having missed the last art dubai i was pleased to be back this year. it’s an event (alongside the dubai international film festival) that really transforms my experience of the city. there’s an influx of fascinating people from all over the world and it’s an all too rare chance to catch up with art world friends. this year even more so as the sharjah biennale was timed to coincide with the fair.

there was a great sense of expectation among my gallerist / artist friends. art dubai was to be the litmus test on the middle east contemporary art market’s financial health. sales had practically ground to a halt at many of the galleries I spoke to in feb- the last time I was in dubai. thankfully the gloom didn’t make it past the velvet ropes- the many fun parties (all seemingly soundtracked by le baron) were where most of the gallerists – hair let down- talked to me about being in it for the long-run (at times sounding like they were really attempting to reassure themselves).
i spent most of my time between the global art forum and the traffic / bidoun art park. some customarily great discussions at the former and strong video programs at the latter. but the real action as always was the chance encounters inevitable when so many interesting people descend on our still little city. richard flood, nick serota, glenn lowry, the chapman brothers and matthew slotover were some of the art world celebrity luminaries adding glamor to proceedings (the overlapping sharjah biennial beefed up the intellectual / artistic representation).

it will be the conversations more than the art that I take with me from the week. some highlights from the global art forum (pdf) and beyond:

cultural strategies for the arab world: after and beyond the museum
moderator: catherine david, curator, artistic director ADACH, platform for venice, paris /// adila laïdi-hanieh, cultural critic, west bank /// nasrin seraji, architect, urbanist, professor of architecture, paris /// christine tohmé, curator and director of the lebanese association for plastic arts, ashkal alwan,
beirut

christine tohmé and adila laidi-hanieh dominated proceedings. christine who doesn’t so much speak cogently as emote fluidly (and decidedly non-cogently) was lovely to listen to as a form of personal expression more so than as a form of logical analysis. ‘authenticity is not my concern‘ said the mother of an ‘mtv 19 year old daughter‘, ‘i am unconcerned with national paradigms‘. the panel grappled and struggled with what the correct response to abu dhabi and doha’s monumental art plans should and could be. christine seemed to be saying, sincerely, that she initially felt unsure and defensive towards the mega museums but that she had adopted a wait and see approach to things now (perhaps related to the investments she has received from abu dhabi gossiped the art world cutie in margiela next to me).
adila laido-hanieh spent most of her air time arguing that the region needed to ‘reclaim arab modernity‘ – whatever that is, we never really got a definition from adila. indeed the session’s highlight for me was hassan khan’s line of questioning: ‘why is modernity relevant to current practitioners‘ he asked (without receiving a satisfactory response) while worrying about modernity being ‘a dangerous handle‘ which i agree with. at the very least the precise definition of the adjustable modernity term would have been helpful here. she also talked about her experience in the west bank saying ‘much can be done culturally with very little funding’.
nasrin seraji had a short architectural presentation arguing that ‘form does not matter and that it has to disappear’ and notable mostly for its persopolis styled renderings.
there was another interesting moment went mishaal gergawi asked the panel angrily ‘can we please stop all of this abu-dhabi bashing, i am sick and tired of it’. i thought mishaal was out of line but he captured a very real part of local culture in the uae. its lack of comfort with criticism and free discourse. the panel was genuinely engaging and thinking about abu dhabi’s cultural plans and the criticism whether you agree with it or not should be welcomed as part of a process that leads to a more rigorously considered end-product. mishal should have been thanking the audience and panel for caring enough to think through and voice their disagreements or concerns with the region’s developments.

the heritage museum in a modern age
moderator: dr. sami el-masri, ADACH /// richard west, jr., former director and founder of the national museum of the american indian and prominent ICOM member, washington d.c. /// elizabeth duggal, associate director of the natural history museum – the smithsonian institution, washington d.c.

the smithsonian is helping abu dhabi create a museum of bedouin culture which sounds really exciting. it will be an institution dedicated to the research presentation and dissemination of bedouin culture. the panel talked at length of their experiences with the national museum of the american indian and how they plan on drawing from their learnings towards the abu dhabi initative. although richard repeatedly referred to the initiative as a ‘museum of living culture’ he also talked of it as a ‘memory and culture bearer’ which implies a past tense and a concerted conservation effort. the museum is expected to open in 2013.

cultural diplomacy from the perspective of the arab world: a constructive
conversation with the west
moderator: andras szántó, sotheby’s institute of art, director, NEA arts journalism institute, columbia university, new york /// ambassador cynthia p. schneider, phd, expert in cultural diplomacy, arts and culture Initiative, saban center for middle east policy, brookings institute, professor diplomacy and culture at georgetown, d.c. /// zaki nuseibeh, advisor ministry presidential affairs, deputy chairman, ADACH

an unfortunately disappointing session where cynthia sounded like a us state dept mouth piece: ‘we have the most powerful and impactful culture in the world’ blah blah blah. she was involved in the arabesque shows in d.c. and i was expecting more.
there was a great question to the impressive zaki nuseibeh from the curator of the doha museum of contemporary art though: ‘why doesn’t abu dhabi as part of or in addition to its sorbonne and nyu plans tempt the arab world’s intellectual leaders to teach and practice in the emirate?’
also learned about these sundance film festival – royal film commission in jordan collaborations.

discussing museums
moderator: shumon basar, writer, critic, london /// mikhail piotrovsky director, dermitage, st. petersburg /// thomas krens, senior advisor for international affairs, solomon r. guggenheim foundation, new york

you don’t read lemmy’s bio at the beginning of a motorhead concert was shumon’s non-introduction to tom krens of guggemhiem fame. this was a reasonably entertaining if mis-moderated panel. shumon started off with a summary of recent financial times and economist articles (mostly taken out of context) that questioned the future of a globalized capitalist world. the preamble’s tone was one of misplaced glee at the existential crisis facing the system that has served contemporary art so well.
it was clear by how the term was repeatedly bandied about that deglobalization was to be shumon’s preferred theme of discussion. i think he was basically asking what this brave new world was going to mean for the contemporary museum model that krens helped create. unfortunately, fifteen minutes (and maybe fifteen ‘de-globalization’ mentions by shumon) into the session krens asked what shumon actually meant by the term – a question that seemed to have the moderator stumped. krens’ longer-term perspective was that ‘this [financial crisis] will seem like a blip in retrospect‘ – the ‘infrastructure of globalization was just too pervasive‘. the discussion swiftly moved on from its opening theme and never really regained its momentum. there was familiar talk of the hermitage – guggenheim relationships (and vegas of course) and some interesting bits about the guggenheim abu dhabi plans.
krens mentioned that the museum might grow from 42,000 sq m to 60,000, that it was still due to open by 2013, that its focus would be arab modernism and 20th century art with priority and emphasis on artists from the region and ‘not just big names and big spaces’.

bastakiya art fair
the scrappy, organic, rootsy bastakiya art fair has come along way from its humble beginnings as the creek contemporary art fair- the whole neighborhood has- but it retains its homegrown feel. It came alive at the buzzing opening night. art lovers, from dubai and the rest of the art world got lost over and over and they navigated the tiny alleys searching out a mixed bag of work and some fun rooftop champagne lounge happenings. yto barrada‘s the magician was probably the highlight.

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