THE POWER 50 THE POWER 50 THE PO Welcome to the second annual Power 50 feature. In carefully selecting the most influential cultural protagonists of Middle Eastern art and culture, Canvas engages in a comprehensive survey of their achievements across the regional art scene. The process is a fascinating reminder of the wealth of talent and intellect we have at our fingertips. The 50 who make it onto our list are those who, over the past year, have made a positive impact on the Middle Eastern art scene, strived to make it grow and contributed to its mounting influence the world over. 112 Among numerous organisations spearheading efforts to position the UAE as the region’s cultural hub stands a woman behind her eponymous foundation, one dedicated to promoting charitable programmes in the fields of education, art, culture, heritage and the environment. HH Sheikha Salama Bint Hamdan Al-Nahyan may be the wife of the UAE Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, but she has certainly carved an independent reputation for herself as a dedicated patron of the arts. Before sharing her passion for art with the local community through the establishment of her foundation in 2010, HH instilled art appreciation in her home; though she was heavily pregnant with her eighth child 17 years ago, she insisted on taking her family on a trip to the Louvre. The fruit of HH’s commitment to the arts is exemplified in her daughter HH Sheikha Mariam Bint Mohammed Al- Nahyan’s position as CEO of her mother’s foundation. HH Sheikha Salama is Chair of Abu Dhabi Art’s Host Committee and her foundation launched Art For All last October – a programme aimed at fostering understanding and appreciation between the public and Emirati artists. The Foundation is also the principal supporter of Art Scene UAE – a book to be published by Canvas in November 2013, which will document the events and activities that have contributed to the growth of the Emirati art arena – and of the UAE Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Patron of the region’s largest art fair, Art Dubai, HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum is an avid supporter of the arts who established his eponymous Patrons of the Arts Awards in 2009 to recognise the efforts of individuals and organisations that champion artistic activity. Last March, HH announced the launch of Dubai Modern Art Museum and Opera House District – an ambitious project to be built on Emaar Boulevard in Downtown Dubai. The enterprise will also include two ‘art hotels’, leisure attractions, design studios and a residential complex in what will provide a further boost to Dubai’s already thriving art scene. Last January 20 miniature replicas of the Burj Khalifa painted by Emirati artists were unveiled by Dubai Cares, HH’s initiative for primary education programmes in developing countries; one, by Emirati artist Abdul Kadir Al-Rais, was auctioned by Christie’s for $35,000 and the remaining ones were acquired by various organisations in the UAE. HH SHEIKHA HH SHEIKH MOHAMMED SAlAMA bInT HAMDAn Al - nAHyAn bIn RASHID Al - MAKTOuM Photography by Myrna Ayad. The billionaire tycoon has been in the headlines for funding hotel developments, establishing centres of Islamic study at the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, investing in major corporations such as Citigroup, News Corporation and Twitter, and managing the philanthropic arm of Kingdom Holding, his multi-billion dollar public holding company. HRH Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal is also – and has long been – a keen supporter of art and culture, and one who works constantly towards greater cultural understanding worldwide. In 2005, he contributed a staggering $23 million to the Louvre for the construction of a new space at the gallery to showcase one of the world’s most significant collections of Islamic art, which opened to much acclaim last September. The Prince had approached Louvre officials directly to kick-start this initiative, one that he regarded as being of prime importance for the Middle East and whose timing coincided perfectly with a renewed interest in the region’s culture and art. HRH PRINCE TALAL AL - SAUD AL - WALEED bIN Image courtesy Getty Images. 50 A few days before Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opened in Doha in December 2010, HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al-Thani gave a TEDx talk entitled, Globalising the Local, Localising the Global . In it, she highlighted the importance of cultural integration but also drew attention to the fact that despite Qatar’s desire to become a “modern nation, at the same time, we are reconnecting and reasserting our Arab heritage.” Her statement echoed the thinking behind the Qatar Museums Authority’s (QMA) staging of Mal Lawal last September, an exhibition conceived by HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa and which presented an array of artefacts and antiques from 87 Qatari collectors. Through Mal Lawal , QMA not only demonstrated a longstanding collecting culture among Qatari nationals, but it also