En route to Tehran, independent curator and artist Amirali Ghasemi and curator Michel Dewilde (MD) stopped at the Art Fair Dubai, collecting valuable interviews for the documentary ‘Iran beyond borders' (1966-2010), and reflecting on the art fair.

The last decade, the Emirate of Dubai is collecting some of the cultural world records. We just have to think about the magnificent Burj Khalifa towering at 828 meters above the city. Dubai hosts the highest building in the world, or what about the several artificial islands built in the sea? The Emirate is also home to the 1 million US Dollars Abraaj Capital Art Prize, simply the best funded art recompense on the planet. We witnessed the second edition of this prestigious art prize during the immaculately organized art fair: Art Dubai 2010 (16-20 march 2010). Dubai is definitely the Emirate of cultural superlatives, so, in favor of the arts, let's hope it will outlast the current economical crisis and that neighbor Abu Dhabi will remain a generous patron.

But, beyond these obvious and well known stereotypes of Dubai as the extravagant hub for the outrageously rich and famous, the Emirate evolved in the last decade into one of the most important players on the contemporary art scene. The international Art Fair was successfully organized for the fourth time and so does the Global Art Forum held on different locations, in Doha and Dubai. And if we add that the Sharjah Biennial, held in the nearby Emirate, will host in 2011 the tenth edition of its successful biennial, we can safely agree with Hans Ulrich Obrist: that we have been witnessing a power shift to the East, with the Emirates as one of the essential players. This ‘eastern influx' started in the nineties with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opening towards former Eastern Europe, or the massive emergence of Chinese artists in the same decade. But a shift for whom and from what? Has the old Atlantic dominance both on an economical, political, military, and cultural level collapsed, and moved eastwards? And above all: was the ‘East', this in essence western construction, so absent from the previous equation, as we are meant to believe?

ABRAAJ ART PRIZE

The Abraaj Capital Art Prize focuses on artists from the MENASA region: basically citizens living in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Interesting in the set up is the conscious collaboration between artists from the region and international curators.
Each contribution to the Abraaj contest is the result of this close association between the two actors.

About this year's Abraaj edition we can be brief: from the three selected finalists only Kader Attia (Algeria) really convinced with his compelling video: ‘History of a myth: The Small Dome of the Rock'. Attia, supported by his American curator Laurie Ann Farrell, distills the important history of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and its current political entanglement, in one essential and pure image: filming a few minuscule bolts and nuts. The impressive and rare monumentality of this simple structure reverberates the importance of this holy building within the Islamic world, and tackles at the same time the present occupation of Palestine and Jerusalem: the Dome made up by some metal screws is literally constricted by the building stones it has been made of and by its surrounding occupier. A superb work of art.

The second finalist Marwan Sahmarani's (Lebanon) pictorial installation ‘The feast of the damned' did not so much bring to mind the work of the Flemish Baroque painter Rubens, as stated in his curatorial text, but referred instead to the infamous and confrontational painting ‘Slaughtered Ox'(several versions : 1638 & 1655) by Rembrandt van Rijn.
MD: "Here I did not adhere to the jury's analysis: so for me there was no ‘...poignant and intimately humane artwork of universal resonance...', but a blatant cacophony of unnecessary exuberant colors. The deeper meanings on a political, socio-cultural level were clouded in this pictorial mist."

Egyptian Hala Elkoussy, the last finalist, presented her 9 meter wide mural: ‘The Myths & Legends Room: The Mural'. The large work consists of a collage of colored paper, echoing historical murals and propaganda art and dealing with current and past Egyptian history. Elkoussy strives towards a personal account of contemporary myths and legends, but as often with collage: the strength of the final image consists of the quality of the selected and combined parts, and here we felt that the parts outgrew the final presentation.

ART FAIR 2010

The Art fair brought together 70 galleries from all over the world, consisting of a large contingent of participants from the direct region, Iran, India and China and some American and European galleries. This large intercontinental presence confirmed Dubai's role as a bridge between continents. The fair in itself presented a comprehensive selection of contemporary artists with a large presence of painting and photography.
We saw much less video or installation art.
MD: "I specifically recall the photographic installation ‘Mirador' (2008) of the Palestinian artist Taysir Batniji, whom I had the pleasure to work with. Batniji documents the menacing Israeli watch towers in a series of 26 black & white photographs, stylistically reminiscent of the Bernd & Hilla Becher legacy."

One of the lesser positive developments at the fair, was the massive presence of works constructed with a poppy- easternised type of collage technique. Decades after the deconstruction of western stereotypes about the so-called ‘east', we witness the presence of several paintings and photo's introducing forms of a ‘new sampled Orient', adding a recent range of cliché's about identity and nationality. One of the conclusions could be that the present art boom from the Middle East and Iran, which started more or less in 2005-2006, lead to an important commercial success for many artists, and to new forms of ‘easternisation' as a format, an ‘eastern product' conceived for specific market demands.
But the fair had a number of highlights : there was for example the memorable homage to the body of work of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1924, Qazvin) one of the most remarkable artists of her era and still very active.

Important is that the most interesting, even daring, gallery presentations were to be found outside the Art Dubai central venue, at the Bastakiya Art Fair, in down town Dubai. One of the strongest contributions was made by London-based, groundbreaking curator Rose Issa. She brought a fascinating group presentation of mainly Iranian artists in the Bastakiya district. We remember more specifically, the witty laminated gender related drawings by Parastou Forouhar, the poignant sculptural robes by Bita Ghezelayagh, or the ephemeral beaded portraits of murdered students by revelation Taraneh Hemami.
Concluding about the fair: we noted the presence of one Belgian gallery Koraalberg, showing works from some of its key artists: Joris Ghekiere, Nick Ervinck, etc.
But the most interesting player of Art Dubai was undoubtedly the quarterly Bidoun art magazine and their curatorial program, meandering through and beyond the art fair.
Founded in 2003 by Lisa Farjam, Bidoun evolved into the most prominent magazine in the region. Within the context of the art fair, Bidoun operates as the non-commercial partner, curating exhibitions, interviews, conferences, video-programs etc.
Besides a number of exhibitions, Bidoun commissioned several new works which were shown at the art fair. One of the most impressive was the installation ‘Re-Mapping' by Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz. Aziz developed a mathematical system with which she redraws the artistic map of the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia in an abstracted skyline showing the ‘health' of the respective national art scenes.
It's probably too early to say if Dubai will mainly function as a bridge between East and West, or that it will lead away from the Atlantic dominance towards the new centers in the nations of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Anyhow, moving away from the purely commercial aims of the archetypical art fair, in favor of non-commercial presentations, interesting debates and incisive site-specific commissions is clearly the path to follow for Art Dubai.

Michel DEWILDE is curator, Amirali GHASEMI curator and artist.
Their documentary 'Iran Beyond borders', and several related exhibitions will be shown for the first time in Bruges on the 3rd of October 2010, before touring in several countries.