transcripts:1 transcripts:1 First Annual Global Art Forum With the support of The artists The curators and directors Jerome Sans, Director of Programmes, Honorary Patron, Her Royal Highness Kader Attia, Artist, Paris, France Savita Apte, Curator, Writer, Head Baltic, Gateshead, United Kingdom Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Wife of of Education, DIFC Gulf Art Fair, Tirdad Zolghadr, Curator, Zurich, Switzerland Wim Delvoye, Artist, Brussels, Belgium HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Mumbai, India Kamran Diba, Founder, Tehran Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Anita Dube, Artist, New Delhi, India Saleh Barakat, Art Expert, Beirut, Museum, Architect, Collector, Art Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai Jan Fabre, Artist, Brussels, Belgium Lebanon Adviser, France and Spain Chairman of the Board of Patrons, Lara Baladi, Artist, Cairo, Egypt David Barrie, Director, The Art Fund, The art dealers His Excellency Abdul Rahman London, United Kingdom Bob Monk, Director, Gagosian Gallery, Mohammad Al-Owais, UAE Minister Jitish Kallat, Artist, Mumbai, India New York, United States of Culture, Youth and Community Camilla Cañellas, International Asma M’Naouar, Artist, Tunis, Tunisia Development Arts Consultant, Writer and Critic, Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Director, Beth Derbyshire, Artist, London, Barcelona, Spain Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg, Advisory committee United Kingdom Germany and Beirut, Lebanon Daniel Birnbaum, Director of the Donna De Salvo, Chief Curator and Städelschule Art Academy and Portikus Otto Piene, Artist, Düsseldorf, Germany Associate Director for Programs, Jill Silverman, Partner, Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany Whitney Museum of American Art, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France Solmaz Shahbazi, Artist, Tehran, Iran, New York, United States Vasif Kortun, Director, Platform Garanti, and Berlin, Germany William Wells, Director, Townhouse Istanbul, Turkey Bassam El-Baroni, Art Critic, Curator, Gallery, Cairo, Egypt The architects and designers Egypt Jack Persekian, Artistic Director, Sharjah Andreas Angelidakis, Architecture The collectors and art consultants Biennial, Curator, Founder and Director and Digital Design, Athens, Greece Ebrahim Melamed, Director, Honart Charles Asprey, Curator and Collector, of Anadiel Gallery and Al-Ma’mal Museum, Tehran, Iran Charles Asprey Award for Palestinian Nadim Karam, Artist and Architect, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Art, London, United Kingdom Beirut, Lebanon Lance Fung, Curator, Artistic Director, Jerusalem SITE Santa Fe 2008, New York, Yolla Naujaim, Collector, Beirut, Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, Langlands Maria Finders, Curator, Conference United States Lebanon & Bell, Architects and Designers, Curator, Director, Europe, Brunswick London, United Kingdom Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, Serpentine Judith Greer, Art Collector, London, Arts, Paris, France Gallery, London, United Kingdom United Kingdom The writers Jan Dalley, Arts Editor, The Financial Hassan Khan, Editor, Bidoun, Cairo, Mon Mullerschoen, Art Consultant, Times, London, United Kingdom Egypt Munich, Germany Jalal Toufic, Writer, Film theorist, and Jean-Hubert Martin, Curator, Direction Ebrahim Melamed, Collector, Tehran, Iran Video Artist, Beirut, Lebanon des Musées de France, Paris, France Acknowledgments Lisa Ball-Lechgar, Editor, Canvas, Michelle Nicol, Curator, Co-founder, Editor Maria Finders Arts Manager, Cultural Consultant, Glamour Engineering, Zurich, Brunswick Arts Transcriptions & Editing Dubai, United Arab Emirates Switzerland Amy Drillsman-Milgrom Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery, Art Dubai Editing Stephanie Sykes Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of Art Dubai Project Managers International Projects, London, United Poppy Leather, Stephanie Sykes Kingdom Designed byTogether Design, London Alireza Sami Azar, Curator, Writer, Former PhotographyMartin Parr, Magnum Photos Director of Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran ProductionStudio Gualtiero PrintingConti Tipocolor Contents Introduction Speakers’ biographies 5 Speakers’ statements 25 Global Art Forum timetable 41 Art and Dubai thinktank 44 Artist focus 52 – Artist interviews/presentations 52 Working with artists 84 – Collectors, art consultants and philanthropists 84 – The Serpentine Gallery as a laboratory 94 Middle East focus 118 – The next ten years of contemporary art in the Middle East 118 – Open stage for the Middle East and south Asia 147 Art cities focus 220 – Branding cities through culture 220 – Building future art cities 259 – World art cities 279 Epilogue 311 Introduction The central themes of this year’s Forum will be Artists and Their Work, The Next Global Art Forum Putting