Delfina Foundation, the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), Art Dubai and Tashkeel announce the artists and curator selected for the 2013 edition of Artists-in-Residence (A.i.R) Dubai. Following a pilot year in 2011, A.i.R Dubai was launched in 2012 opening the door for six artists and a curator interested in developing their practice and creating new work in the context of Dubai.
A.i.R Dubai 2013 features artists Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz, Ammar Al Attar, Dina Danish, Reem Falaknaz, Joe Namy, and Yudi Noor. The six artists will work alongside curator Bérénice Saliou.
The residency programme (January 7 – March 31 2013) will culminate in an Open Studios exhibition, held parallel to SIKKA Art Fair (March 14-24, 2013). The international artists are also commissioned to create site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects, which forms part of the fair’s extensive non-commercial programming. The projects will be exhibited at Art Dubai March 20-23, 2013.
A.i.R Dubai supports artists by providing them with a platform to develop their practice and create new work, while facilitating exchange between the artists, the local communities, and the broader cultural landscape. Furthermore, the curator-in-residence position gives an international practitioner interested in the Gulf the opportunity to write, research, and cultivate ideas for future projects.
A.i.R Dubai 2013 coincides with Art Week, Dubai’s umbrella arts initiative, which includes Art Dubai, Design Days Dubai and SIKKA among other events across the UAE and the Gulf. In partnership with Al Riwaq Art Space, A.i.R Dubai now provides opportunities for the participating artists and curator to extend their time in the Gulf through a residency in Bahrain.
The international artists-in-residence were identified through a nomination process by A.i.R Dubai’s selection panel, consisting of all partners and the 2013 guest juror, Cairo-based curator and writer Sarah Rifky, while the Emirati artists were selected by the same panel following an open call for application. The curator-in-residence was chosen through A.i.R Dubai’s selection panel with ArtAsiaPacific, a leading international art publication, and partner on the curator-in-residence programme.
PARTICIPANTS
Multidisciplinary artist, curator and writer Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz incorporates her unique perspective on mathematics and the structures of systems to explore issues of identity and culture through installations, performance pieces and works on paper. Selected exhibitions include ‘Belief’, Singapore Biennial (2006); and Sharjah Biennial 7 (2005) and 10 (2011). Abdul-Aziz is represented by The Third Line Gallery.
Born in Dubai, Ammar Al Attar has attended numerous photography courses and is a member of the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP), Photographic Society of America (PSA), and the Abu Dhabi International Photographic Society (ADIPS). Ammar’s group exhibitions include ‘Emirati Expressions’, Manarat Al Saadiyat (2011) and the Thessaloniki Museum, Greece (2011).
The work of Egyptian artist Dina Danish combines conceptual art’s preoccupation with language and structure with an interest in humor, misunderstanding, mistranslation and superstition. Winner of the Illy Present Future award at Artissima 18, Danish’s recent exhibitions include solo shows ‘Re-Play: Back in 10 Minutes’, SpazioA, Pistoia (2012); ‘A Matter of Time’, Galerie Barbara Seiler, Zurich (2011); and group exhibitions at Kunsthall Oslo and CIC in Cairo. She performed Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonata at the Cairo Pavilion of the Amsterdam Biennial.
Visual Communications graduate Reem Falaknazcurrently works for the Dubai Media Incorporated group, allowing her to travel around the Emirates, where she collects and documents narratives from the city’s inhabitants. Through her work, Falaknaz aims to translate the story of the city through sounds and visuals.
Joe Namy works with sampled sounds, documentary/music videos and photography, to investigate aspects of identity, memory, power and currents encoded in music. He participated in Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace (2011-12), and has studied jazz, Arabic and heavy-metal drumming. His work has been exhibited at the Detroit Science Center; Queens Museum and Brooklyn Museum, New York and Beirut Art Center among other venues.
Yudi Noor was born in West Java, Indonesia, and lives and works in Berlin. In a practice based on accumulation and observation, Noor explores the relational state of material as an abstract visualization. He proposes spiritual signification in minimal compositions through work in sculpture, installation, photo and collage. Selected exhibitions include ‘Preloaded Key; Colour’, Galerie Stadtpark, Krems (2010); ‘We Have Time’, Kunstverein Arnsberg (2009). Noor is represented by Nettie Horn, London.
The curatorial practice of Bérénice Saliou explores the ideas of borders, territory, public space, dialogue and negotiation. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths College (2010); her exhibitions include ‘No Signal Found’ (Younes Baba Ali), Gallery Arte Contemporanea, Brussels (2011) and ‘Duty Free’ (Katia Kameli), Vidéochroniques, Marseilles (2012). As Artistic Director of the Moroccan organisation Feddan, she develops its large-scale permanent residency and exhibition project Trankat Street (opening in 2013, Tétouan part of Marseilles 2013, European Cultural Capital).