inspired future generations to take on similar practices. Last year alone, Doha hosted exhibitions for Louise Bourgeois, Takashi Murakami and Yan Pei-Ming – the first time these artists’ works were showcased in the Middle East. QMA also sponsored Damien Hirst’s retrospective at the Tate in London last April and this year will mark the artist’s debut show in the region. The Tunisian ‘calligraffiti’ artist eL Seed has begun designing four tunnels in Doha and work continues on the Jean Nouvel-designed National Museum of Qatar, slated for a 2014 opening. The world anxiously waits as HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa – dubbed ‘the art world’s most powerful woman’ by The Economist – makes another move that will send ripples across the international art arena. Known to visit every exhibition in Jeddah, HRH Princess Jawaher Bint Majed Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud is particularly valued for the time she spends with artists, many of whom call on her for advice and guidance. HRH is also appreciated for hosting cultural delegations in Saudi Arabia and has been instrumental in establishing the Al-Mansouria Foundation, which promotes Saudi and Arab artists both within the Kingdom and abroad. The Foundation spurred the expansion of the art scene in Saudi Arabia and internationally long before platforms such as Edge of Arabia and commercial galleries came to the fore, and today, it houses one of the most important collections of Saudi and Arab art. In 2011, the Foundation acquired a studio, the Al-Mansouria Atelier, for residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and has since hosted over 30 artists there, including Sami Al-Turki, Mahdi Al-Jeraibi, Mohammed Omar Khalil, Rafa Al-Nasiri, Faisal Samra, Khaled Farhan, Hani Zurob, Hana Malallah, Ayman Yossri Daydban and Sirine Fattouh. Last September Jeddah’s Athr Gallery showcased Ziad Dalloul’s first ever exhibition in the Kingdom – a proposal instigated by Al-Mansouria, which has published a series of books on Dalloul and produced a bilingual hardcover specially for his Jeddah show. HE SHEIKHA AbDUL AzIz AL - SAUD Photography by AR Al-Baker. Image courtesy Qatar Museums Authority, Doha. AL - MAYASSA AL - THANI HRH PRINCESS JAWAHER bINT MAJED bIN 115 She may be a member of Jordan’s royal family, but HRH Princess Wijdan Ali is also a celebrated artist, prolific author, eminent art historian, ex-diplomat and founder of Jordan’s National Gallery of Fine Arts as well as the country’s Royal Society of Fine Arts. A strong advocate of empowerment through education, HRH Princess Wijdan completed her PhD in Islamic studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, going on to found the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Jordan, of which she is now Dean. Her art, found in the collections of reputed institutions across the world, fuses calligraphy with elements of Islamic art. She has also donated her own collection of 77 works to serve as the core of the Jordan National Gallery. Founded in 1980, the collection now includes over 2000 works, predominantly by artists from the Arab world, but also by some from Europe, the USA, Asia and Africa. Since its inception, the gallery has staged exhibitions both on its premises and also abroad, in the USA, China, Yemen, Spain, Australia, France and beyond. In 2012 it exported the show Reflections from Heaven, Meditations on Earth , which showcased 72 Modern calligraphic pieces by Arab artists, to the Mercati di Traiano in Rome and later to the Museo Valencia de la Illustracio I de la Modernitat. Last January, the gallery presented Between Desert and Sea , an exhibition of 55 works by Arab artists at Istanbul’s Pera Museum. The gallery’s ongoing mission was outlined in an interview given by HRH to the online magazine Nafas : “My greatest challenge is facing ignorance, be it in my society regarding the importance of art, or abroad regarding my religion and culture.” HRH PRINCESS WIJDAN In her capacity as President of the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), member of the board of directors of New York’s MoMA PS1 and trustee of Beirut’s Ashkal Alwan, HE Sheikha Hoor Al-Qassimi has a hand in promoting Middle Eastern art all over the world. Under her directorship of SAF, Sharjah continues to strengthen its position as a platform for Contemporary artists through the residencies, commissions and public programming that the emirate offers. Al-Qassimi has led the Sharjah Biennial since 2003, steering it in a new direction, one focused on catering to the younger generation of artists and on supporting their works. An artist in her own right, she has also co-curated Sharjah Biennial editions alongside Peter Lewis, Jack Persekian, and this year, Yuko Hasegawa. Al-Qassimi carefully straddles the balance between her dual roles – she has recently showcased her work at the Nevada Museum of Art and was a member of the selection committee for the 2012 Berlin Biennial. HE SHEIKHA HOOR AL - qASSIMI Image courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation. © Canvas Archives. THE POWER 50 