.kw
The Sultan Gallery Sultan Gallery has played an important role over the last forty years in introducing Arab artists to broader audiences, and helping to establish a vital dialogue among artists and institutions working internationally. The Sultan Gallery was initially founded in Kuwait in 1969 by the late siblings Ghazi and Najat Sultan. Up until 1990 it operated thoroughly as a convergence point for not only artists and intellectuals exploring polemic issues on Arab society, but also the general public. The mission of Sultan Gallery has since been about propagating contemporary and secular movements through Arab art. Upon reopening its doors to the public in 2006, director of the space, Farida Sultan, has continued working avidly with a wide range of artists to advance a critical art discourse emerging in the country. The Gallery takes pride in supporting up-and-coming artists, and is highly receptive to experimental practices dealing with sound, video, performance, publications, as well as networks and the media.
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
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PARTNERS
Nuqat Nuqat, first known as "Nuqat Ala Al Huroof," started off with one objective in mind - to develop Arab creativity on all levels, encompassing design, advertising, architecture, fashion, production and all other pertinent social and cultural fields. Established out of frustration with the lack of spirited exchange in the Middle East, the Nuqat team is made up of like-minded cultural visionaries from Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Dubai who have a growing optimism about fueling creative dialogue in the region. Nuqat’s mission as growing cultural force is to advance creativity and enrich society. It aims to establish Nuqat institutes in different cities across the Middle East and to develop a specialized educational curriculum, in addition to organizing the ongoing annual Nuqat conferences for tackling a variety of pressing topics in the creative realm. Since 2009, Nuqat has hosted a yearly conference and a wide range of activities including workshops, exhibitions and design competitions.
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Idba Design Ibda Design is an international Architecture, Urban and Interior Design practice based in Dubai with collaboration offices in Beirut and Tokyo. The firm was founded in 2009 by Wael Al Awar, who moved back to the Middle East after spending several years in Tokyo, collaborating with renowned Japanese architects on various scale projects in Japan and around the world. In 2012,, Wael Al Awar was joined by Kenichi Teramoto as a partner. Both Principle Architects had worked closely in Tokyo on several international projects. Ibda Design has a multi-disciplinary approach to design, addressing the social, environmental, economical and technological aspects of each project in order to tailor a highly specific concept to the given context. Ibda Design develops projects of varying scale and programme, approaching each in a unique manner, with the ultimate aim of delivering a distinctive and high quality design. ibdadesign.com Erco Lighting The ERCO Light Factory in Germany is a leading international specialist in architectural lighting using LED technology. Working closely with architects, lighting designers and engineers, ERCO develops lighting tools for customised lighting solutions in architectural projects for culture and retail, work and hospitality, life and public buildings. erco.com
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PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND SPEAKERS Hamra Abbas Jumana Emil Abboud Shafic Abboud Sara Abdu Bani Abidi Adel Abidin Arwa Abouon Marina Abramovich Lawrence Abu Hamdan Ibrahim Abumsmar Pablo Accinelli Georgina Adam David Adamo Etel Adnan Sabih Ahmed Jalal Uddin Ahmed Nader Ahriman Rahel Aima Vyacheslav Akhunov Sulaiman Al Askari Manal Al Dowayan Liane Al Ghusain Musaed Al Hulis Joumana Al Jabri Shaikha Al Mazrou Mohamed Al Mazrouei Dr. Saoud Al Mulla Hessa Al Ossaily Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi Daniah Al Saleh Nasser Al Salem Al Anoud Al Sharekh Mounira Al Solh Nevin Alada Asma Alahmad Rashad Alakbarov Leila Alaoui Keila Alaver Khaled Al-Bannay Alchemy May Al-Dabbagh Rasha Al-Duwaisan Pierre Alechinsky Shadia Alem Carlos Alfonso Farah Al-Humaidhi Hala Ali Noor Ali Chagani Rheim Alkadhi Maya Allison Jennifer Allora Dhari Al-Muawed Abdullah Al-Mutairi Noura Al-Naggar Mai Al-Nakib Nourah Al-Rashed Taleb Alrefai Zuhair AlSaeed Tamara Al-Samerai Sama Alshaibi Batool Alshomrani Dario Álvarez Basso Maria Thereza Alves Olu Amoda Jude Anogwih
