SanctionedArray - Open Call for Video Art Related to US Sanctioned Countries

SanctionedResolution by CHOKRA, 2011

SpecifyOthers issues a new call for SanctionedArray - the online video art database, for a series of curated exhibitions and screenings entitled CuratorsArray. From 2011 through 2012, CuratorsArray series shall focus on video art engaged specifically with the US sanctioned countries - Belarus, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar/Burma and Zimbabwe. Each array is specific to each sanctioned country and shall be screened and exhibited in its origin as well as at museums and galleries around the world. New submissions to the database should relate to these countries; this relationship is entirely self-determined. Each array shall feature both curated selections and open call entries.

The open call for videos related to Belarus, Burma, Syria, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Cuba are now open!

We are also accepting early submissions for Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Lebanon.

Submit your video entries online at www.sanctionedarray.specifyothers.com/submit

SanctionedArray - COME PLAY WITH US

25th October 2010, 4:30-9 pm: Launch of SanctionedArray curated by SpecifyOthers and reception, BIG SCREEN PROJECT, 6th Avenue and 29th Street, New York City

CHANGE OF PROGRAM

WHITE BOX has had to reschedule screening and roundtable as follows (previously announced to take place 26th October 2010, 6-10 pm):

November 2nd 12-10 pm, and November 3rd, 11-7 pm: interactive screening of 100 jury-selected videos, WHITE BOX, 329 Broome Street, New York City

November 2nd at 7 pm SanctionedArray roundtable discussion at WHITE BOX, 329 Broome Street, New York City

SanctionedArray is an online database of video art conceived in response to the restrictions of artists' submissions to          The Guggenheim Museum's and YouTube's video biennial, Play (www.youtube.com/play). Artists' submissions to Play were limited by OFAC sanctions (www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/) - citizens or residents of Belarus, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar/Burma and Zimbabwe were not eligible to submit their work. We maintain that the application of OFAC sanctions to virtual transmissions of video art perpetuates the conditions that led to the imposition of these sanctions. In protest to the continuity of such restrictions, artists of any origin - including those from the sanctioned countries – were invited to submit their work to SanctionedArray in           an open call for video entries that endede October 22nd. Submission guidelines to SanctionedArray followed online video formats proposed by YouTube and The Guggenheim, except for Eligibility 1.d. (www.sites.google.com/site/ytplayterms/all).

SpecifyOthers are pleased to announce CuratorsArray, an ongoing series of video exhibitions and screenings by invited curators utilizing and expanding SanctionedArray database, to be presented at museums and galleries around the world and online. The first iteration of CuratorsArray is Others2Specify, a playlist of 50 videos curated by SpecifyOthers from the first call for submissions to SanctionedArray. It was first presented at Big Screen Project, 6th Avenue and 29th Street, New York City on October 25th, 2010 (http://www.bigscreenproject.org/), and will be screened again at WHITE BOX on November 2nd, 12-10 pm and November 3rd, 11-7 pm  

One hundred of the most notable and varied video entries will be selected for the SanctionedArray online database and announced on November 2nd on http://www.sanctionedarray.specifyothers.com/. An interactive screening of all 100 SanctionedArray’s selected entries will be held on November 2nd from 12 to 10 pm and November 3rd from 11 to 7 pm at WHITE BOX, 329 Broome Street, New York City, with a roundtable November 2nd at 7 pm, including Wafaa Bilal, artist; Hamid Dabashi, author and professor, Columbia University; Shayana Kadidal, attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights; and Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga, artist; moderated by SpecifyOthers. SanctionedArray events shall coincide with Play biennial at The Guggenheim New York, extending representation of video entries considered not eligible by Origin, by YouTube and The Guggenheim, and challenging a status quo.

At SanctionedArray, we look forward to having "everybody play."

Conceived and organized by SpecifyOthers, New York City & United Arab Emirates (http://www.specifyothers.com/) in collaboration with WHITE BOX, New York (http://www.whiteboxny.org/) and co-presented by ArteEast (http://www.arteeast.org/).

ARTICLE 86 - Art Dubai Appoints Antonia Carver as Its New Fair Director

Based in Dubai for the past eight years, Carver has been a member of the renowned Middle Eastern arts organization Bidoun since its inception in 2004.

DUBAI.- The Board of Art Dubai has announced the appointment of Antonia Carver to succeed John Martin as Fair Director of Art Dubai. Antonia Carver is a writer and arts administrator, and has been widely recognized as a leading advocate of contemporary Middle Eastern art. She has been working in the arts for the past sixteen years, and brings to the fair a broad base of experience across both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors.

Based in Dubai for the past eight years, Carver has been a member of the renowned Middle Eastern arts organization Bidoun since its inception in 2004, and is currently editor-at-large of Bidoun magazine and director of Bidoun Projects, responsible for overseeing a dynamic programme of artists’ projects, commissions, exhibitions, talks and educational events. Bidoun Projects was the curatorial partner of Art Dubai in 2010. In these roles, Carver has worked with some of the Middle East’s best-known as well as emerging artists, complementing her knowledge of international contemporary art.

John Martin, who remains on the board of Art Dubai, commented: “We are delighted that Antonia Carver has accepted the role of fair director. Her appointment underlines the Board’s commitment to build on Art Dubai’s exceptional worldwide reputation for innovation and quality. Antonia’s experience internationally and in the region will strengthen the core values of the fair, ensuring it continues to be a significant driving force in the growth of the region’s art scene.”

The fifth edition of Art Dubai takes place in March 2011. Coinciding with Sharjah Biennial 10, the UAE will become the destination for collectors, curators and art lovers from around the world. With the deadline for gallery applications closing at the end of June, the fair has seen a surge of interest from international galleries wishing to participate, as well as applications from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon and key art markets around the MENA region.

Commenting on the prospects of the fair next year, Carver said: “Art Dubai’s success is built on its engagement with the MENASA region, its great roster of leading galleries and the support of dedicated collectors from the UAE and beyond. The innovative programme of artists’ projects and the Global Art Forum have made Art Dubai a particularly popular and dynamic event. I’m delighted to be joining the fair at a time of unprecedented homegrown support for artists from the Middle East, and when international interest in the region has never been higher. I’m aiming to work with galleries, collectors, artists, institutions and professionals to strengthen the role the fair can play within the region whilst continuing to develop the enormous international support that the event has always enjoyed.”

Bidoun Projects’ programmes in 2009-10, directed by Carver, included a touring library of Middle Eastern art books and music; a course of workshops and seminars in critical writing; and curating a dynamic set of international film and video programmes, talks, and artists’ commissions. Recent collaborating partners include the Sharjah Art Foundation, the New Museum, TDIC, Townhouse gallery, LACMA, the Cinematheque de Tangier, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), and the Emirates Foundation.

Carver was a correspondent for the Art Newspaper and has contributed to journals, newspapers and exhibition catalogues worldwide. As a film curator, she is a member of the programming teams for the Dubai International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival, specializing in Arab and Iranian cinema.

Carver graduated in 1994, and has worked in publishing and visual arts ever since – in Sydney, Australia, and in London at G&B Arts International and contemporary visual arts magazine; the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), and as an editor at Phaidon Press.

Article Courtesy: ART DAILY

EXHIBIT 04 - EFEM CURATED BY SIDHANT BHAGCHANDANI

EFEM curated by Sidhant Bhagchandani

17 JUNE 2010, 7 – 11 PM

Featuring:
Must Burn Books, Samuel Consiglio, Andrea DiStefano, Kathryn Garcia, Trenzinfizting, Nickolaus Typaldos and Amanda Wong.

LIVE PERFORMANCES AT 8 PM

EFEM curated by Sidhant Bhagchandani is an electronic and live programme of process and return mediated through systems and methods of underground currents. Featuring the multi-discipline works of Must Burn Books, Samuel Consiglio, Andrea DiStefano, Kathryn Garcia, Trenzinfizting, Nickolaus Typaldos and Amanda Wong, EFEM configures in its own asynchronous and reflective currency adapted ports of video, transmitted sound and performance at The Garment Room on 17 JUNE 2010 from 7 to 11 PM.

With an imperative to consider function, EFEM shall pull into an integrated geometry an overlay of production. At EFEM the art duo Must Burn Books will present a threefold video of instructables channelling the intimate and permanent/impermanent variant of the handmade book. Fluid scripts are then alleviated from texts to be slowed down for a constructed ritual of human significance in a video work by Nickolaus Typaldos. Kathryn Garcia simultaneously presents the associated gender in a cosmetic collapse of an in between or electronic inter net. Andrea DiStephano would present a mediated work of material and object with bodily components present in proximate enclosures. While Amanda Wong shall present in a two-channel video and sound work a considerate electronic utility of rotting and lifeless animal bodies. Samuel Consiglio shall contribute to EFEM with an FM of radio transmission a 10 part a-musical “I Know I’m Not Wrong” and Trenzinfizting shall fizt with uncustomary trenz in an integrated live performance of soulless knowing and aggressive HOT talk.