WIJDAN ALI Only six years ago Dubai’s Al-Quoz wasn’t known for much more than its industrial capacity, a place where trucks and warehouses populated a barren neighbourhood. Although a cultural scene had begun to flourish with the likes of The Courtyard, The Third Line and B21 (now known as Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde), no one really knew what the fate of a few galleries in warehouses would be. Fast forward to the present and with a little navigational proficiency, one will find one of Dubai’s most important cultural districts. Alserkal Avenue, a block of warehouses housing some of the city’s most prominent art galleries, is the brainchild of brothers Abdul Monem and Ahmad Bin Eisa Alserkal – art patrons and collectors who are passionate about seeing their endeavour grow. Since 2007, the Emirati brothers have given Dubai’s cultural landscape the space to mature organically. Alserkal Avenue is slated for a 2014 expansion, which will include more space for galleries already scrambling to make it onto the waiting list. The additional 46,000 square metres will also include artist studios and event facilities. With the brothers always tirelessly supporting the local art scene, it is a rare occasion when they and their father, Eisa, are not attending an exhibition opening. THE POWER 50 50 THE POWER 50 AHMAD & AbDUL MONEM ALSERKAL Above: Ahmad Bin Eisa Alserkal. Below: Abdul Monem Bin Eisa Alserkal. Photography by Sofia Dadourian. Images courtesy Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. 117 The regional art scene found a kindred spirit in Arif Naqvi, one looking to reward risk- takers with the world’s most expensive art prize. His name is now synonymous with the Abraaj Group Art Prize (AGAP) – a $500,000 award divided between five artists from the MENASA region, based on their proposals for new artworks. The founder and CEO of private equity fund The Abraaj Group is a seasoned art collector and remains an influential figure on the Dubai art scene. Naqvi made the decision to sponsor Art Dubai from the very start, making The Abraaj Group a staple partner of one of the region’s most important Contemporary art fairs. AGAP recipients have included Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Jananne Al- Ani, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Zoulikha Bouabdellah and Kader Attia among many other Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian Contemporary art forces. A panellist at the 2012 Art & Patronage Summit, Naqvi spoke passionately and optimistically about the importance of empowering potential and the strength of artists as entrepreneurs, urging the creation of an environment where “artists don’t feel curtailed by what they’ve done but by what they’d like to do.” With Naqvi’s strong beliefs in the power of patronage as a critical element of artistic development in the region, artists can rest assured that they’ve got a powerhouse on their side. Sometimes great things come in small packages, such as Delfina Entrecanales. The petite Spanish-born philanthropist decided to establish a foundation to bridge the many gaps between East and West in response to tensions in a post-9/11 world. Since 2007 her namesake London-based non-profit organisation has provided residencies for numerous artists from the Middle East and North Africa, including Khosrow Hassanzadeh, Susan Hefuna, Abbas Akhavan, Ziad Antar, Hrair Sarkissian and Wael Shawky. The roots of the Delfina Foundation, however, go back over two decades, to when it was called the Delfina Studio Trust and welcomed over 400 artists, 13 of whom are now Turner Prize winners. At 86, Entrecanales’s drive is unwavering: she has recently acquired a space adjoining the Foundation’s existing premises so she can host more artists, and at 424 square metres, this will be London’s largest residency project space when it is unveiled later this year. Great things really do come in small packages, like Entrecanales’s CBE medal, awarded to her last December as part of the Queen’s birthday honours list. She is a Dame, but she is also godmother to many artists. DELFINA ENTRECANALES ARIF NAqVI © Canvas Archives. Image courtesy Palace Photo and Delfina Foundation, London. 118 When Van Gogh’s Poppy Flower – worth an estimated $55 million – went missing from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo in 2010, it was Orascom Telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris who stepped up to the plate and offered $175,000 for information that could help track down the stolen painting. The art patron, whose art collection includes pieces by Abdel Hadi El-Gazzar, Ferdinand Parpan, Gérard Leroux and Mohamed El-Sharkawi, among others, is also a philanthropist. He established the Sawiris Foundation in 2001 to provide economic and social aid to Egyptians, and also runs the prestigious Sawiris Cultural Award, established in 2005, which grants prizes rewarding artistic creativity totalling over $100,000 each year. With plans to build a museum to showcase his collection, Sawiris is a man to watch. