ART DUBAI’S GLOBAL ART FORUM_6 EXPANDS TO SIX DAYS: MARCH 18-19 IN DOHA AND MARCH 21-24 IN DUBAI
2012 TO FOCUS ON MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF MEDIA IN THE ART WORLD AND BEYOND
January 12, 2012- The Global Art Forum, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region’s leading platform for cultural debate and discussion, expands to six days in 2012, and features commissioned projects and research, as well as live debates and presentations.
Now in its sixth year, the Global Art Forum is directed by writer Shumon Basar and is characterized by a particularly innovative and dynamic approach.
Art Dubai’s Global Art Forum_6, presented by the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and in partnership with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Qatar Museums Authority), starts in Doha March 18-19 before continuing to Art Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah, March 21-24.
Salem Belyouha, Projects & Events Director, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, said: “Over the past five years, the Global Art Forum has served as a substantial platform to encourage intercultural dialogue between artists and art-enthusiasts, bringing together those that contribute to the growing cultural and artistic fabric of the city. As the only conference that debates topics surrounding the arts industry, Global Art Forum has become an integral event in Dubai’s cultural calendar. The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority is delighted to once again extend its support to the Forum.”
Entitled ‘The Medium of Media’, the Forum is re-inventing itself this year. Along with the familiar array of lectures, conversations, discussions, and workshops, it includes a new roster of commissioned projects that precede and succeed the live days.
Thematically, GAF_6 looks at the double meaning of the term ‘media’, both within the art world and referring to the world of publishing and reportage. Underpinning this is a look back at the past year in the Arab world, and how fundamental events have been both produced and consumed as media. GAF_6 is, effectively, a media production about media.
Over 50 contributors to Global Art Forum_6 include: LACMA director Michael Govan; Serpentine Gallery co-director of exhibitions and programmes and director of international projects Hans Ulrich Obrist; novelist and artist Douglas Coupland; writer/critic Sukhdev Sandhu; art market reporter Georgina Adam; film-producer Anna Lena Vaney; artists Wael Shawky, Shezad Dawood and Michael Rakowitz; curators Jack Persekian and Nat Muller; Demotix founder Turi Munthe; commentators Sultan Suood Al Qassemi and Yasmine El Rashidi; blogger Hind Mezaina; as well as filmmaker Sophie Fiennes with a special screening of ‘Over Your Cities the Grass will Grow’.
Commissioned projects include a series of PowerPointsTM by writers and artists, curated by Victoria Camblin, including Goldin & Senneby and Alexander Provan/Triple Canopy; a Dictionary of the Mediatized Gulf by Qatari artist-writer Sophia Al Maria; a series of publications entitled Some Medium Stories, edited by Michael Vazquez featuring Emily Dische-Becker, Tom Francis, Kristine Khouri; and a Media Archiving blog by Mariam Wissam Al Dabbagh. Two new collaborations between Art Dubai and Mathaf will be announced: an interactive Arabic Art Glossary, led by curator Lara Khaldi, and an Artist’s Residency at Al Jazeera news network, Doha. These works will be made available, in both Doha and Dubai, at the new Forum Forum resource space, which will include UAE research by Brusselssprout.
“Over the past five years, the Global Art Forum has become a major, collaborative event in the art world calendar. This year, it reinvents itself in terms of format and subject and while rooted in the art world, delves into other disciplines,” said Antonia Carver, Art Dubai Fair Director. “The Forum is illustrative of Dubai’s propensity for debate, and the Gulf’s collaborative spirit; in 2012, it includes an array of fascinating regional and international voices from the worlds of film, journalism, economics, social media, publishing, and of course art. Most are speaking in the Gulf for the first
time.”
The programme begins in Doha with presentations of the new commissioned projects as well as discussions on the relationship between news-makers and history-making in the Arab world, and the increasing phenomena of artists turning to the medium of feature film making.
The Forum subsequently moves on to Art Dubai, March 21-24. Here, continuing the theme of ‘The Medium of Media’, GAF_6 invites critics, historians and experts to discuss Marshall McLuhan’s legacy; the Beatles’ last ever concert; the past and future of ‘Net Art’; how news shapes art and financial markets; the Crusades told through the medium of puppetry; archiving Emirati TV; and much more.
The Global Art Forum is also continuing Forum Fellows for the second year. Led by art-critic Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, the programme invites exceptional young writers from the Middle East, Asia and the UAE to interact with the rich themes, personalities and subtexts of the Fair and the region.
The Global Art Forum is part of Art Dubai’s discussion programme that includes Terrace Talks, a series of conversations on the relationship between the Gulf and wider Asia, and the fourth edition of The Big Idea, a dynamic, fast-paced forum for young UAE-based artists and designers.