THE GARMENT ROOM
112 Greene Street
Between Prince & Spring
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 347 581 7930
http://www.thegarmentroom.com/

EXHIBIT 03 - WHATEVER WE HAD TO LOSE WE LOST, AND IN A MOONLESS SKY WE MARCHED

25th of March-10th of May 2010
Recent works by Sara Rahbar

Exhibition Text by Shaheen Merali

Beyond the moral crossroad of war, atrocity and surveillance the exterminating angel looks on...

Rahbar’s passionate encounters seem to overflow from the pages of her notebooks, which resemble an ethnographer’s sketchbook, to the folds, straps and stripes that make up her predominantly textile assemblages. The need for the term, “Predominantly”, can be attributed to the fact that textiles form only a part of the everyday and everywhere that finds itself caught in the crossfire of these magnificent and beautifully observed, layered works. Flags form the basis of much of her work and, increasingly since 2007; she has worked with embroidered cloth in the form of rectangular pieces. All of these embroideries have their origins either in domestic usage or are employed ritually in ceremonies for the family, tribe or nation or on religious occasions. The fact that they form a basis for the concept of identity in her furtherance of their role and purpose in her artworks imbues them with even greater significance and appeal as we ultimately recognise ourselves within them.

The flags and these embroidered pieces both provide a loaded plane, a cultivated form, of difference but definitely recognisable as heritage; they allow the viewer to identify their place of origin, possibly arousing the first stirrings of prejudice. To a lay-person, the embroideries seem to reflect a certain type of Middle - Eastness or a part of central Asia, in the way the motifs, colours and stitches crisscross the moody background hues to make abstract shapes informed by land and natural forms. A prime example is the textile work I wait for the sun to return, and for another birth, which from its title symbolically asks for a regeneration and the notion of waiting and time. It seems that Rahbar, like many artists of our time, is in this limbo of observing an unleashing with unpredictable results; one that is affecting the global standard like a virus. In the work mentioned above, small groups of similar people enact similar, often violent, acts on each other. Hooded and masked men look out from their work in postures of a heightened masculinity, carrying their weapons of choice, guns, sticks and rocks. The viewer is left to question - are these protestors or civil police? Against a gory backdrop of a diagonal grid that resembles a sun-kissed mosaic, a kaleidoscope of terror and terrorists becomes an ingrained pattern like that of eventualities, which are currently working on creating a new cold world.

In the cases of the flags, prejudices are frighteningly mixed with a sense of patriotism (depending on who and where you are)- of the reality of nation states that seem to be on the verge of war, if not disturbingly close to the vacuity of a stand-off that has already succumbed to a diplomatic disaster. The two countries implicated in the work are, of course, the two places that Rahbar inhabits as an artist, a citizen and as an observer- the USA and the Islamic Republic of Iran. A duelling treatise indeed.

The work, flag# 41 what ever we had to loose we lost, and in a moonless sky we marched, is another typical use of morose wit within a poetic stoma as a title for her work. The main subjects of this work are the iconic beauties of the American democrats, the assassinated presidents- the Kennedy brothers, JFK and RFK. They feature as portraits in a heavy, dark, nearly pomegranate red background of stitched saddle-bags and gun belts. In the midst of this portraiture a flying eagle tries to land on the White House, whilst, in one corner, a crucifix with army appellations hangs sadly over the whole composition. Rahbar has a penchant for dramatic compositions that are blazoned with the symbolic glaze of Americana, where violence contrasts with the folkloric, almost innocuous, richness of tribal artefacts from Iran. These flags are territorial markers of her understanding of a fractious history between the two nations, which now remains encased like the basis for the designs and symbols, employed in a hidden past of violated glories and inexperience of global domination. These textile works like seepages, numbered as this one is as #41, forty first evaluations of past specters that have come to haunt contemporary atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and nearby Iran.

The final suite of images is a recent series of photographs, all against a dark, barren, black background. Here the subject is the artist herself - to be more precise the artist’s back is the subject. Dressed in a number of differing costumes, a continuous obsession with texture, destiny and design is further explored by a series of performative poses, using a number of props and stylisations. Similar to the flags and embroidered textile works, the title for the series prepares the viewer for its intent. I lay in the darkness of an anonymous grave, stripped of you, I remain is at first glance a pared-down, quieter, even meditative work in its relationship to the busy overbearing of the textile work. On closer inspection, the photographic works carry an amended set of information but still flex within an existing, if not a heavily symbolic, space of motif that carries on playing an important port of carriage for Rahbar. The visual, which leaps between flags and embroidered spaces, allows the viewer to fix and multiply meanings in those contradictory procrastinations that appeal to our temporal senses of space, in relation to these spectral times. A further reasoning is quietly introduced in these photographic revelations of a female back, its face turned, its identity no longer of value whilst a striking intention of time develops. They are symbolically reminiscent of the famous 1988 painting by Gerhard Richter, Betty, - a romantic but powerful portrayal of his daughter looking out of the frame and into time itself. Like Rahbar’s work, Betty, is adorned by a richly embroidered jacket that becomes as important as the mystery of the averted gaze.

The sartorial rage.
In folding all her works into this trifocal embrace, Rahbar makes apparent that she is, after all, a product of an unevenness that has exploded in our faces; an inequity of disruption and uncertainties that evaluates us as we try to comprehend how it ‘plays’ with our lives and values. Her explorations in all three medias, textile works, new embroideries and photography allows a space in which to evaluate her notion of aesthetic continuity within a context. For Rahbar, like many of her contemporaries, this context is mindful and interested in asserting its right to speak freely and openly about the advancing strategies that no longer upgrade freedom or values of democracy but rather strangulate peace. These works speak of the processes that have currently been fortified within a shock doctrine that is burying long-fought battle cries that had seemingly permitted civility and diplomacy.

Her work is important for it acts like a witness box, informing us of the shameful reversal of fortunes, Like a visual human cry, leaping between the incensed anxieties of un-belonging and the dark clouds remaining over our heads, her work captivates us with its devilish intentions.

CARBON 12 DUBAI

WORK 12 - Raed Yassin

Name: Raed Yassin
Title: The New Film
Medium: Video, Duration 12 MIN, Edition of 3, 2AP
Year: 2008

THE GUILD NY

WORK 10/11 - Ramin Haerizadeh

Name: Ramin Haerizadeh
Title: Oh Iran, My Bejewelled Land
Medium: Mixed-media and collage on canvas
Size: 200 × 220 cm
Year: 2009

Name: Ramin Haerizadeh
Title: Dance Me to the End of Love
Medium: Mixed-media and collage on canvas
Size: (tetraptych 250 x 400 cm), each panel 250 x 100 cm
Year: 2010

B21 Gallery Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde

ARTICLE 85 - Art Dubai: the big fair with an international flair

[March 17. 2010 1:40AM UAE / March 16. 2010 9:40PM GMT] Tahira Yaqoob for THE NATIONAL

Abir Fawaz, right, 22, a senior design student, and Sharmeen Syed, 24, a senior architecture student, from the American University of Sharjah. They are participating in an internship programme with Art Dubai. Nicole Hill / The National

DUBAI: Five hundred artists, 70 galleries, more than 15,000 visitors expected over four days and hundreds of potential collectors.

As the showplace that is Art Dubai rolled into town, its organisers declared it to be the “biggest platform for contemporary art in the Middle East”.

Artists, curators and gallery owners said yesterday one of Art Dubai’s greatest achievements in its four-year history has been uniting those creating art with possible patrons. The international art fair was launched yesterday by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The support network that has helped give birth to a lively arts scene in Dubai will be recognised for the first time since the event started with the inaugural Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards tomorrow.

Regional and international patrons who make financial contributions of at least Dh50,000 (US$13,600) to Dubai-based artistic initiatives will be recognised in a special ceremony, with a distinguished patrons category for anyone investing at least Dh5 million over three years.

Saeed al Nabouda, of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, said: “The support of these patrons has played an instrumental role in enriching and evolving the cultural scene.”

At the launch party were the three winners of the world’s biggest cash trophy for art, the Abraaj Capital Arts Prize, which grants Dh750,000 to each of them to create original work as part of Art Dubai. They were Hala Elkoussy from Egypt, Kader Attia, an Algerian, and Marwan Sahmarani from Lebanon.

Elkoussy, 35, whose work is also on show at Manarat al Saadiyat, said: “This is a glimmer of hope in a scene of desperation. Things are changing for the better but it is so important to have local patrons as opposed to the situation before, when we would produce art which would then be exported abroad.