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is one of the UAE capital’s most hotly anticipated Saadiyat Cultural District projects, and the man at the helm is a highly respected and influential figure on the international art scene. A former curator, Richard Armstrong is described by many as a modest, inspiring and honest mentor. In his capacity as Director of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, Armstrong oversees the organisation’s international programmes. Receptive to the region’s Contemporary and Modern artistic production, he is a regular at Art Dubai and Abu Dhabi Art, often spotted visiting stands and bringing curators along to discover what the region has to offer. Armstrong recently established the Middle East Guggenheim Circle, a group dedicated to organising conversations, private gatherings and visits. He has also been instrumental in the appointments of Reem Fadda, the Guggenheim’s Associate Curator of Middle Eastern art, as curator of the UAE Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, and of Suzanne Cotter, curator of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project since 2010, as co-curator of the 2011 Sharjah Biennial. No doubt once the 450,000 square foot Guggenheim Abu Dhabi – the largest Guggenheim in the world – opens its doors, Armstrong will be there to encourage the development of Abu Dhabi as a cultural destination. THE THE POWER 50 THE THE POWER 50 RICHARD ARMSTRONG NAGUIb SAWIRIS Image courtesy Getty Images. © Canvas Archives. 119 Nothing beats a good story – a tight, thoroughly researched, well-presented narrative punctuated by historical facts, minute-but-essential details and new information all packed with a punch. Imagine saying all that through exhibitions, and consistently too, not to mention accompanying rich texts savoured by academics and enthusiasts alike. This is the stuff that Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are made of. Among other things, the duo’s curatorial strategy offers viewers new ways of looking at art, which in turn, contest prevailing perceptions. Now that’s power: the ability to change minds. Take for example, their small-scale exhibitions, such as Rock, Paper, Scissors at Leila Heller Gallery in New York last July. Here, they juxtaposed the works of nine very different artists – including Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock (rock), Contemporary Iranian Hadieh Shafie (paper) and ‘Spiderwoman’ Louise Bourgeois (scissors) – through an artistic take on the popular hand game. Then there is, of course, their groundbreaking Tea With Nefertiti , which debuted to strong critical acclaim at Doha’s Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art last November. It is also the first museum show exported from the Arab world to tour internationally (visiting the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Valencia Institute of Modern Art, and Bozar: Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels this year). This curatorial powerhouse will also curate Lebanon’s second Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, presented through the works of Akram Zaatari. As Bardaouil and Fellrath travel the world excavating hitherto undiscovered information, they strengthen their roles as cultural diplomats with good stories to tell. The Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art at the Tate, Jessica Morgan has organised some major shows during her time at the London institution: John Baldessari, Martin Kippenberger and Gabriel Orozco, among others. This year, she’s gone East and brought a pioneering Lebanese Abstractionist to the Tate – Morgan has been an instrumental figure in bringing the Saloua Raouda Choucair retrospective to Europe, signalling the first time a Middle Eastern artist has been the subject of a major survey at the gallery. Morgan is on the Art Dubai Curatorial Advisory Board and on the Abraaj Group Art Prize selection committee. Her passion for Middle Eastern art goes back to her time as a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Chicago, where, in 1997, she organised the first US survey of the work of Mona Hatoum – an artist considered to be one of the most important Contemporary practitioners from the region. Since joining the Tate in 2002, Morgan has also become a member of the Middle East and North Africa Acquisitions Committee, which aims to increase the institution’s collection of Middle Eastern art spanning from 1960 to the present. Today, the Tate’s holdings include works by Hatoum, Akram Zaatari, Hani Rashid and Walid Raad among others. Often spotted making the rounds at all the major regional art exhibitions and fairs, Morgan has her ear firmly to the Middle Eastern ground. SAM bARDAOUIL JESSICA MORGAN & TILL FELLRATH Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. © Canvas Archives. © Canvas Archives. 