Ten Years of Contemporary Art in the Dubai at the centre of the Middle East and Cities and Culture. Artists, while being protagonists of the Global Art World art community, often shy away from the Maria Finders trappings of the commercial art market It is said that Dubai is the most global of that often sustains their production. the global cities, and thus was the perfect With the Artists and Their Work setting for a new three-day discussion discussions, the Global Art Forum hopes platform: the First Annual Global Art Forum. to initiate a discussion wherein artists The Forum, hosted by the DIFC Gulf Art can be at the centre of the conversation Fair, brought together an international and not just its topic. Thus, in the launch group of over forty artists, curators, year of the fair, we have invited curators dealers, museum directors, critics to interview artists from around the and academics for three days to focus world, showing their work and talking on issues affecting art and the arts about their practice and vision. community with the consideration The Next Ten Years of Contemporary of the Middle East as a driving force. Art in the Middle East focused on major Bringing an open forum to an art transformations that are happening in fair is a complex balancing act, as the the region, which have and will have commercial aspects of an art market significant global ramifications. Artists, often challenge the positions of artists, art professionals and institutions curators and exhibition makers. The throughout the Middle East will face Global Art Forum hopes to reconcile many of the issues that challenge art these diverse perspectives and map out institutions around the globe, such as the constellation of ideas and opinions public vs. private funding, control defining art today and in the future. systems, freedom of expression, societies 1 Global Art Forum Global Art Forum 2 and/or governments, and the The Cities and Culture Forum will negotiation between artistic innovation involve cultural leaders from London, and audience expectations. If societies Paris, New York, Mumbai, Zurich, Berlin are to survive into the next century and Dubai sharing their ideas about on a more constructive note, it is how to consider the establishment and imperative that they begin to understand development of the “Art City”. The how these changes are affecting cultural influence of architecture, design, urban cartographies and artistic production planning and technology will also as they address broader concerns from be examined. history, memory and even spirituality. We would like to thank all the speakers Culture is increasingly becoming an of the First Global Art Forum in Dubai economic driver. Some call it the “Bilbao for their brilliant contributions to effect”, but this is only one of the most making this event memorable for recent examples of how cities use culture all of us. to create environments for their citizens and to claim a unique position in the global economy. The “post-industrial” economy is a “cultural” economy – with the very understanding of culture itself being appropriated by the enlarged provision of (and longing for) meaningful “experience”. There is a clear epochal shift from the perspective of planning urban development and the integrated model of the creative city and Maria Finders how it impacts the lives and working First Global Art Forum Curator, Director, Europe, conditions of city dwellers. Brunswick Arts Global Art Forum Global Art Forum 4 Speakers’ biographies In 2007 the ArtSchool Palestine will Shop, Art Basel, Miami 2004), video present In Focus, an exhibition of (“Shadow” Video Zone, Tel Aviv 2004) Middle Eastern film to be shown and photography (“Alter Ego”, Sketch at Tate Modern, London and The Gallery, London, 2005). His recent Imperial War Museum, London. projects, such as “The Loop” shown at Art Basel in 2005 or “Fortune Cookies” Kader Attia in Canton are further illustrations of Andreas Angelidakis promising artists and guiding their Artist, Paris, France. the eclecticism of his work. In Basel, he Born in Dugny in 1970 and raised installed a circus tent in which break- Architect, Athens, Greece. development since 1991. In 1995 she in Garges-les-Gonesses/Sarcelles, dancers spin alongside a whirling Andreas Angelidakis is an architect joined Sotheby’s as consultant expert Abdelkader Franck Attia has always dervish and a hanging DJ. In China, working at the intersection of digital for Modern and Contemporary South been told, “If the fascists come to after buying a bankrupt Parisian culture and architectural production. Asian Art for their auctions in London power, you’ll be the first to be kicked Chinese restaurant at an auction in Operating for almost nine years, and New York. She is on the advisory out”. Muslim, Christian and Jewish, Bobigny, he sent it back to its country Angelidakis has realized projects in board of Sovereign