“Before, any discourse about art from the Middle East was coming from the West. Events like this are the beginning of change but there is a long way to go. We need to create a local discourse in Arabic, the language of the people.”

Ben Floyd, the co-founder of Art Dubai, said the emphasis for event was Middle Eastern art. “People are coming from all over the Middle East, not just from the UAE.”

One of the most important functions was to bring together local artists with international gallery owners or collectors who could project their work onto a global stage, organisers said.

Among the success stories are Rami Farook, 29, the Emirati owner of Traffic, a concept furniture store and gallery, and the American installation artist James Clar, 31, who is now his artist-in-residence and the focus of Farook’s stand at the fair.

“We work together,” Farook said. “He creates and I advise. I have no influence on his work and would never tell him what to do but we have conversations about this region and culture. He feels our frustrations and that comes through in his work.”

Clar said that his three years in Dubai had given him an insight into Arab culture and the Islamic faith which he had been oblivious to while living in the US: “My perception of the Arab world while living in America was totally different to what it is now, so I suppose in that way I have been influenced.”

Artwork on sale at the fair ranges in price from less than Dh3,673 to more than Dh3.7m for a giant metal sculpture by El Anatsui.

Elsewhere in the event, which opens to the public today and runs through Saturday, rising Emirati talent will be the focus of a number of workshops and projects.

Dozens of UAE residents in their 20s have been recruited into a group called Young Associates of Art Dubai, made up of volunteers who help ensure the fair runs smoothly and are rewarded with trips to international art fairs and advice in starting their own art collections.

Among them will be Fatima Yousef, 22, an Emirati graduate in visual communications from the American University of Sharjah. She said: “Traditionally women have not been accepted in this field. Here we have the opportunity to be exposed to art and design from the outside world.”

Sales from Art Dubai plummeted by a quarter last year from the Dh73.5m made in 2008. Organisers said they were “confident” they would pick up this year.

The director John Martin said: “There is a lot of interest in Middle Eastern art right now and galleries are starting to get the confidence to show that sort of work.”

tyaqoob@thenational.ae

ARTICLE COURTESY: THE NATIONAL

ARTICLE 84 - 2010 Abraaj Capital Art Prize Works Revealed in Dubai

[Wed Mar 17, 2010] EMIRATES NEWS AGENCY

WAM Dubai, 16th March 2010 (WAM) - The 2010 works of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize were revealed to the public in Dubai today at Art Dubai, six months after the winners from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region, were announced, and started working on their projects in secret.

Celebrated Algerian artist Kader Attia, working with curator Laurie Ann Farrell from the United States, presented History of a Myth: The Small Dome of the Rock.

A video installation, this project's focus is on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, a structure of enormous historical and contemporary significance. A subtle combination of image and sound evokes the feelings the artist experienced when he visited the monument, creating a deep impression on the viewer.

Hala Elkoussy is an Egyptian artist for whom the archival history of modern Cairo is of utmost importance. She presented The Myths and Legends Room: The Mural, an epic 9 m by 3 m mural that references commemorative propaganda art. The mural is a dazzling, action-packed display, with many narratives vying for attention. Working with Dutch curator Jelle Bouwhuis, this is a new an exciting development in Elkoussy's career.

Marwan Sahmarani from Beirut is best known for his vibrant, highly-charged paintings. Working with curator Mahita El Bacha Urieta (Spain/Lebanon), Sahmarani presented The Feast of the Damned, an entirely new body of work incorporating oil-on-canvas, watercolour and ink-on-paper, ceramics and a video projection, all displayed in an atmospheric interior. The work is inspired by Hell: Fall of the Condemned Ones by Rubens, and deals with age-old themes of martyrdom and expiation in its narratives, themes that still resonate today in the Arab world.

Frederic Sicre, Executive Director at Abraaj Capital and a member of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize Selection Committee said: "Each year we look forward with anticipation to the time when the winners of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize unveil their vision to us. That time has come and it is truly exciting. The prize is part of our commitment to being a patron of the arts in the MENASA region. Through this prize, we seek to empower potential, and give talented artists in this region the opportunity to break new ground, and showcase the rich artistic and cultural heritage of this extraordinarily diverse part of the world." The three works-of-art represent a new stage of evolution for the artists and the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region, from which they come. In each of their projects, the artists examine a theme that is specific to their experience living in the MENASA region but that also has universal application.

The Abraaj Capital Art Prize, which is globally unique in that its awards are given on the basis of proposals rather than completed works, is now in its second year. It has quickly gained widespread recognition due to the high quality of the winning works.

Through a People's Choice, the public this year has the opportunity to pick their favourite of the three works. Votes can be made via SMS, online, email and physically at Art Dubai. Photos of the unveiling will be seen first on the Abraaj Capital Art Prize fan page on Facebook.

About the Abraaj Capital Art Prize Announced in 2008, at US$ 1 million in disbursements, it is the world's most generous art prize. Annually it rewards chosen artists from the MENASA region on the basis of a proposal rather than completed works-of-art. The winning artists then go on to create the works. It is aimed at curators and artists working together as opposed to a single artist. To date there have been six winners (3 in 2009 and 3 in 2010). The 2009 winning artists were Nazgol Ansarinia, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, and Kutlu? Ataman. The 2009 works are currently on display at Maraya Art Centre, Al Qasba, Sharjah until April 25th.

ARTICLE COURTESY: WAM/TF

ARTICLE 83 - Art Dubai features works of more than 500 artists

[00:00 March 17, 2010] Fatma Salem, Staff Reporter for GULF NEWS

Event adds to emirate's vibrant cultural life

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, inaugurated Art Dubai 2010 in Madinat Jumeirah on Tuesday. Shaikh Mohammad toured the exhibition halls and galleries and stopped at the Poetry of Time hall, presented by the world famous French jewellery house Van Cleef and Arpels, and Al Jawhara Hall where he inspected the latest creations of watch and jewellery designers. Image Credit: WAM

Dubai: Works of more than 500 artists are on display at the fourth edition of Art Dubai, which opened yesterday.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, officially inaugurated the event. Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture, were also present.

In pictures: Art Dubai

The four-day show, one of most significant contemporary art events in the Middle East, is being held at the Madinat Jumeirah. Artworks of over 500 artists, showcased by more than 70 art galleries from China, Chile, Australia and US, as well as Middle East are on display. The event will feature over 25 solo exhibitions. The 2010 Abraaj Capital Art Prize will also be given away at the event. Curators and collectors from all over the world have gathered to interact and exchange knowledge.

Ahmad Humaid Al Tayer, Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), said: "Art Dubai contributes to Dubai's efforts to vitalise the city's cultural life and integrate art and culture more closely into Dubai's social fabric."

Shaikh Mohammad tours the exhibition with Shaikh Hamdan, Shaikh Maktoum, Shaikh Majid and organisers of Art Dubai on Tuesday. Image Credit: WAM

Programming mix
Director and Co-Founder of Art Dubai John Martin agreed. "In our fourth year, we have deliberately chosen a programming mix that will present an exciting diversity of contemporary art from around the world to appeal to new audiences while stimulating a creative environment and new discoveries for experienced art professionals," he said. "For four days, Art Dubai showcases the very best of what the Middle East and wider global market have to offer in terms of contemporary art. It is a snapshot of the growing importance of the region as an arts hub and a key international platform for artists, curators and galleries."

Art lovers and commentators will take part in debates at the Global Art Forum, supported by Dubai Culture. Art Park will feature works presented by Emirati, Iranian and American artists.

An exhibition by Marwan Sahmarani called The Feast of the Damned. Art Dubai 2010 is hosting works from over 70 galleries. Image Credit: Francois Nel/Gulf News

Art Dubai

WHAT: The fourth edition of Art Dubai WHERE: Madinat Jumeirah WHEN: March 17-20

ARTICE COURTESY: GULF NEWS

ARTICLE 82 - Art Dubai 2010 Opens Its Doors For The Biggest Contemporary Art Event In The Middle East

[16 March 2010] DUBAI CITY GUIDE

Event to be Held Under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Organisers anticipate record visitor numbers over the course of the fair.

Under the patronage of UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Art Dubai officially opened today with the most extensive contemporary art event to be held in the Middle East. Open to the public from Thursday, 17 March until Saturday, 20 March, Art Dubai brings together artists, gallerists, curators and collectors from around the world to experience over 80 separate exhibitions presented by leading international galleries and institutions and featuring more than 500 artists, including solo exhibitions, installations, performances, talks and screenings.

Art Dubai’s organisers are anticipating a substantial increase in its 2009 attendance figure of more than 14,000 visitors, reflecting the growing enthusiasm in the arts from all sectors of the local community, as well as a worldwide international following and a programme that is designed to appeal equally to the first time visitor as well as the seasoned art professional.

