Miami Beach Premier international art show - Modern and Contemporary artworks - 300 1international middle eastern galleries -art Over 2000 artists - 60,000 visitors - 39th edition - Thought-provoking panel discussions - Canvas looks back at Art Basel 2008 2 panel discussion 1 arab art 2 panel discussion 65 1 middle eastern art the near east in south beach A survey of art from the Middle East and Arab world at Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 Detail of Kader Attia’s Untitled work at Galerie Christian Nagel. TE X T A N D P H O T O G R A P H Y BY M Y R N A AYA D Lulu Al-Sabah. Mona Hatoum’s Every Door a Wall at Galerie Chantal Crousel. One could not ignore Kader Attia’s e magnetising artwork at Cube by Mona Hatoum at Galerie Max Hetzler. very Art Basel fair features a predominance of Galerie Christian Nagel. select artists. Despite the credit crunch and its varying effects on the art market, the likes Middle Eastern names, they are born and bred in the West of some of the art world’s big wigs – Jean and consider themselves Western through and through. Dubuffet, Fernando Botero, Joan Miró and John Chamberlain One of Dubai’s leading galleries, The Third Line, made – appeared in full force at the 2008 edition of Art Basel Miami its freshman foray into the ABMB scene through its participation Beach (ABMB). Wherever one turned, Chamberlain’s colourful at the fair’s Art Supernova section, where 20 galleries have an sculptures made out of parts from old automobiles came into interconnected space as opposed to separate booths, created view; the Helly Nahmad Gallery’s grand solo presentation of with the aim of linking galleries in an experimental group show. Dubuffet’s works was also hard to miss, while chubby Botero The 22 satellite fairs happening alongside ABMB also featured figures and Miró’s distinct Surrealist paintings arguably works from the region; participating at Scope were (among occupied one too many gallery booths. Scattered among a other galleries) New York’s Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller and number of galleries were works by Picasso, Léger and Stella, Oman’s Al-Tarhal. At Design Miami, Kenny Schachter presented perhaps occupying second place in terms of ubiquity at a dazzling display of Zaha Hadid furniture pieces and Kuwait’s ABMB’s seventh edition. very own “Sheikh of Chic”, Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah, owner and founder of the Villa Moda fashion chain, debuted the Arabia in Miami Alef exhibition highlighting pieces from the Al-Sabah Art and Of the 250-plus participating galleries, 13 featured works by Design Collection at the Chatham/Mosaic Building in Miami’s artists from the Middle East and Arab world. Some galleries Design District. The Collection is set to launch at the DIFC like the New York-based Paula Cooper Gallery and the Gate Village during Art Dubai 2009. Sheikh Majed’s branching London-based Anthony Reynolds Gallery (both of whom out from the fashion world featured the Bokja furniture line, represent Lebanese artist Walid Raad), showed Raad’s work created by Lebanese designers Huda Baroudi and Maria Hibri, in Basel but chose not to bring his work to Miami. The trek Dutch designer Pieke Bergman’s marquetry work with glass around the fair scouting for works by Middle Eastern artists and Dubai-based Lebanese designer Nadine Kanso’s Bil Arabi was indeed a long and arduous one; while some artists have jewellery line (featured in Canvas 4.5). Sheikh Majed managed 67 1 middle eastern art to infuse a truly Arabian feel to Samia Saouma of Galerie Max the space – from the California Hetzler. The gallery had sold dates on offer to the burning Hatoum’s Cube (one of three incense, with Kanso’s display editions) to a Latin American even incorporating Arabian collector for $212,000 on the coffee cups. fair’s opening day. Not so much Looking in ABMB’s luck at Nordenhake; the gallery CRG Gallery booth, one would displayed one of Hatoum’s best- assume there was a single known works, Incommunicado, image contained within the priced at $300,000. “She’s a copious number of frames good artist,” says the gallery’s in 180 Seconds, a work by Claes Nordenhake, “we’ve Incommunicado by Mona Hatoum at Galerie Nordenhake. Lebanese husband and wife worked