120 There are three significant ‘firsts’ to the 11th Sharjah Biennial: it is the first time since its seventh edition that a non-member of the Sharjah Art Foundation has been selected as curator; it is the first time in a decade that a non-Middle Easterner is holding the curatorial reins; and it is Japanese-born Yuko Hasegawa’s first show in the Middle East. A professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo, she is also Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and has worked with other biennials: as Artistic Director of the 2001 Istanbul Biennial, co-curator of the 2002 Shanghai Biennale, Artistic Advisor at the 12th Venice Architectural Biennale and co-curator of the 29th São Paulo Biennale. A prolific writer, Hasegawa has curated shows in Spain, Brazil and Japan and has served as a jury member in organisations such as the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim and the Future Generation Art Prize at the Pinchuk Art Centre. Her curatorial strategy for the Sharjah Biennial proposes a dialogue in which Hasegawa hopes to engage audiences through surveying art that is devoid of the ‘isms’ that often impact perception. Over 100 artists, collectives, filmmakers, architects, musicians and performers will participate in Re:emerge, Towards a New Cultural Cartography, which will present over 35 new commissions. YUKO HASEGAWA © Hisashi Kumon. Image courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation. A deep-rooted appreciation for the arts runs in the Eczacıbaşı dynasty, one of Turkey’s most influential families and long recognised for their patronage of the arts. Apart from managing 39 companies under the Eczacıbaşı Group, billionaire Bulent Eczacıbaşı’s commitment to the art scene in his homeland is unwavering. Almost three years ago this prominent patron, whose personal collection comprises over 1000 works, took over the reins of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), established by his late father in 1973. IKSV is the umbrella organisation under which Contemporary Istanbul, the Istanbul Biennial and the Turkish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, among others, all reside. In his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors of IKSV, Eczacıbaşı restructured a financially ailing organisation and secured its positioning as one that fosters the growth of Turkish art locally and internationally. He also introduced the genre of design through the establishment of the Istanbul Design Biennial last October. Today, the fairs, events and activities held under the auspices of IKSV continue to go from strength to strength. Some would argue that she is more Middle Eastern than most, which is partially true: Venetia Porter was born and raised in Beirut, is a fluent Arabic speaker and holds degrees in Islamic Art History from Oxford and Durham. Her Middle Eastern-ness is rooted in her passion and thorough understanding of the region’s art – not to mention her efforts in weaving the Middle East’s rich artistic output into carefully curated exhibitions. The soft- spoken, larger-than-life figure has been working at The British Museum since 1989 and was the curator behind the 2008 Word Into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East , a groundbreaking show that focused on Arabic script. She is credited as one of the pioneers who have secured Contemporary Middle Eastern art’s place on the international stage. Last year, Porter broke ground once again when she curated Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam , an exhibition two years in the making, which saw her travel back and forth to Saudi Arabia to study this sacred Muslim ritual. Porter tapped into private and public collections to present the Hajj from a modern artistic perspective, fulfilling the museum’s founding principle to make collections available and approachable to “the studious and curious [...] both native and foreign”. Porter also oversaw the establishment of an acquisitions committee focused on the Middle East at The British Museum. Endowed with a hefty dose of modesty, she has been quoted as describing her vision as, “It’s not brave. Just do it. It’s pretty easy.” VENETIA PORTER bULENT 50 Image courtesy Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. © Canvas Archives. ECzACIbASI 122 Those who have visited Agial Art Gallery in Hamra know that aside from finding a treasure trove of artworks, there is a walking and talking encyclopaedia of Modern and Contemporary Arab art, one who has the unique ability to transport listeners to specific times and places. No one tells a story quite like Saleh Barakat does. Since its inception over two decades ago, Agial has become a landmark institution in Lebanon, presenting the works of a diverse set of artists from across the Arab world. Barakat’s ultimate aim is simple: to educate the world about the wealth of Arab art – a mission that has seen him play instrumental roles in a number of high-profile projects. He has been influential in the field of Modern Arab art through co-curating Shafic Abboud and Art From Lebanon with Beirut dealer Nadine Begdache at the Beirut Exhibition Center last year. Barakat’s Saloua Raouda Choucair exhibition in 2011 was an overdue survey of the pioneering Abstract artist’s works, and one which caught the attention of the Tate, which is set to stage a retrospective of her works in