“Art Dubai is the tangible representation of the value that cultural investment and development bring to emerging economies such as Dubai. From the economic benefits of cultural tourism that Art Dubai delivers to the perception of the region that is taken away by the scores of regional and international visitors, to the community benefits that Art Dubai provides as an educational and family-centric platform, Art Dubai 2010 is a Middle East-born success story that appeals to, informs and entertains the broadest demographic range,” said Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, Governor, DIFC.

Amongst the highlights of Art Dubai’s comprehensive programme of events:

• The works of more than 500 artists represented by more than 70 regional and international art galleries from China to Chile, Australia to USA, and galleries throughout the Middle East.

• More than 25 solo exhibitions, installations, and special projects, including the unveiling of the 2010 Abraaj Capital Art Prize, the world’s most generous art prize.

• Rub shoulders with the leading protagonists and commentators of the art world at the Global Art Forum, with four days of talks, presentations and panel discussions supported by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture).

• Specially-commissioned artworks and video installations for the Art Park curated by Bidoun Projects by UAE national, Iranian and American artists, among others, with the support of the Emirates Foundation.

• Community and family-orientated programming including graffiti workshops and large-scale collaborative painting with START, the non-profit initiative that links child development with arts education.

“For four days, Art Dubai showcases the very best of what the Middle East and wider global market have to offer in terms of contemporary art – it is a snapshot of the growing importance of the region as an arts hub and a key international platform for artists, curators, galleries and for collectors to discover the rising stars of tomorrow’s art world” said John Martin, Director and Co-Founder of Art Dubai. “In our fourth year, we have deliberately chosen a programming mix that will present an exciting diversity of contemporary art from around the world to appeal to new audiences whilst stimulating a creative environment and new discoveries for experienced art professionals.”

Highlights of Art Dubai include artworks created by the winners of the 2010 Abraaj Capital Art Prize. The hotly-anticipated pieces are History of a Myth: The Small Dome of the Rock by artist Kader Attia and curator Laurie Ann Farrell; Myths & Legends Room: The Mural by artist Hala Elkoussy and curator Jelle Bouwhuis; and The Feast of the Damned by artist Marwan Sahmarani and curator Mahita El Bacha Urieta.

In addition, visitors to Art Dubai will be the first in the region to view the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition The Poetry of Time, covering almost a century of watchmaking creativity and expertise. The Poetry of Time at Art Dubai 2010 traces the evolution of watchmaking at Van Cleef & Arpels through emblematic timepieces and includes a special workshop installation featuring master craftsmen at work.

Tickets will be available at the door during Art Dubai. They are priced at AED 50 each and entry for children 12 and under is free.

Art Dubai is a subsidiary of the Dubai International Financial Centre and is held in partnership with Abraaj Capital and sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels. Madinat Jumeirah (www.jumeirah.com) is home to the event and HSBC is the official banking partner of Art Dubai. Canvas magazine will produce Canvas Daily, the official daily supplement for Art Dubai 2010.

ARTICLE COURTESY: DUBAI CITY GUIDE

ARTICLE 81 - Middle East's biggest art fest is back

[Wednesday, March 17, 2010] Keith J Fernandez for EMIRATES BUSINESS 24/7

A total of 25 new galleries are exhibiting at the Art Dubai fair this year. (XAVIER WILSON)

Despite the lingering effects of the global recession, this year could be a watershed for the region's art market, believe organisers of the annual Art Dubai fair.

John Martin, Director and Co-Founder of the event, says visitors can expect to be wowed both by the quality and quantity on offer, with a wider range of artworks from more galleries than ever at the fair, which opens to the public tomorrow and runs until Saturday at Madinat Jumeirah.

"The international art market is riding high following robust auction results and spectacularly successful sales at the Armory Show in New York, the barometer of market sentiment for the important US market," he tells Emirates Business in an e-mail interview ahead of the event.

"The confidence in the art market worldwide is beginning to be felt at home with collectors seeing the region offering exceptional quality at comparatively low prices and an unprecedented opportunity to expand existing collections," he says.

"Every day, we are notified of more and more private and museum collectors booking to come to Art Dubai from around the world. Combined with the exceptional work on display, I am confident that this year's fair will be a turning point in the fortunes of the region's art market."|

Seventy-one galleries from 31 countries will be present at the event, with more than 500 artists represented, including 30 in single-artist, solo exhibitions. And with four days of talks, performances and film screenings, Martin says Art Dubai 2010 has the most extensive programme the event has seen in its four years.

"Every year the fair changes completely," he says.

"Visitors expect us to be innovative. Each aspect is reconsidered and reinvented. This year, a completely redesigned layout of the galleries gives visitors a more relaxed experience."

One such innovation is a greater emphasis on solo exhibitions so collectors have a greater understanding of the work of individual artists in artist-focused stands.

Up to a quarter of the galleries at the event are exhibiting in this format, offering visitors a progression in a specific artist's work over time, creating a greater sense of depth and meaning rather than a quick snapshot of several artists represented by the gallery. Among those artists being treated in this way are modern Indian and Egyptian masters such as MF Hussain and Adel El Siwi as well as more up-and-coming artists from Korea, Chile, Peru, Spain and Sudan. A total of 25 new galleries are exhibiting at the fair this year.

"We have three galleries from South America, Contrasts from China and Sun, Lee Hwaik and Hyundai from Korea. Pakistani art is well represented with Grey Noise, Gandhara-art and Rossi and Rossi presenting a solo show of Naiza Khan. I am a big fan of the Nessim and Viltin galleries from Budapest and Dea Orh from Prague," says Martin.

Galleria Continua is featuring major new work by Lebanese artist Mona Hatoum and October Gallery will present one of [the Ghanian artist] El Anatsui's most significant new works, the immense In the World but don't know the World.

Finally, Martin says look out for the work of Aboriginal artist, Tommy Watson, presented by Agathon Galleries from Sydney.

Access for all

Meanwhile, Bidoun Projects, the not-for-profit curatorial wing of arts organisation and publisher Bidoun, will continue its partnership with Art Dubai with an extensive line-up of art events and exhibitions at the fair to support the region's artists.

A key feature will be the Bidoun Projects exhibition, A New Formalism, which takes as its starting point the subtle articulation of four works that share a space.

"The exhibition will complement the rest of the programme, which looks at the spectacular and temporal nature of art fairs.

"A New Formalism brings together a precise selection of works by Hazem El Mestikawy, Iman Issa, Mahmoud Khaled and the collective U5 that together pose an expanded understanding of formalism," says Antonia Carver, Director, Bidoun Projects. "It is destined to be one of this year's highlights," says Martin.

Art Park, the converted car park underneath the galleries at Madinat Jumeirah, returns for the third year at Art Dubai and will foster discussion with a range of talks and performances.

Film programmes curated by Bidoun Projects and guest curators Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Aram Moshayedi, and duo Özge Ersoy and Sohrab Mohebbi will be screened at the event.

Multidisciplinary UAE artist and writer Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz will display a new work, specially commissioned by Bidoun Projects for the fair, outdoors at Art Dubai, in which she will re-imagine a map of the Arab World according to a set of numerical codes.

The fair also attempts to reach young people through a series of creative and educational opportunities. As part of Art Dubai's CSR venture Start, talented children and teenagers will have a chance to work alongside practising artists such as Emirati designer Noor Al Khaja and graffiti artist Mohammed Ali, also known as AerosolArabic, with a wide range of workshops that cover photography, graffiti, design and large-scale drawing.

Also on show will be artworks created by the winners of the 2010 Abraaj Capital Art Prize, among them are History of a Myth: The Small Dome of the Rock by artist Kader Attia and curator Laurie Ann Farrell; Myths & Legends Room: The Mural by artist Hala Elkoussy and curator Jelle Bouwhuis; and The Feast of the Damned by artist Marwan Sahmarani and curator Mahita El Bacha Urieta.

Finally, jewellery major Van Cleef & Arpels is presenting a mesmerising display of its greatest jewellery and watches, including the chance to see its master watchmaker in action.

The Poetry of Time is a journey into the century-old brand will explore its legacy and legend, through archives, family photographs, advertisements and original drawings.

High attendance

All of this, Martin says, will boost attendance at the event, which is designed to be accessible to all sectors of the community, from art professionals to first time visitors and young people.

"Art Dubai has successfully anchored itself in the city's consciousness and this year we are expecting to see record attendance figures, possibly as high as 25 per cent up on last year," he says.

For buyers looking for trends, Martin refused to be drawn on movements or the kind of genres investors should be looking at.

"Indian art is hot; Middle Eastern art is white hot, South American and Australian art is on fire. Pakistani art is off the chart, and don't write off Western artists just yet," he says.