Saira Ansari Nazgol Ansarinia Ziad Antar Caline Aoun Rasheed Araeen Arahmaiani Kamrooz Aram Ayssar Arida Maria Jose Arjona Marwa Arsanios Mirene Arsanios Artewolfe Arnar Ásgeirsson Said Atabekov Mehraneh Atashi Athier Kader Attia Vartan Avakian Dia Azzawi Ayman Baalbaki Nicolas Bacal Ricardo Báez Ismaïl Bahri Amar Bakshi Sammy Baloji Alessandro BalteoYasbek Rina Banerjee Sarnath Banerjee Sam Bardaouil Rathin Barman Yto Barrada Shumon Basar Ramazan Bayrakoglu José Bechara Gottfried Bechtold Andres Bedoya Valérie Belin Farid Belkahia Rania Bellou Abdallah Benanteur Amel Bennys Gala Berger Walead Beshty Christopher Bevans Omar Bey Michael Biberstein Hind Bin Demaithan Blaft Tatiana Blass Zsolt Bodoni Paloma Bosque Fari Bradley James Bridle Jesús Bubu Negrón Beatrice Bordone Bulgari Daniel Buren Fahd Burki Faiza Butt Vivian Caccuri John Cage Johanna Calle Guillermo Calzadilla Simon Castets Philippe Van Cauteren Loris Cecchini Saint Clair Cemin Lia Chaia
Tamara Chalibi Sofia Chatzisaranti Marcos Chaves Ali Cherri Chimurenga Dilip Chobisa Nikhil Chopra Anita Choudhrie Tiffany Chung Marcelo Cidade James Clar Nathan ClementsGillespie Eduardo Climachauska Martina Corgnati Maxime Cramatte Abraham Cruzvillegas Minerva Cuevas Sebastian Cwilich Ghada Da Nada Dada Andrew Dadson Charbel Dagher Roland Daher Safwan Dahoul Dr. Ramzi A. Dalloul Elena Damiani Catherine David Oskar Dawicki Alia Dawood Marlon de Azambuja Lenora de Barros Cristiana de Marchi Edith Derdyk Elisabetta Di Maggio Caetano Dias Vikram Divecha Ahmet DoGu Ipek Emory Douglas Anthony Downey Detanico e Lain Christian Eisenberger Moulim El Aroussi Mohamed El baz Róza El Hassan Khalda El Jack Fouad El Khoury Aref El Rayess F arida El-Gazzar Umashankar & the Earchaeologists Isabella Ellaheh Hughes Hatim Elmekki Peles Empire Sham Enbashi Cevdet Erek Kareem Estfan Cécile B. Evans Sam Falls Alireza Fani Khaled Farhan Alia Farid Rami Farook Nilofer Farrukh Asad Faulwell Lara Favaretto Basmah Felemban
Till Fellrath Chelpa Ferro Manuel Figueira Günther Förg Kate Fowle Thomas Galbraith Dara Gallopin Mario Garcia Torres Ignacio Gatica Laurent Gaveau François-Xavier Gbré GCC Aikaterini Gegisian Anwar Ghader Ghazel MohammadHossein Gholamzadeh Natasha Ginwala Kaveh Golestan Alexander Gorlizki Franz Graf Krist Gruijthuijsen Cao Guimarães Amin Gulgee Shilpa Gupta Subodh Gupta Charbel-joseph H.Boutros Pascal Hachem Joana Hadjithomas Ramin Haerizadeh Rokni Haerzadeh Aya Haidar Mohammed Hamidi Mahmoud Hammad Mark Handforth Huseyn Haqverdi Mohssin Harraki Zarina Hashmi Mona Hatoum Tulip Hazbar Susan Hefuna Gil Heitor Cortesão Ayrson Heráclito S ecundino Hernández Gregor Hildebrandt Maria Teresa Hincapie Katharina Hinsberg David Hockney HOKO studio Rachel Lee Hovnanian Fabrice Hyber Clara Ianni Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim Ijusi Rose Issa Zahra Jewanjee Yang Jiechang Jungle Jim Pouran inchi Rania Jishi Michael John Whelan Joan Jonas Khalil Joreige Lamia Joreige
Jaume Plensa Yannick Poffet Cheryl Pope Liliana Porter Venetia Porter Wilfredo Prieto Prufrock Saba Qizilbash Gérard Quenum Imran Queshi Saad Qureshi Walid Raad Nathaniel Rackowe Noah Raford Sara Rahbar Hesam Rahmanian Younès Rahmoun Sameera Raja Nuno Ramos Rashid Rana Raqs Media Collective Sara Raza Anahita Razmi Buh Records Mayana Redin Werner Reiterer Rosangela Renno Monica Restrepo Rafael RG Flávia Ribeiro Daniel Rich MateRivano Nicolas Robbio Andrei Roiter Anja Ronacher Analog Room Luiz Roque Athi-Patra Ruga Lala Rukh Marwan Sahmarani Rehana Saigol Michael Sailstorfer Shahid Sajjad Roman Sakin Doris Salcedo Lyndi Sales Faisal Samra Eder Santos Eder Santos Yara Saqfalhait Sarkis Hrair Sarkissian Eva Schlegel Sean Scully Gulay Semercioglu Mithu Sen Daniel Senise
ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
Math Paper Press Ken Matsubara Shaun McDowell Noel McKenna Kellie McLaughlin János Megyik Jessica Mein Cildo Meireles Mohamed Melehi Hind Mezaina Joan Miró Hala Mohammed Al Khalifa Jamil Molaeb Amin Montazeri Fabio Morais Rui Moreira Jean-Luc Moulène Gustavo Moura Sam Moyer Turi Munthe Mouteea Murad John Murray Mehreen Murtaza Youssef Nabil Nabil Nahas Sara Naim Fawzia Naqvi Ayeh Naraghi Moataz Nasr Nasim Nasr Timo Nasseri Nadine Nour el Din Nuqat H.E. Zaki Nusseibeh Hans Ulrich Obrist Melik Ohanian Dan O’Hara Kaido Ole Bruce Onabrakpeya Hans Op de Beeck Bernd Oppl Gabriel Orozco Damian Ortega Bernardo Ortiz Yazid Oulab Prabhakar Pachpute Renata Padovan Pages Nina Papaconstantinou Nicolás Paris Marlo Pascual Melissa Paul Fleur Pellerin Pavel Pepperstein Gabriel PérezBarreiro Jack Persekian Guilherme Peters Anders Petterson Francis Picabia Sopheap Pich Diogo Pimentão Michelangelo Pistoletto Cameron Platter
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND SPEAKERS
Ayaz Joshio Quaint Journal Martha Jungwirth Radames Juni Figueroa Nadia Kaabi-Linke Hiba Kalache Jitish Kallat Nadim Karam Kasmalieva & Djumaliev Abdulrahman Katanani KAWS Mohammed Kazem Ali Kazim Lara Khaldi Mahmoud Khaled Aisha Khalid Raja’a Khalid Yazan Khalili HassanKhan Idris Khan Waqas Khan Ayesha Khanna Parag Khanna Bharti Kher Omar Kholeif Kristine Khouri Henry S. Kim Juz Kitson Lucia Koch Zenita Komad Valery Koshlyakov Angelika Krinzinger Gabriel Kuri Yayoi Kusama La Ribot Jack Lang Raking Leaves Jac Leirner Nelson Leirner Cristiano Lenhardt Cairo Liberation Front Maria Loizidou João Loureiro Rafael LozanoHemmer Huda Lufti Rosmarie Lukasser Mauricio Lupini Abdullah M. I. Syed Maha Maamoun Jorge Macchi Basim Magdy Vali Mahlouji Maha Malluh Robert Mapplethorpe Cinthia Marcelle Cinthia Marcelle Marcellvs L. Marwan MASBEDO Sara Masinaei Shakira Masood Ahmed Mater
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ART DUBAI GROUP
BOARD OF DIRECTORS • Rajesh Pareek, Chairman of the Board • Benedict Floyd, CEO, Art Dubai Group • Savita Apte • Saleh Al Akrabi • Ali Al Shabibi
FAIR DIRECTOR Antonia Carver FAIR MANAGEMENT Natasha Carella, Assistant Fair Director Camilla Mosse, Fair Coordinator Sana Rizvi, Fair Coordinator Laurene Perra, Head of Sponsorship Ella Mohamed, CRM Manager Muhammad Akram, Finance Manager Mohammed Abdul Moiz, Finance Coordinator EXHIBITOR RELATIONS Bettina Klein, Exhibitions Manager; Manager, The Abraaj Group Art Prize Lea Chikhani, Exhibitions Coordinator Anahita Sadighi, Exhibitions Assistant Ana Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Curator, Marker Tadeu Baldani Caravieri, Marker Coordinator Collector and vip relations Lela Csáky, Director, International and VIP Relations Victoria Gandit Lelandais, Manager, Collectors Circle and Art Salon Inhye Kim, VIP Relations Coordinator Amina Debbiche, VIP Relations Assistant Eleonora Santin, VIP Relations Assistant Leo Barrameda, Travel Coordinator
ART DUBAI TEAM
ART DUBAI EDUCATION Uns Kattan, Education Manager Basil AlZeri, Chlidren’s Programme Coordinator Noor Ale, Education Coordinator Raseel Hadjian, Education Assistant
Art DUBAI PROJECTS Lee Xie, Projects Manager Lara Khaldi, Curator, Art Dubai Projects and A.i.R. Dubai Munira Al Sayegh, Assistant Curator, A.i.R. Dubai Shahad Ghafoori, A.i.R. Dubai Coordinator Salma Serry, Projects Coordinator Bader Bukhari, Projects Coordinator Ailsa Sanchdev, Projects Assistant Melanie Sindelar, Projects Assistant ART DUBAI REVIEW 2015
COMMunications Jessica Mason, Communications and Marketing Manager Farah Atoui, PR Consultant Isabelle Hanson, Communications Assistant Alessandra Battalia, Communications Assistant Layan Attari, Designer
PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS Raad Haider, RCA Secret Dubai Mariam Wissam, Fada'aat ART WEEK Amar A. Zahr, Art Week Manager Dominique Mahoney, Art Week Assistant
FAIR DESIGN Hani Charaf Tulip Hazbar
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