April. Barakat will also curate the first in a series of exhibitions that explore Abstraction in Modern Arab art at Kuwait’s Contemporary Art Platform in March. The Modern may be his forte, but scouting Contemporary talents is another of his strong points – he trailed the mud huts of Syria’s Al-Hasakah and found Sabhan Adam; zigzagged the labyrinthine refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila and discovered Abdulrahman Katanani and spotted Ayman Baalbaki’s work in Jabal 98 , a group show staged in 1998 in Tripoli, Lebanon. ‘Trailblazer’, ‘powerhouse’ and ‘pioneer’ are just some of the words synonymous with this Lebanese-born dealer, who operates galleries in Beirut and Hamburg. It may be one thing to amass an enviable roster of some of the region’s leading cutting-edge artists, but it is something else altogether to consistently develop their careers. A swift glance at the achievements of artists in Andrée Sfeir-Semler’s stable is telling: no less than six – Walid Raad, Akram Zaatari, Anna Boghiguian, Wael Shawky, Etel Adnan and Rabih Mroué – participated in the last dOCUMENTA; Rayyane Tabet was a Special Prize winner of the Pinchuk Art Centre Future Generation Art Prize in 2012 and is one of the Abraaj Group Art Prize winners this year; Yto Barrada showed at Fotomuseum Winterthur; Raad’s current Preface to the First Edition is the artist’s first in a series of three collaborations with the Louvre, and Akram Zaatari participated in exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. This year, Zaatari represents Lebanon at the Venice Biennale and will stage a solo at New York’s MoMA in May. Sfeir-Semler’s artists also participate in the 11th Sharjah Biennial and in exhibitions celebrating regional art in Marseilles, which is 2013’s European Capital of Culture. Her guidance is key – a quick word with any artists or curators who work with her reveals their deep admiration and respect for a woman who knows good art when she sees it and pushes the confines of appreciating conceptual practices in the region. THE THE POWER 50 THE THE POWER 50 ANDREE SALEH bARAKAT SFEIR - SEMLER © Canvas Archives. Photography by Myrna Ayad. ANDREE 123 Her appreciation for Modern Lebanese art stems from her mother, Janine Rubeiz, a stalwart figure in Lebanon’s cultural scene in the 1960s who founded Dar El-Fan, the country’s first salon-style artistic venue. The ravages of war didn’t halt Rubeiz’s passion and she continued to operate Dar El-Fan from her apartment, assisted by her daughter Nadine Begdache, who met some of Lebanon’s leading cultural figures there. After Rubeiz’s death in 1992, Begdache founded a gallery named after her mother through which she showcases Modern Lebanese art. It is her unrelenting belief that the wealth, depth and breadth of art from this genre should be shared with the Lebanese and general public at large. In support of this conviction, last year Begdache co-curated three exhibitions, celebrating Modern Lebanese art at the Beirut Exhibition Center: Shafic Abboud, Art From Lebanon and Huguette Caland (the first two with Saleh Barakat and the last with the artist’s daughter, Brigitte Caland). Her passion for the Modern has not left her oblivious to the Contemporary, however. On the contrary, Begdache dared to present two live performances, which attracted crowds to her booths at Art Dubai and Abu Dhabi Art: Marya Kazoun’s They Were There at the former and Mazen Kerbaj’s Don’t Feed the Artist at the latter. Last year, the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) marked its 25th anniversary and, in celebration, staged 25 Years of Arab Creativity , a show which tours to Abu Dhabi in March. The woman at the helm of this landmark institution and its pledge to promote Arab culture is Saudi-born Mona Khazindar, who has worked for IMA since its establishment in 1986, and is also its first woman Director General. Khazindar is injecting new life into the institute: last March, IMA put on a highly controversial show, The Body Revealed, which explored nudity in Arab art in a bid to dissipate stereotypes. Earlier this year and in response to the ongoing conflict in Syria, the institute auctioned 101 artworks, raising over $150,000 in aid for victims within the country and for those who have been forced to flee. In April IMA welcomes Tea With Nefertiti from Doha’s Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art– the first exhibition to be exported from the Arab world. Though she lives in the heart of Paris, Khazindar has her finger on the pulse of the Middle Eastern art scene and works to reinforce IMA’s international role: later this year, she will co-host an academic conference co- organised by Mathaf and the Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art. MONA KHAzINDAR NADINE bEGDACHE Image courtesy Art & Patronage Summit. Nadine Begdache with a work by Shafic Abboud. Le Cinéma de Christine 1964. Mixed media on wood. 60 x 35 x 15 cm. Photography by Myrna Ayad. 124 It has been almost two years since Ramin Salsali opened the doors to his eponymous museum in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. During