"The point is to come here and enjoy what you see and make your own discoveries; the best collectors collect great art they don't follow trends or get tied up."

Tickets are now on sale, and cost Dh50. Call: 04 210 8567

TALKING ART

Running alongside Art Dubai is the Global Art Forum, which brings together leading arts professionals to discuss pressing issues that affect art today and that define its future.

Under the banner of Crucial Moments, this year's forum addresses the practical outcomes and theoretical concerns of key themes shaping our contemporary culture.

Supported by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the forum's four-day programme began in Doha on March 15 at the Museum of Islamic Art. The forum offers thought-provoking concepts, such as imagining an ideal future art school, exploring the global trend for temporary museums alongside intimate interviews with international superstar artists, including Indian painter MF Hussain and Iraqi artist Dia Azzawi.

From today through to Friday, the event returns to its home at Madinat Jumeirah complex for three more days of lively conversation.

Today's panel begins with a discussion centred on cultural practitioners who feature historical and archival aspects in their work. This panel, composed of top artists and curators, features 2010 Abraaj Capital Art Prize recipient Hala Elkoussy, whose winning project will be on display at Art Dubai.

The programme will also address an impending crisis in global arts writing, with international writers and editors exploring the very real challenges facing media today.

Meanwhile, in what promises to be an inspiring discussion, three of the original movers from the vibrant art scene of 1970s Tehran, Tony Shafrazi, Fereydoun Ave and Kamran Diba will reminisce about the days of artistic energy and innovation and the legacy they exert on today's generation of Iranian artists.

Day three, tomorrow, spotlights current trends in art patronage, with a keynote address entitled Building Regional Patronage in a Post-Crisis Moment by noted art patron Omar Ghobash, UAE's Ambassador to Russia.

Two other panels run tomorrow, dedicated to both public and private patronage, highlighting the latest patterns in collectors' markets from a global array of expertise including Maria Baibakova, Moscow; Dr Farhad Farjam, Dubai; Mohammed Afkhami, Dubai; Alistair Hicks, London; and Michael Danoff, New York.

The day also features a rare opportunity to witness the legendary sculptor El Anatsui discuss his astonishing work and career in an intimate conversation with curator Okwui Enwezor.

This is followed by an intriguing debate over perceptions of art in Palestine, a 'Palestine Syndrome', questioning how preconceptions and prejudices affect the region's art and how artists within the country relate to each other across geographical and ethnic divides.

The fourth and final day, Friday, starts with another Modernist moment, this time recalling the world of 1970s New York, when artists Vito Acconci, Dennis Oppenheim and Alice Aycock collaborated at 112 Green Street, a seminal space that pioneered performance and installation art practises.

Friday's programme revisits the notion of patronage, through a fascinating conversation with Don and Mera Rubell, regarded as two of the most prolific and prescient collectors of the past 40 years.

They are followed by a panel scrutinising the relationship between patrons and institutions, and how those relationships will shape the growth of museums in the Middle East over the next few years.

The 2010 Global Art Forum will conclude with a final presentation by 5000 Friends After the Rolodex, as Shumon Basar and Haig Aivazian discuss the outcomes of their performative mapping project.

What to look out for this year

A decisive decade 1966-1976 by Qatari-Indian artist MF Hussain, courtesy of Grosvenor Vadhera, London

70 Bananas in One Hour by Iranian painter HazalKhatibi, courtesy of the Aaran Gallery, Tehran

Bug War Over Two Blue Mountains by Kate Eric, courtesy of the Frey Norris Gallery, San Francisco

My Land Escapes by Iranian artist Ala Dehghan, courtesy of the Aaran Gallery, Tehran

Al Watan Al Arabi, The Arab Nation by Chant Avedissian, courtesy of the Rose Issa Gallery, London

Article Courtesy: EMIRATES BUSINESS 24/7

WORK 09 - Jinoos Taghizadeh

Name: Jinoos Taghizadeh
Title: Rock-Paper-Scissors (01)
Medium: Collage on offset lenticular print
Size: 50 x 35 cm
Year: 2009
Edition of 7
B21 Gallery Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde

EXHIBIT 02 - DISORIENTATION II

Disorientation II * looks at the era of Egyptian President Jamal Abdel-Nasser as a moment of rupture when the repercussions of the failure of his pan-Arab unity plan and the ensuing Arab nationalism fractured fragile structures meant to stand up and endure in the face of outside hegemony then, and in its wake shattered in a succession of breakdowns, wars, displacement, and miseries.

Disorientation II counterpoints a utopian era with the reality of today. The fragile watercolour renderings and nostalgic photographs, images and settings from the sixties and seventies, seen as one is ushered into the exhibition, are juxtaposed against an imposing body of sculptures, monumental photographs and installations, somber videos and performances that follow, and project a certain disdain for the helpless, unforgiving situation of loss and conflict experienced in the Arab world today.

This text does not try to explicate the various artworks and projects that the artists have contributed towards Disorientation II, and in no way does it attempt to untangle the complex and knotted history that brackets this exhibition. It is simplya series of syncopated thoughts that try to negotiate a path through the labyrinth of the artists’ thought provoking and intricate series of articulations and representations that comprise the show.

The exhibition opens with a flashback in time with Hala Elkousy’s work On red nails, palm trees and other icons; an intimate room full of hundreds of images, video screens, side lamps and chairs, all reminiscent of a time some half-a-century ago, when visual representations reflecteda certain utopia, similar to JamalAbdel Nasser’s Pan-Arab unity vision. One cannot stop the feeling of nostalgia for those days, for an era when hope of salvation from occupation and western hegemony was still possible. Art of the era and most other forms of visual representation showed and expressed optimismfor the possibilities of freedom: liberated societies, equality and justice for workers and farmers, and democratic rule. We see inone of the newspaper clippings hanging in Hala Elkousy’s room the legendary Che Guevara posing for a picture with farmers. Elkousy tells that during that period the likes of Che Guevara, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir would visit the villagers and farmers in Egypt, not only the city of Cairo as is the case today.

As we leave this room, Ali Jabri’s sketchbooks, drawings and renderings [from the earlyseventies] paint an outsider’s perspective of Cairo; Elkousy’s hometown. Yet he still captured the moment when Egypt in general, and Cairo in particular, was at the center of the Arab consciousness, embodying the values of unity, selflessness and revolution. Jabri, like an anthropologist, archeologist, architect and sociologist, all in one, uncovers the intricate details and subtleties that made that place and that period in time so special. The popular saying goes “the devil is in the details” but Jabri’s work tends to chime more with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s “God is in the details”. Yet a shift took place in Jabri’s collages from the eighties. Driven by a series of disappointments, saddened by the wars in the eighties and let down by the duplicity of politicians and leaders, Jabri’s collages from this period depict the hypocrisy, disjointed lives, abundantlies and anguish of the time.

Closure for the period comes with Wael Shawky’s Telematch Sadat. The title and staging of the work reference the world-famous German television competition “Telematch” broadcast in the seventies and eighties where teams from different German towns played games in costume. For Telematch Sadat Shawky asked children of a village to reenact the Anwar Al Sadat assassination of 1981, which symbolically marked the end of the period that defined Egypt as a leading force in the Arab world and ushering in fragmentation and disillusionment that became the currency of the day. Egypt’s expulsion from the Arab world’s political arena commenced in 1978 when Anwar Al Sadat signed the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel. Egypt was suspended from the League of Arab States whose headquarters were moved to Tunis.Yet more importantly this period was to define a decade of bloodshed, wars, losses, displacement and instability. The Iran-Iraq war cameat a great cost in lives and economic damage to be followed by the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi army in 1990. The civil war in Lebanon, interjected by the Israeli invasion, destroyed the entire country, wasted many lives and resulted in the expulsion of the PLO to Tunis, thus crippling its influence and operations, and definitely leaving the Palestinian people living under the Israeli occupation feeling stranded and in a state of bitter defeat. The Sabra and Shatilla massacre come to top everything, as the final nail in the coffin. The death of Algerian President Houari Boumédienne in December 1978 signified, in one way or another, the opening of a Pandora’s box, the ramifications of which would spill a lot of Algerian blood and destabilize the country for more than two decades. The way the Syrian regime dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood’s armed insurgency (1976 - 1982) in Hama put a definite end to any challenger to the Baath party rule there. Jordan witnessed the most severe protests and social upheavals in its history during the 1980s, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen sustained some 60,000 casualties in the violent clashes of 1986. Sudan witnessed two coup d’états and the escalation of the civil war between the south and the north. And these are only a partial account of what happened in the eighties. The nineties witnessed still other horrific stories, catastrophes and fiascos but no less than those of the last decade. Hopelessness, helplessness and a very bleak prospect, if any, for a better future leaves many people in the Arab world desperate and angry, resentful and, if not bitter, deeply cynical at the very least.

