Powerful voices: ART Dubai 2019

As a media partner for Art Dubai 2019  (20-23 March at Madinat Jumeirah) identity is pleasd to announce this yaer’s theme and focus: the Global South.

In cultural terms, the expression and the resulting programme will address locations and people negatively affected by contemporary capitalist globalization, this includes subjugated people residing within wealthy countries.And it will also embrace the resistant imaginary of a transnational political subject that results from a shared experience of subjugation under contemporary global capitalism *

The fair will also have a new structure. Art Dubai will consist of four main sections complementing each other, which offer access with artists and galleries from non-Western geographies.

The contemporary and modern section will be presented together and form the core section of the fair. This zone will house the largest exhibition of contemporary art from the region. It will comprise of galleries ranging from the emerging to the established

A new gallery section, Bawwaba  (meaning ‘gateway’ in Arabic) aims to give visitors a curated gateway to current artistic developments in the Global South. Its focus is on different geographical viewpoints and emerging markets. There will be 10 solo presentations by artists from, based in, or focused on Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Central and South Asia.

The second edition of the residents’ programme will present the results of work from artists from 12 Latin American galleries who spent 6-8 weeks in the UAE. This section of the exhibition will showcase the art produced after the artists immersion in the local art scene.

The new  UAE Now segment of Art Dubai explores the country’s independent local artist-run platforms. It focuses on grassroot movements that operate outside the structures of government and private galleries – an essential layer of the local contemporary art ecosystem. It will feature BAIT 15: An Abu Dhabi artist run studio and exhibition space; Banat Collective: a community space for discussion and creation from a Middle Eastern perspective; Samt: A virtual platform for research and exhibition; The Arab Art Salon: A hypothetical space in London where Arab artists gather to engage in critical thinking and art discourse; Jaffat el Aqlam: An independent platform that celebrates artistic creations based or originating from the MENA region; PAC (Public Art Collective): A platform that is researching and questioning the idea of what, why and how Public Art in the UAE should be shaped.

The Global Art Forum 2019 aims to address the urgent challenges and opportunities facing education today. It is entitled ‘School is a Factory?’ and is compiled by editor/writer Victoria Camblin and curator/writer, Fawz Kabra.

And the  Art Dubai Modern Symposium will give a platform to five renowned curators, scholars and patrons will each explore the development of Modernism in five cities: Baghdad, Beirut, Dakar, Lahore and Sharjah. The Sharjah section of the talks will be hosted by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi.

Finally, after an intensive six-month seminar and residency programme providing UAE-based artists the chance to develop their own practices, artists participate in a two-month residency, during which they receive support in transforming and developing their initial research ideas into work. This work will be exhibited in a group show at Art Dubai.