this period, the Iranian-born patron has expanded his collection’s holdings in the genres of Contemporary Middle Eastern and Western art. Indeed, his impact on the regional art scene is not restricted to purchasing power, but rather extends to his patronage through the commissioning of works by the likes of Pantea Rahmani and Reza Derakshani – both of whose shows mark their debut in the Middle East. In addition to sitting on the boards of organisations such as the Sheikha Manal Young Artists Award, Art13 and Art Dubai, Salsali has been honoured thrice by the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al- Maktoum Patron of the Arts Awards. An astute networker and businessman, Salsali is constantly on the go. Contemporary archaeologists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have come a long way since their first solo show, Beirut: Urban Fictions , at Paris’s Institut du Monde Arabe in 1997. Unofficial spokespeople for the dreams of a Lebanese society of yore – now relegated to distant, faded memories – the artist duo has taken to reminding a tortured Lebanese society about its proud history. Tinged with the painful remnants of the Lebanese Civil War and the country’s continued strife, Hadjithomas and Joreige’s work is a response to their homeland’s turmoil. With The Lebanese Rocket Society: Part III, IV, V , they unearthed a forgotten 1960s project, which saw a group of students from Beirut’s Haigazian University create and launch rockets – an unprecedented event in the Arab world. This eclipsed episode in Lebanese history came to Dubai with the artists’ solo show at The Third Line last year, and will be on show in Paris’s In Situ Gallery and New York’s CRG Gallery this spring. The Lebanese Rocket Society film will open in Paris and Beirut in March and April respectively, after showing at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival last year, where it won the Best Documentary Film award. In 2012, Ashkal Alwan held How Soon is Now: A Tribute to Dreamers , the first comprehensive exhibition of the duo’s work in Lebanon at the Beirut Exhibition Center. The pair is the subject of a monograph published by JRP/Ringier and continue to share their passion for “interrogating reality”, which is what brought them together many years ago. RAMIN SALSALI JOANA HADJITHOMAS & KHALIL JOREIGE © Canvas Archives. Image courtesy The Third Line, Dubai. 125 THE POWER 50 Just a day before the vernissage of Edge of Arabia’s We Need to Talk in January 2011, the show’s curator Mohammad Hafiz was as cool as a cucumber, despite the clandestine powers-that-be that were threatening the exhibition’s staging, not to mention his own pre-show anxiety. His sangfroid was mirrored by one of the show’s participating artists, Hamza Serafi, who would casually stroll over his World Carpet installation and rearrange its plastic warning signs. The show was a big deal – for Saudi Arabia, the world and the impressive number of cultural figures who had jetted in from Europe, the Middle East and the USA. It was a landmark exhibition, and while Edge of Arabia deservedly takes credit for its debut on home turf, it is Hafiz and Serafi who have, prior to We Need to Talk and thereafter, exemplified what it really is to strategically champion Contemporary Saudi art. With a foot in his family’s retail business, Hafiz, along with Serafi, who has long been a mentor to Saudi artists, founded Athr Gallery: the Kingdom’s first progressive art space. The pair stage carefully curated exhibitions of an ever-increasing stable of emerging talents and some of the Kingdom’s finest artists – also working to place pieces in important collections, shows and biennials alike. They also hold talks, publish catalogues, participate in international art fairs, engage in philanthropic activities and keep their cool in a country pigeon- holed for its insularity. Athr is a twin-engine on turbo speed, driven by a sincere passion shared by two men and a commendable team whose belief is simple: Saudi art’s got major horsepower. MOHAMMAD HAFIz & HAMzA SERAFI Mohammad Hafiz and Hamza Serafi with a work by Raouf Rifai. Darawichs 2011. Acrylic on canvas. 140 x 180 cm. Image courtesy Athr Gallery, Jeddah. She is one of those dealers who strikes the right balance between employing a sharp business mind and applying a creative approach. None of Isabelle Van Den Eynde’s plans are haphazard. They are strategic and thought-through, especially when the stakes are high. So, when the Belgian-born gallerist put on I Put It There You Name It last March, audiences ooh-ed, aah-ed and gasped. Here was an exhibition by cohabitants Hesam Rahmanian and brothers Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh in which the artists replicated their home within the gallery space. That meant that about 80 per cent of the works on show were not for sale, during one of the year’s peak commercial periods: Art Week, when collectors and museum groups alike flock to the emirate. Van Den Eynde may have opted for an ingenious exhibition over a more profit-making one, but the serious museum interest