There are several references to monuments in this exhibition and each one is saturated in its own way with the prevalent sense of disdain, conflict and division. Beirut Caoutchouc by Marwan Rechmaoui is fraught with these divisions, and the societal fragmentation of Lebanon. A map made of thick, flattened rubber is etched to divide it into 60 pieces, not simply to delineate different neighborhoods of Beirut, but to delve deeper into the history of the sociopolitical, and economic causes of the movement, settlement, and division of this complex urban cartography.Rechmaoui investigates architecture and cartography to try to make sense of demography and society, working like an anthropologist, to reveal strata after strata of the city’s pseudo-unity. Rechmaoui’s second work in the exhibition, A Monument for the living is a three-dimensional human-size scaled replica of Burj Al Murr, a skyscraper at the edge of Beirut that was left unfinished dueto structural weaknesses, and used by various militia factions during the civil war in Lebanon as a sniper’s nest, a prison and a place to hold hostages. The building, a landmark in the city in a strategic position, was left unused and dilapidated after the war, with its tower too tall to knock down and too dense to implode. Thus it became an indestructible monument of a civil war that has never been resolved or reconciled, living on as a hulking memorial in the city’s horizon. The monument becomes a monument not for the dead of the civil war, but for those who survived, and in recreating it Rechmaoui speaks to the different power manifestations a monument can allude to, or inhabit.

Beirut is almost a miniature model of Arab countries where different classes, ethnicities, and religions seem to collide in their attempts to reconcile, where migrants and refugees - Armenians, Palestinians, Iraqis and others - are in constant flux, and where corruption and power struggles are at play. Yet it is very important here to halt the flow of the exhibition, to interrupt this evolving quasi-narrative of the contemporary history of the Arab world. One pauses as if to observe the minute of silence demanded from an audience in honour and memory of the dead and the martyred in any other public event. In Disorientation II we are silent in memory of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. There is no need to explain the background and tell the story of the massacre in this text, but it is very important to mark this event which so poignantly encompasses the plight and calamities of refugees and migrants, while also marking a pinnacle of achievement for the juntas in their struggle for power. Monika Borgmann’s film Massaker allows us this possibility, for thefirst time, through the confessions of the perpetrators. Six people who took part in the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps’ Palestinian inhabitants, “both on orders and on their own personal initiative” as we learn in the film, narrate the particularsof their heinous acts. They also reveal details of the relationship between the Lebanese Forces Christian militia who perpetrated the massacre - the six protagonists of Borgmann’s film were members- and the Israeli army which was in control of Beirut in September, 1982, and which surrounded the camps and provided protected entry for the Lebanese Forces Christian militia to carry out the genocide.

Beirut is not the only site of conflict though. We learn from Hriar Sarkissian’s ExecutionSquares that other places that might at first glance seem tranquil and serene are fraught with power struggles and extremes. Sarkissian’s photographs depict a number of urban squares in three Syrian cities, Aleppo, Latakia, and Damascus, where public executions of civil criminals take place. These landscapes in the early morning give a sense of foreboding, and in contrast to the busy clamor of the day, the squares are empty and tense. The untraceable ending of lives in those squares comes as a counterpoint to Rechmaoui’s Monument for the living. HereSarkissian attempts to represent those whose lives have been taken, using the monumental photographic format of emptiness. We know that the squares and streets will soon be filled with life; yet there is a certain eeriness to the photographs in places which at this early hour instead of portraying the dawning of a new day ironically represent the ending of life. Along comparable lines, Rochers Carrés, the photographic series by Kader Attia, investigates the human interaction with an architecture fraught with a history of colonialism, a present cursed with poverty, and dreams of a future that may never be fulfilled. Rochers Carrés is a breakwater beach constructed by the administration of Algerian President Houari Boumediene, of huge concrete blocks whose sides can be as high as 3 or 4 meters. Attia explores the meaning of boundary, the space that separates the young people who sit staring at the sea from the prospect of a better life in the continent beyond the vast sea. It is ironic, Attia writes, that the young Algerians’ exasperation atRochers Carrés is not so different from that in the French banlieues where most emigrants from Algiers end up living, with “the same lack of hope in the future, same sexual misery, same frustration, same lack of social acknowledgement, same feeling of failure and same suffering.”

Boundaries, borders and delineated territories are an important part of the construct of Disorientation II. As is the case with Marwan Rechmaoui’s Beirut Caoutchouc - a map trampled with factional divisions and social fragmentation - Mona Hatoum’s Present Tense speaks of the map awarded to the Palestinians as part of the interim agreement in Oslo. A simple look at Present Tense says it all. Drawn on olive oil soap, a perishable material, it alludes to the fact that as a foundation for the map it is destined to dissolve. And it may also allude to Pilate’s washing his hands with the soap, as if declaring, “I have nothing to do with this arrangement or agreement. I wash my hands of it.” What seems at first to be a strange disease that disfigured the surface of the soap is actually tiny red glassbeads outlining the areas that were handed over to the Palestinians to control. These red circles form the Palestinian Authority territories on the ground, and they come across with a single glance at the map as totally disconnected, forming a noncontiguous group of scattered islands in a vast sea of land occupied by Israel. The soap should have had some scent to it, reminiscent of childhood and home when the odor of olive oil, the foundation for the only soap available then, brings to mind a feeling of warmth and belonging. But one soon notices that time and age have taken their toll and now the scent is only a memory fading by the day along with hope.

Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri take us to investigate the Palestinian territories. For their project What everybody knows, they travel across the country talking and video-recording conversations with a good number of people over a 16-day period. The people they meet are from many backgrounds - a professor, a former detainee, a geographer, a Bedouin, an architect... The outcome is presented as 16 one-day trips or journeys which together outline a map “about the social, psychological, and political dimensions of contemporary life for Palestinians in occupiedPalestine.”

Zooming in on one particular location in Palestine, Wafa Hourani recreates a model of Qalandia refugee camp from cut-out photographs and cardboard boxes. Qalandia, situated north ofJerusalem, gained infamy from one of the main checkpoints situated at its entrance connecting Ramallah and its vicinity to the east and south of the country. Yet Hourani’s Qalandia 2047 brings with it a twist. His model attempts to representthe Qalandia refugee camp in 2047, one hundred years after its original inhabitants were expelled from their homes following the 1948 war, to find on this spot of land a temporary refuge, hastily setup at that time by the UNRWA, which tragically appears now more like a permanent arrangement. Hourani’s satirical solution to the claustrophobic situation in the camp is to devise mirrors on the separation wall that towers over the camp and suffocates its residents, thus giving the illusion of an uninterrupted skyline and an infinite open space. In the context of Disorientation II, this work can be seen as a monument to the steadfastness of all those living in refugee camps who are determined not to leave their arduous living conditions for a temporary, comfortable life outside the camp; instead, they stand by their resolve to go only to the homes they were driven from in 1948.

Tarek Al Ghoussein picks up on the ramifications of the events in 1948 and addresses some of the UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian cause in his most recent work (D II series). In contrast to Hourani’s attempts to address issues pertaining to refugees and displacement, Al Ghoussein inserts himself in the work as a son of diaspora Palestinians who is not permitted by the Israelis to enter Palestine. In this way he creates a certain tension between the still, desolate landscape, the sun-weathered inanimate objects, and his intervention, which together with the industrial-looking green fabric he brings along represent a disquieting interference. A level of dislocation ensues from his presence and his actions, and yet in aggregate it doesn’t alter much in the vast, uncompromising landscape. It is only a matter of time before a sand dune will swallow hatever trace he leaves behind. One wishes to see it otherwise -but the sign that he holds with the number 181 is just a trace of one of many UN Resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian cause, which seem now to be weathering away. Soon they will be swallowed up in the heap of many other unfulfilled UN Resolutions, drifting, formless, flattened and scattered by the strong winds of a dictated, compromised and forced solution that will fall from above.

It is leaders and officials who come up with these parachutedin solutions and resolutions that impose certain realities on people and concoct illusions. Grigori Potemkin, a minister during the reign of Russian Empress Catherine the Great, concocted a brilliant illusion in 1787 when Catherine the Great visited Crimea, which had been annexed by Russia four years earlier. In order to show her that these lands, part of a peninsula in present day Ukraine stretching south into the Black Sea, were worth something, he erected a series of fake, prosperous settlements along the Dnieper River which were really nothing more than facades of buildings and strategically-placed fires that could be seen during the night when the Empress would be less likely to spot the fakes.

