Creative enterprises across the nation have announced several new happenings to be part of Dubai Art Season, the umbrella term for all artistic goings on in March and April.
Art Dubai revealed more of the programme for the eleventh edition (March 15-18) including the inaugural Modern Symposium – a conference on art produced during the 1940s-1980s period, which features some of the world’s leading experts on the subject. It also announced a visual and gastronomic experience as part of the fair called Cooking Liberty by Beirut-based collective Atfal Ahdath as well as a new interactive artwork commission to be set up in the bar area of the fair by Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani.
The big change over at Design Days Dubai (March 14-17), the sister fair with a sole focus on design, is that they have a new director. William Knight replaces Cyril Zammit as the managing director and head of design at the Art Dubai group and will be in charge of the whole design portfolio, which as well as the fair, includes Dubai Design Week and Downtown Design.
Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, the government body that oversees Dubai Art Season, held under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced Sikka Around The City. It is a new initiative as part of Sikka Art Fair (March 11-21), the fair dedicated to UAE-based artists that will place art all around the city in public installations.
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's education programme surrounding the forthcoming exhibition The Creative Act (March 7 - July 29) has also been unveiled.
Several fun workshops for all ages will take place between March and July – they include making art with every day objects, running and jumping in paint to make pictures and even parent and child workshops for those under the age of 5 to make an artwork together with their caregivers.
In Sharjah, the Barjeel Art Foundation have three major exhibitions coming up including one at Yale University in the US and one at the national gallery in Jordan. In the UAE, Maraya Art Centre is the location for Beloved Bodies II (March 4 - October 4), an exhibition exploring the human body and an exhibition from Iraqi artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji (March 4- May 6), which will feature a large panoramic video installation.
Other galleries, such as those in Alserkal Avenue and that in the capital’s Warehouse 421 will have strong exhibitions to mark the annual art season and even as far afield as Qatar, which will be hosting the New York Times’ Art For Tomorrow conference, also has a robust programme of exhibitions organised by the museum authority.
• Dubai Art Season runs throughout March and April. For more info visit www.dubaiculture.gov
aseaman@thenational.ae
