Report From Dubai: Art Dubai, The Sharjah Biennial, and Saadiyat Island

By: Ashley Young

          Bringing together sixty-eight galleries from twenty-eight countries, this year’s edition of Art Dubai, held at the luxurious Madinat Jumierah hotel, seemed relatively unaffected by the world’s economic crisis.  Despite reports of much of Dubai’s population leaving, Art Dubai opened to droves of international collectors, institutions, and art lovers seeking out new and exciting art in a down art market.  According to Albawaba news service, the fair saw roughly 14,000 visitors over five days, an increase in attendance from the year before.  Additionally, sales seemed healthy as galleries catered to the local interest, bringing emerging Middle Eastern artists. New York’s Geoff + Rosenthal Gallery sold out of paintings by Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani, who is also included in Unveiled at London’s Saatchi gallery.  Several other galleries have reported healthy sales to local and international collectors as well as museums and art institutions.  Throughout the week, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, stressed the importance of arts and culture to Dubai’s success as an international power.  President Barrack Obama, in his address to Iran this week, also discussed the power of culture and art to accomplish which politics alone can not.  

         Dubai’s neighboring emirate, Sharjah, is currently hosting their ninth Biennial.  Director  Hoor Al Qasimi, along with curators Jack Persekian and Isabel Carlos, have done away with a geographical scheme and put out an open call to artists all over the world for submissions.  Spread throughout one of the UAE’s most conservative cities, The Sharjah Biennial is dedicated to the proliferation of contemporary art throughout an ancient and traditional culture. 

        The UAE is aggressively pursuing recognition as a center for contemporary art with a massive building plan for Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, which will include a Guggenheim, a Louvre, a performing arts center, and a new biennial park, among others.  However, they are in danger of beginning to build Saadiyat Island without any idea how to run such institutions.  Several panels throughout Art Dubai focused on the fact that the UAE has no precedent for curatorial programs, art schools or even museum institutions.  There is a yearning to train Emerati curators and arts professionals, but the Emerati cultural authorities don’t see the need for training programs and curatorial education.  It seems as though the UAE equates art with prestige, but doesn’t understand the need for an academic base to art institutions.  They must be careful not to jump into the deep end of the pool too quickly.  Without learning to swim first, these institutions may surely drown. 

Comments

[j.block]

THe UAE is a work in process, the money is being spent in a 'whim and panic' style of building toward a future without a real design for what the future may be. The Arts are currently more a feature in the theme park, but the local art scene is beginning to emerge with an individual style.

[LK]

I like that the blog is not limited to New York art scene reviews.

[H.Bicknell]

It will be interesting to see if the development of these satellite institutions will support some revisions to the current models of arts education. Maybe museums don't need to have an "academic base", it could be just a Western assumption. Perhaps the theme-park view (or art for wealth's sake) will offer a different window through which to see and contextualize art?

[Dorothy Gale]

Thanks, Ashley, for bringing the Middle East into the blog! I would so like to have seen some images. It will be interesting to see how the educational programs develop. I'm sure they're coming.

[Ashley]

If anyone is interested in seeing some images from the above mentioned events feel free to e-mail me and I can help you investigate further.

AshleyBrookeYoung@gmail.com