Yto Barrada’s Gran Royal Turismo partakes in a somewhat similar deception when a convoy of three black Mercedes cars, obviously carrying officials, passes through a little treeless town with dirt-ridden sidewalks and walls. Palm trees suddenly pop up and the sidewalks and walls flip to reveal fresh paint and clean surfaces draped with flags. When the convoy leaves town, the trees, flags and fresh paint disappear and the town is back to its sad and dirty old appearance. The beauty of Barrada’s Gran Royal Turismo is that it’s constructed as a circular racing track, creating an infinite hollow notion of repetition without any possibility for real change, thus alluding to tactics that some countries and authorities use when the country’s own leader, the one and only person with the power to effect change, visits a poor area or a rundown part of town. Instant cleanup disguises dismal living conditions, and then to the great disappointment of the residents, all the dress-up weathers and disappears soon after the official is gone. There are times and places when authorities actually remove palm trees they planted in order to save them in fresh condition for the next visit.

The element of circular movement and the notion of hollow infinite repetition in Barrada’s Gran Royal Turismo makes a subtle connection with Diana Al Hadid’s work, which echoes a rotary movement with a spiral in a dilapidated Babel-like sculpture. Her Portal to a Black Hole consists of a spiral staircase made of organ keys positioned in the center of the sculpture leading to the oculus of the dome. The oculus in the Pantheon was the only source of light other than the door and represented a central sun within a concrete sky. It was originally a temple to all gods, but it was converted into a church. It is generally credited to Apollodorus of Damascus, a Greek architect, born in Damascus, Syria. Al Hadid’s sculpture is conceived as a pseudotemple, or an “architectural black hole” that emits the sounds of B Flat, which cannot be heard by the human ear. Al Hadid states “My structure, while culling from the architecture of Greek temples and Gothic Cathedrals, purports to form a line, not to God, but to another undiscovered, impossibleto reach location - a black hole, a hypothetical place completely cut off from our world and our history. The ruined structure appears to have been operational one day, but is now silent and dysfunctional.” The spiral black hole in which Al Hadid depicts this church is perhaps ominous as to the unpromising future ahead, and a commentary on a nihilistic view of history.

Where are the Arabs? asks Samah Hijawi in a performance, taking us back full circle to Jamal Abdel-Nasser’s era, to the beginning of the exhibition, to that utopian and glorious moment when Arab nationalism and unity was still a possible dream. However, repetition is imbedded in her oratory, identified in the recurrence of certain ideas throughout the length of the speech, and even though in the Arabic language and culture repetition is normally used to emphasize conviction, in her case it can only allude to emptiness, boredom and futility of the performance of certain political figures, as is also manifest in the circular movement of Barrada’s piece and Al Hadid’s dilapidated spiral staircase that leads to a black hole.

And history repeats itself. Tarek Atoui Undrum II: the Chinese Connection ends with the lowest point humanly audible in the musical scale, creating a challenging connection between the practices of several popular political movements in the Arab world and the trials of opera, music and art masters who were adjudicated and condemned by the youth of the Chinese communist party during the Maoist revolution. His physically challenging sound performance mirrors his personal struggle with the flux of unsettling political, social and cultural changes, as rough, dense and distorted electronic sound textures collide with the sounds of trials and Maoist propaganda. We can stretch our imagination to place Hijawi’s speech performance next to Atoui’s sound performance in a twisted, complimentary way, as if one leads up to the other and possibly feeds from the other.

Disorientation II follows a circular path, emphasizing the notion of repetition of familiar shortcomings, the squandered opportunities and violent power struggles that lead to wasted lives, bitter societies and the betrayal of human values. If only Ibn Khladoun’s theory on the movement of history as exemplified in the life of a city, would hold in the 21st century, for us to witness the inevitable defeat of rampant corruption, injustices and discrimination and the reappearanceof people with higher morals, ethics and values.

* This second edition comes as a continuation of Disorientation – contemporary Arab artists fromthe Middle East, which was held at the House ofWorld Cultures in Berlin in 2003.

Disorientation II: The Rise & Fall of Arab Cities

NOW RE-OPEN AFTER MAINTENANCE

22 November 2009 - 20 February 2010

4pm-10pm, Sunday to Thursday, 2pm-10pm, Friday to Saturday

Jack Persekian, Artistic Director of the Sharjah Biennial, will curate Disorientation II, an exhibition of works presented by artists from Middle Eastern countries, which explore Arab cities from the perspective where both unity and division co-exist. The exhibition also looks at Jamal Abdel-Nasser’s period as a moment of rupture, when the repercussions of the failure of his pan-Arab unity plan and Arab nationalism had fractured the then fragile structures.

Participating artists: Tarek Al Ghoussein, Diana Al Hadid, Ayreen Anastas & Rene Gabri, Tarek Atoui, Kader Attia, Yto Barrada, Monika Borgmann, Hala Elkoussy, Mona Hatoum, Samah Hijawi, Wafa Hourani, Ali Jabri, Marwan Rechmaoui, Hrair Sarkissian, Wael Shawky

This exhibition is in Manarat Al Saadiyat, a new cultural venue located on Saadiyat Island, home of the Cultural District.

From Abu Dhabi take the Corniche Road towards Meena, then follow signs to Yas Island, take Sheikh Khalifa Bridge onto Saadiyat and follow the signs.

From Dubai take the exit sign to Yas Island from the highway, follow the road straight through to Yas Island and onto Saadiyat where you will see signs to Manarat Al Saadiyat.

For more information please call 02 6908207.

ARTS ABU DHABI

ARTICLE 80 - A ‘proper artist studio’ in Musaffah

[December 31. 2009 11:52PM UAE / December 31. 2009 7:52PM GMT] THE NATIONAL

The Art Hub concept came about through Tini Meyer’s challenges finding a space to paint. Delores Johnson / The National

ABU DHABI: A Dh6.5 million (US$1.8m) project to build an “art hub” in the Musaffah industrial zone that will provide artists with affordable studio space has attracted attention from the capital’s Urban Planning Council. But the plan has lost the support of Tini Meyer, the local artist who helped develop the concept. Billed by its developers as a potential solution to the scarcity of low-rent workspace for painters, sculptors and other artists, Art Hub is scheduled to open early this year. Groundwork on the approximately 3,000-square metre site is 30 per cent complete, according to Ahmed al Yafei, the owner and head of Osan Properties.

The Urban Planning Council, which ensures all new developments in the emirate fall in line with Abu Dhabi’s urban structure framework, confirmed that a member of its policy team met several weeks ago with Ms Meyer. The council declined to discuss details of the talks because the proposal was still under review. But Ms Meyer said the discussions were about how to develop the proposal.

Ms Meyer is no longer working on Art Hub because of disagreements over the creative direction of the project. She said, however, that she still believed in the concept of “setting up a proper artist studio centre”. Each of the 16 work studios at Art Hub will be 36 square metres and include sinks and running water, Mr al Yafei said. He said rents would be affordable, but he would not reveal the rent structure.

Mr al Yafei characterised the Musaffah site as a pilot project for a franchise of Art Hubs. He envisioned branches on the Corniche and on Saaidyat Island. “The UPC is working on the Corniche development and they are interested to see if they can give us a branch on the Corniche,” he said. Mr al Yafei has already submitted a proposal for an Dh89m Art Hub on Lulu Island that will offer 42 art studios on a 21,600 square metre area. A warehouse connected to the main building would serve as an art gallery and exhibition space. He said he had also had interest in his proposal from the Tourism Development & Investment Company.

With the success and interest around the recent Art Abu Dhabi fair, Ms Meyer said she believed there was demand for studio space, and that workspace was a recurring topic among artists in the UAE. “There are so many people in Abu Dhabi who are proper artists or have a passion for creating art, but they don’t have a proper workspace,” she said.

The Art Hub concept came about through Ms Meyer’s challenges finding space to paint. Sculptors resort to working in their kitchens or clearing space in their bedrooms. Her first art installation, to premiere this month at a women’s exhibition in Sharjah, involves hundreds of real fish eyeballs contained in glass jars. “Can you imagine being in a home with fish eyeballs and glass containers everywhere? The space is really important to provide for the studio,” she said.

Johanna Klein, a sculptor from the Netherlands, is familiar with the problem of finding affordable studio space for artists in the capital. Sculpting from clay or soft stone at home was “impossible”, she said, due to the dust and stone chips, the noise from carving machines, and the absence of a kiln. “I just had to give up the idea of sculpting in Abu Dhabi and started painting instead, which is easier to do at home,” she said.

Mrs Klein would welcome a creative arts centre, whether it be Art Hub or another venture. “I’ve joined a group of artists in Abu Dhabi all struggling with the same problem: Rent is too expensive to afford studio space,” she said. “And they all juggle around in bedrooms converted to some kind of workspace, with problems of ventilation.” Artists thrive on social interaction and are often inspired by having other artists nearby, even if they work with other media, she said. Bringing that kind of buzz to Abu Dhabi would be exciting.

