THE NATIONAL PAVILION OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES LAUNCHES THE VENICE INTERNSHIP FOR THE 55TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, 2013

November 7, 2012 – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – The National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), initiated by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development and supported by the Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of Venice Internship, a highly competitive, specialized program which will see Emirati fellows trained and based in Venice for a month long tenure managing the National Pavilion art exhibition from 29th May to 24 November 2013.

Initiated in 2009, the National Pavilion runs this specialized opportunity to train UAE nationals to not only take part in the Venice Biennale but to also create a legacy of highly skilled art practitioners in the UAE equipped to take the national contemporary art and cultural scene boldly into the future.  For the first time the Venice Internship will be partnering with the Department of Asian and North African studies at the prestigious Ca’ Foscari University Venice which will facilitate the inclusion of six specially selected Italian interns working side-by-side with the Emiratis. This partnership has been developed to foster a true exchange of cultures between the interns and to allow Emirati’s to engage further with Italian customs, language and knowledge thus enhancing their local experience in Venice.

“The National Pavilion of the UAE and its supporters aim to nurture contemporary culture in the Emirates by providing interns with an opportunity to establish both local and international networks which lead to further studies, gainful employment and exhibitions with prestigious artistic and cultural institutions. We will continue to build stronger ties internationally emphasizing our position in Venice while also giving our  Italian interns the opportunity to learn about the UAE in depth.” Dr. Lamees Hamdan, Commissioner.

The Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation will be supporting the Venice Internship for the first time. The Foundation’s arts funding program  supports emerging and future Emirati artists in developing their talents at the earliest stages of their growth, works to educate and engage the public in art and to build new audiences in the UAE for the arts, and supports efforts to introduce the international community to Emirati artistic talent.

“In the quest to empower our future cultural leaders, we believe that the Venice Internship provides an excellent platform for both local and international exposure to the top echelons of the artistic community as well as cultural exchange emphasized by the inclusion of Italian interns into the program.” Dr Salvatore LaSpada, Executive Director.

Once awarded a place in the program, the specially selected Emirati interns, drawn from across the UAE, are trained in a basic framework for conversing in the arts in order to engage fluently with the content of the exhibition.  They will also have the opportunity to work alongside distinguished curator Reem Fadda, the National Pavilion office, and select practitioners from the greater UAE art scene in the lead-up to the Biennale. This group of 18 interns will then go to Venice to serve in the national pavilion as Exhibition Managers while engaging in a comprehensive art educational program based on the extraordinary art and cultural institutions in Venice and the temporary exhibitions of the Biennale.

“Hands-on experience is an ideal way to learn about best practices in the international arts context, the Venice Internship offers such experience and much more. I look forward to sharing my curatorial process with these bright young Emiratis.” Reem Fadda, Curator.

Recruitment for the Venice Internship will formally begin at the dedicated booth at Abu Dhabi Art from the 7th to 10th of November 2012. An information booth will be set up whereby interested parties may apply to participate in the program or simply engage with staff and volunteers to find out more about the opportunity for 18 Emiratis to spend up to 4 weeks each in Venice from May to December 2013.

Initiated and supported by His Excellency Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al Owais, UAE Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, the National Pavilion is being developed and presented for the third time under the leadership of its Commissioner, Dr. Lamees Hamdan, and is supported for the first time by the Sheikha Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation. Serving as curator for the National Pavilion is Reem Fadda who will present a solo exhibition of esteemed Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem.

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NATIONAL PAVILION OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ANNOUNCES REEM FADDA AS CURATOR AND MOHAMMED KAZEM AS FEATURED ARTIST FOR THE 55TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

The United Arab Emirates will participate with a third National Pavilion in 2013 through the generous support of the Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation underscoring its position as an international cultural hub through a solo presentation
exhibition and a highly competitive Venice Internship.

September 26th 2012 –  Abu Dhabi – The National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates is pleased to announce its participation at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, 2013.  The Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, H.E. Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al Owais has appointed Dr Lamees Hamdan for a third consecutive term as Commissioner of the country’s National Pavilion.  For the 2013 exhibition, Reem Fadda, an Associate Curator for Middle Eastern Art at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, will feature the work of Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem in a solo presentation in the pavilion.  The National Pavilion has appointed the dynamic Emirati design house, Fikra, lead by Salem Al Qassimi to produce the visual elements related to both the organization and the exhibition. The Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation is generously supporting the Pavilion for the first time.

The Curator and Artist

Fadda is currently working as Associate Curator of Middle Eastern Art – Abu Dhabi Project at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation based in New York.  She is also a PhD candidate at the History of Art and Visual Studies Department at Cornell University.

From her curatorial concept, Fadda stated; “Mohammed Kazem, a pioneering contemporary artist and thinker from the UAE, represents a generation that emerged from an avant-garde legacy of arts and  artists in the UAE and the surrounding region, one that has thrived since the mid-70s with advocates  such as his mentor artist Hassan Sharif. The curatorial research for our pavilions presentation in Venice will see Kazem as the leading individual artist and thinker he is and highlight his contribution to the local artistic heritage.”

Kazem first studied art at the Emirates Fine Art Society, he then went on to learn music, attend national and international art workshops, as well as teach painting at Dubai Art Atelier.  Widely known through numerous solo and group exhibitions in the UAE and abroad, his works have been collected by private institutions such as Deutsche Bank as well as Museums in Doha, Sharjah, JP Morgan Chase Bank, USA, Sittard in Holland and by private collectors. Kazem has participated in many high profile exhibitions including the Havana Biennial (2000), Singapore Biennale (2006), Dhaka Biennial, Bangladesh (2002), and the Sharjah Biennale (1993 – 2007).  Most recently he exhibited at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia (2010); and at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012).

A pioneer in the UAE contemporary art scene for his incorporation of video and new technologies, his interest in conceptual art and his progressive attitude towards medium and context is especially highlighted by his ongoing series “Directions.”

“By engaging the work of Kazem, we can witness the urban modernity of an emerging nation through the eyes of its individual artists. In pursuing this initiative we hope to demonstrate that the developments we see in the region today do not come from a void, but rather evolve from the contemporary thought and practice of artists and intellectuals like Kazem, whose work has consistently interrogated the relationship between the individual and his/her social, urban, and natural environments,“ elaborated Fadda.