and prolonged acclamation were part of her strategy. Last June, her gallery was one of two Gulf spaces to participate in Art Basel, where she sold out with Rokni Haerizadeh’s works. In March, Van Den Eynde dares yet again through her participation in The Armory Show with a ‘black cube’: works in her booth will only be visible by torch light. ISAbELLE VAN Art is in this 31 year-old dealer’s DNA, which includes Gene F for Fearless – just look to her maternal aunt, the Damascus gallerist Mona Atassi, for reference. It was one thing for Yasmin Atassi to inherit one of Dubai’s oldest galleries, Green Art, from her late mother Mayla in 2007, but it was another thing altogether to move it to Alserkal Avenue in 2010 and dramatically transform its programming. From a space that promoted Modern Arab art, Atassi’s robust roster now includes Contemporary Turkish, Iranian and Lebanese artists, and most recently, those from Pakistan, Venezuela and Hungary. A voracious reader and a freshman publisher, she presented Brute Ornament , edited by Murtaza Vali last February, that ran alongside an exhibition of the same name. Atassi’s Gene F prompted her to apply to Art Basel last year and the fair’s acceptance letter hangs in her office today. One of only two Gulf galleries to participate in the world’s most important Contemporary art fair, Atassi became mesmerised by the work of Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck and Media Farzin. She went on to present their Chronoscope, 1951, 11pm at the first Moving Image Fair last October, where it won the Moving Image Award and is now part of the Tate collection. YASMIN ATASSI THE POWER 50 50 THE POWER 50 DEN EYNDE © Canvas Archives. © Canvas Archives. In a feature she penned for Artinfo.com last year, Antonia Carver noted: “Today’s art world is also resolutely global – and this is a new reality for many in the West – which means that time zones never sleep, that it’s as important to attend biennials and fairs in Gwangju, Dubai, Hong Kong and Kochi as it is those in London, New York or Paris.” If Carver’s schedule is anything to go by, travelling the globe to attend fairs and biennials, meeting artists at myriad exhibition openings and putting together the region’s biggest art fair, it sounds like the Art Dubai Fair Director has adapted well to the reality of today’s art world. A mother of three, Carver is at the helm of the Middle East’s most eagerly awaited and often-oversubscribed art fair, which, in its last edition, attracted the attendance of 75 museum groups. Since she was appointed Fair Director in August 2010, Carver has introduced more non-commercial activities to Art Dubai, such as the country-focused curated section, Marker , and the A.i.R Dubai project for artists in residence. Despite holding one of the busiest jobs on the regional art scene, the soft-spoken former editor- at-large of Bidoun is the incarnation of grace under fire. ANTONIA CARVER It is something to drum up enough interest on social networking sites and encourage hundreds of people to contribute to an artwork, but Manal Al-Dowayan did just this and more across three cities in Saudi Arabia. Esmi ( My Name ), a large-scale installation of prayer beads that features the names of Saudi women who participated in Al-Dowayan’s call for action, was inspired by a Saudi custom forbidding the very utterance of a woman’s name. Even men lined up to write their daughters’ names on the maple wood beads. Esmi premiered at Edge of Arabia’s We Need to Talk exhibition staged in Jeddah last January, where it stood out – bold, proud and poetic, much like the artist behind it. An excellent orator, Al-Dowayan has spoken at various venues over the last year and has also completed several residencies. Her works – all imbued with nostalgia, nationalism and feminism – have jetted between museum and gallery shows in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, London and Lucerne in 2012 alone. She is not a fan of being exoticised as a Saudi female artist in the media; rather, for her, being Saudi is one thing and being a woman is another – a delicate balance which she treads well. This skill came through powerfully in her talk last December at the conference Harnessing 21st Century Solutions: A Focus on Women , hosted by the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Fittingly, photographs from Al-Dowayan’s I Am series, which features Saudi working class women, currently hang in the William J Clinton Presidential Library. AL - DOWAYAN MANAL Photography by Myrna Ayad. © Canvas Archives. 128 This listing is not dedicated to a single person, but rather to a movement – the artists of Tahrir – whose creative outburst following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 continues to awe and inspire. The rebellion that brought an end to Hosni Mubarak’s decades-long regime unleashed an outpouring of expression by Egyptian artists across all disciplines and ages. These artists went beyond demonstrating in Tahrir – they protested through art and translated their emotions into installations, performances, video, photography, graff