“Like Paris in the beginning of the 20th century, or New York from the 1950s on, a living artist community can add to the character of a place,” Mrs Klein said. “It’s hard to exactly name it, but it’s a certain something in the air. Something of flamboyance and fire that inspires and makes a city become truly alive.”

mkwong@thenational.ae

Article Courtesy: THE NATIONAL

ARTICLE 79 - Art's new direction

[Monday, January 11, 2010 19:57 IST] Riddhi Doshi / DNA

A city-based art gallery is popularising new media art. Curator Andre Lee explains its nuances.

Mumbai: Many believe that new media art is still not very well received in Asia. In an effort to popularize the art of the new media, a group exhibition at Sakshi art gallery is showing some very innovative new media works from across Asia.

The nine artists belong to different countries in the sub-continent, from Iran, Japan, Turkey and Indonesia. Shilpa Gupta represents India.

The exhibition is titled The Tradition of the New and is curated by Taiwanese writer and museum manager Andre Lee. Andre says, “Most art markets of Asian countries are dependent on the western markets, especially that of new media. People in Asia, if I may say, are biased to the traditional art. So this exhibition is to promote new media art and bring about an exchange of artistic ideas between different Asian countries. That is very important.”

The Tradition of The New focuses on the idea that people of the contemporary world are still entangled with the traditions of the past though they may not be aware of the same. Andre explains, “People believe that we are far off from our tradition but that’s not true. If you will look carefully, today’s world is a mix of both the new and traditional. And the works in this exhibition reflects the same thought.”

As soon as you enter the gallery you will be welcomed by an antique wheel by Tu Wei-Chang. But when you go closer you find images of helicopters, a computer mouse and other synonyms of modern life.

The show-stopper is the video art by Wuchi-Psung. You first see the old Chinese sketch art and then gradually this is transformed into a work of modern art. A closer look at the machine and you will see just a netted sheet of metal attached in front of the projector. The simplicity of making of the art and then later what it projects is what makes it so impressive.

Article Courtesy: DNA INDIA

ARTICLE 78 - Iran’s top clerics concerned about art

[Thursday, January 14, 2010] Tehran Times Culture Desk

TEHRAN -- Iran’s top clerics expressed their concerns about Islamic art during separate visits Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini paid to them in the city of Qom on Thursday.

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli and Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi talked about their worries and put forward proposals during the visits. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi called Iran’s modern art a copy of Western art and said, “Today’s art is totally driven by Western theories and is a copy of them.”

Mesbah Yazdi, director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, regarded the scope of culture as very broad and continued saying, “All activities of the country must germinate within the Ministry of Culture (and Islamic Guidance). “If we are going to do something, it must be studied very carefully. We need to have some sort of technical programming. “The Islamic society of today faces issues that were not even imagined in the time of the shah’s regime. New strategies for planning and analysis need to be developed, and the decision makers and designers need to buy into them.” He also stressed on social activities saying, “Social issues need to be examined carefully and we can’t simply focus on the short-term.”

The culture minister also met with Ayatollah Javadi Amoli on the same day in which the top cleric asked for the establishment of a university of Islamic art supervised by the culture ministry. “We must realize that art becomes Islamic when one can really feel it, and thereafter the product will be Islamic cinema and a TV series like “Prophet Joseph (AS).” Directed by Farajollah Salahshur, the TV series details the life of Prophet Joseph (AS) and was aired on Iran’s national TV channel over the past year.

He later pointed to the TV series “Imam Ali (AS)” by director Davud Mir Baqeri as an example of a production not related to Islamic cinema and added, “The TV series ‘Imam Ali (AS)’ is a rozehkhani (narration of tragic events in the history of Islam). It is more like a modern tazieh (passion play). “Actors who do not pray and do not fast are entangled in fantasy and do not attain wisdom. An artist has a responsibility to play a nurturing role in society,” he remarked.

Ayatollah Javadi Amoli next referred to the role of an artist in the Islamic society and said, “An artist should be able to analyze social issues, so we need to educate those who can understand that as long as the art produced is genuine, it would not be un-Islamic.”

He continued saying that our universities are indebted to Western universities, adding, “The Westerners plagiarized our experimental sciences and wrote them down in their textbooks. We translated the Western texts and then handed them over to our university students to study here. So how can we expect our students to learn how to pray and fast?

“A country can stand up on its own two feet when its people are led by discerning leaders and those leaders are led by an even more discerning individual. “If you want to stand on your own, treat the discerning ones well and act with the most discerning individual with even greater care,” he concluded.

Photo: The Culture Ministry delegation visits Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi at his office in Qom on January 6, 2010. (Mehr/Mohammad Akhlaqi)

Article Courtesy: TEHRAN TIMES

ARTICLE 77 - Directing Iranian Art

[1 January 2010] Raziqueh Hussain for KHALEEJ TIMES

A specialist on the art of Iran and Central Asia, Dr Ladan Akbarnia has become the new executive director of Iran Heritage Foundation in the UK.

The Iran Heritage Foundation is a charity organisation and is the leading supporter of Iranian studies in the UK. Its mission is to preserve and promote the history, languages, and cultures of the Iranian world and to make Iran’s heritage accessible to diverse audiences.

The IHF promotes academic research through fellowships, grants, scholarships and publications. In association with museums and leading cultural institutions, the Foundation also organises exhibitions and convenes conferences on the history and contemporary culture of Iran. About the challenges that she is facing in her new role, she says, “As someone who has been situated in the academic community and museum world, I was already familiar with IHF’s mission to preserve and promote the history, languages and cultures of the Iranian world; I was less familiar with its local programmes, events and community development as I did not live in London or even the UK,” she says.

Part of this first phase of her transition has been to learn about the inner workings, the day-to-day running of the foundation, while continuing to develop the types of programmes, fellowships, and conferences and trying to engage curators to do ‘behind-the-scenes’ workshops or tours, bringing specialists to London to talk about Iranian culture and oral history, plan more programmes that engage youth and contemporary culture she says.

The Iran Heritage Foundation supported the first exhibition of contemporary Iranian art in the United Kingdom and, in the West, in London at Barbican Art Galleries in 2001. In contrast to some contemporary Iranian or Middle Eastern art exhibitions, where the art works on display are often also for sale, this exhibition sought solely to celebrate Iranian art in its diverse forms and covered the 20 years before and after the Islamic revolution of 1979. “I know that this area of contemporary art currently enjoys a great period of vitality in the Gulf region, but I cannot speak as much to the Middle Eastern context as I can to the European or, especially, the American one. Just last summer, between June and August 2009, three museums in New York City alone had exhibitions including or exclusively featuring contemporary Iranian or Middle Eastern art. One was ‘Tarjama’ (meaning translation) at the Queens Museum, another was ‘Iran Inside Out’ at the Chelsea Art Museum, and the third was a show that I curated, ‘Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam,’ at the Brooklyn Museum, which incorporated contemporary Iranian art into an exhibition of works ranging from the *ninth through the 19th century,” says the doctor of Islamic art history.

Although Akbarnia was born in the United States, she moved to Iran at the age of three, and she left Iran a few years later, just after the Revolution and at the beginning of the war with Iraq. She was eight when she returned to the States, “That journey, although it will probably sound cliché, had to have affected my life and thinking in some way. It is likely to be what inspired me to come full circle by pursuing a doctorate in Islamic (specifically, Iranian) art and ending up where I am today, speaking to you as the director of an important foundation dedicated to promoting and preserving Iranian culture,” she says.

Akbarnia is currently in the process of writing a catalogue for the exhibition she organised at the Brooklyn Museum, now scheduled to go to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in May 2010; the catalogue shares the title of the exhibition, ‘Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam’. She has also contributed to and edited several exhibition catalogues for the Aga Khan Museum collection, currently based in Geneva and has written on medieval Mongol art of Iran and Central Asia as well as on contemporary Iranian artists such as Shirin Neshat and Pouran Jinchi.

Her first job that sparked her interest in the art world was one that she held as a research assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also sings and plays guitar, and used to write songs to ‘get me in the mood’ to write papers in grad school. “I am devoted to two causes in particular, other than the preservation of Iranian culture (of course!), the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Growing Spine Foundation,” she says.

Since it’s a truly exciting time for contemporary Iranian and Middle Eastern art, so many artists may have opportunities now that they might not have enjoyed even a decade ago. There is more exposure to the market and more exposure to the world at large. “It is critical that curators organise well thought-out exhibitions with specific ‘stories,’ so to speak, so that we are not just being introduced to a group of artists from Iran, or to a group of artists from the diaspora. I would encourage and challenge future artists and curators alike to produce shows that are even cleverer and more focused than the best exhibitions out there, so that the bar continues to be set higher and higher,” she says.

raziqueh@khaleejtimes.com

Article Courtesy: KHALEEJ TIMES