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February 13, 2012
ART DUBAI PROJECTS FEATURES OVER 40 INTERNATIONAL AND UAEBASED ARTISTS
DYNAMIC PROGRAMME INCLUDES NEW ARTISTS’ AND CURATOR’S RESIDENCIES, COMMISSIONED PERFORMANCES AND SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATIONS, LIVE RADIO BROADCASTS, EDUCATIONAL EVENTS AND VIDEO SCREENINGS
Art Dubai Projects is a programme of new works and performances that explores the fabric and economy of an art fair, embracing the theatrical nature of such an event. In 2012, this critically-acclaimed, interactive programme at Art Dubai (March 21-24, 2012) features dynamic new initiatives: artists’ residencies and site-specific projects are joined by live, city-wide radio transmissions; a new Performance Night staged at the fair; plus a unique artist’s project for children.
Artists commissioned to produce new site-specific and performative works for Art Dubai Projects include Fayçal Baghriche, Yto Barrada, Carlos Celdran, James Clar, Koken Ergun, Setu Legi, Magdi Mostafa, UBIK and Deniz Üster.
In partnership with The Pavilion Downtown Dubai, The Curatorial Delegation — a collective consisting of writer and curator Juan A. Gaitán and Rabat’s L’Appartement 22 founder Abdellah Karroum — presents Radio for Example (R22-Dubai), a live transmission of mobile conversations with leading artistic practitioners, recorded on the move, around Dubai. These interviews will be streamed on Radio Apartment 22 and presented at Art Dubai and The Pavilion.
In keeping with the spirit of collaboration, Art Dubai hosts its inaugural Performance Night on March 22, in partnership with not-for-profit artspace Traffic. This special event features artists, poets, musicians, academics, curators, and collectors — most of whom are based in the UAE — including Hala Al Ali, Isak Berbic, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Anahita Razmi, Lantian Xie and WolfPakistan, a self-styled “native-born Emirati Indian Slash Mexican dance rap group”.
Art Dubai Projects also presents an ambitious series of commissioned interactive performances reflecting on the fair’s format and economy. In 2012, selected artists include Manila-based Carlos Celdran, who will perform seven acts in seven different parts of Art Dubai, offering commentary about issues surrounding geopolitics, arts and culture, and Koken Ergun, from Istanbul, whose new project involves surprise performances throughout the fair, employing musicality as a means of communication.
Created by renowned Tangier-based artist Yto Barrada with designers Zid Zid Kids, and produced in collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Morocco to the Moon is an interactive, educational installation and series of workshops for families and children.
Inspired by 1950s sci-fi– and featuring astronauts, aliens, ray-guns and space robots — this trilingual space takes visitors on a whimsical trip to outer-space and beyond.
Also serving as a unique exploration area for children and astronauts of all ages, the space offers bespoke furniture, fun and innovative play-objects, interactive features, film projections, and stimulating workshops for children run by world-class visiting artists.
Other site-specific installations include Pseudophobia, an interactive fortress (or refuge)-like structure made from sandbags, textiles, pins and mirrors, by Jogjakartabased artist Setu Legi, and Oil and Water, a collaboration between artists James Clar and UBIK which uses an architectural model of a Dubai landmark as a point of creative departure. Dubai-based UBIK will also present Portrait of an Artist through his Statements, an edible project that documents the precarious and symbolic relationship artists share with their bank balance on a daily basis.
This year Art Dubai debuts The Hatch, an ordinary stairwell given new life as a screening room. This intimate, innovative space features video programmes curated by Bidoun and Radio for Example, among others, plus artists’ talks and
presentations.
In 2012, Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and Tashkeel launched a new, three-month residency programme, for six artists and a curator. As part of their residency, artists Fayçal Baghriche (Paris), Magdi Mostafa (Cairo) and Deniz Üster (Istanbul, Glasgow) have been commissioned to make major, new site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects. Alongside UAE-based artists Hadeyah Badri, Zeinab Al Hashimi and Nasir Nasrallah, they are also creating Open Studios exhibitions that run as part of Sikka Art Fair during Art Week.
In collaboration with ArtAsiaPacific, curator-in-residence Alexandra MacGilp (London), was selected from an international open call for curators and will spend the remaining time in Dubai interacting with the artists-in-residence in addition to engaging in critical research and writing projects.
The six-day Global Art Forum reinvents itself in 2012, and includes a wealth of commissioned projects and new publications, besides live discussions and presentations.
DXB Store, a pop-up, not-for-profit venture showcasing products — artists’ multiples to jewelry to stationery to design collectibles — by UAE-based creatives returns to Art Dubai for its second edition. Selected from an open call by a jury (furniture and objects designer Khalid Shafar, s*uce co-founder Zayan Ghandour and designer Manabu Ozawa), the 2012 participants will be announced shortly.
Marker, the section of curated gallery stands, also returns to the fair for a second edition, this year turning its gaze to the rising Indonesian arts community.
Commissioned by Art Dubai, Jogjakarta-born Alia Swastika invited five Indonesian galleries to the fair who are now working with their artists to produce new work for Art Dubai 2012. Galleries include Ark Galerie (Jakarta), Biasa Artspace (Kuta, Bali), Galerie Canna (Jakarta), D Galerie (Jakarta) and Jogja Contemporary (Jogjakarta).