with her since 2000 and team, Joana Hadjithomas and bringing this piece is not about Khalil Joreige. Joreige had If there were an ABMB award the fair’s audience.” While not found a video made by his for most featured works by too optimistic about the fair late uncle, who disappeared a Middle Eastern artist, it as a whole, given the current during the Lebanese war, and would go to Mona Hatoum. economic crisis, Nordenhake printed each of the video’s noted the low number of slides, thereby building on the artwork’s allegorical message. European collectors, adding that, “it’s worse than we expected. Reflecting memory and loss, the gallery’s Glenn McMillan We couldn’t pull out and we would lose face if we did.” feels that “[180 Seconds] is a perfect metaphor for memory Indeed, the art world held its breath before the ABMB and it is palpable, too.” The edition of five, sold to a European fair. Speculators anticipated negative results given the shadow collector and priced at $35,000, drew crowds largely due to its of economic gloom and the handful of attending collectors. “I physical and mysterious appeal. One edition had been sold to came with low expectations,” said Chantal Crousel, “in the a French movie director and another to a museum in France. present situation, you cannot anticipate or expect.” And yet, “The American world is so lacking in exposure to Lebanon,” Crousel’s Hatoum artwork Every Door a Wall (an edition of six) believes McMillan, who noted the “slow and discerning” sold to a Mexican collector for $53,000. “I suppose it [Every buying behaviour at ABMB. Owned by three partners, one of Door a Wall] appeals to the public in the USA because it is whom is Lebanese, CRG sold more than expected at ABMB. about crossing borders and the whole issue of immigration.” Through dramatic images and anonymous silhouettes, the Hatoum’s Haul artwork combines beauty and appeal while conveying its If there were an ABMB award for most featured works by a message: either go through the wall or stop behind it. For Middle Eastern artist, it would go to Mona Hatoum. Besides Crousel, Hatoum’s success is “based on experience and regular appearances at Basel shows, Palestinian-born speaks to all,” and as for the Middle Eastern art scene, “Hatoum Hatoum was represented by a number of galleries at ABMB – was already there before Middle Eastern art got hot.” New York’s Alexander and Bonin Gallery, Berlin’s Galerie Max There is a plethora of interpretations that Hatoum’s Hetzler, Stockholm’s Galerie Nordenhake and Paris’s Galerie Round and Round piece at Alexander and Bonin could trigger. Chantal Crousel. “She’s just so good. She has a unique The gallery’s Amy Levin points at the wit in Round and Round, language people can relate to. Formally, it’s impeccable,” noted “there is humour in using toys; it’s not all serious,” she says, 68 1 middle eastern art noting the public’s curiosity towards the piece, an edition of the sale of Farhad Moshiri’s Run Like Hell, which made its eight, priced at $50,000. Known for scouring flea markets and way to the paper’s front page. Paris/Miami Galerie Emmanuel using actual objects, Hatoum is “very hands-on” in terms of Perrotin discovered Moshiri in 2007 and took quite a leap of production and has frequently used toy soldiers in her artworks. faith in showing only two works by the Iranian artist at ABMB’s Also represented by the gallery is Palestinian-born Emily Jacir, VIP day. “I adore it [Run Like Hell]. It’s funny and ironic at the whose subtle photograph Afternoon in Sido’s House with Anton same time. People actually get scared of it because of the real depicts the atmosphere of afternoons spent at her grandfather’s knives used,” said the gallery’s Nathalie Brambilla. Measuring home amidst Arabic coffee and rich conversation. Jacir’s work 200 x 450cm, the imposing piece, a cherry cake made of oil, does not regularly appear at Basel fairs, largely due to the sell- acrylic and glitter on canvas using cake decorating utensils, out of her smaller work and her renown for larger installations. was sold to a Belgian collector for $250,000. An American collector bought a production still by Oh Persia Shirin Neshat from New York’s Gladstone Gallery. The image, The Art Newspaper’s Miami Beach daily edition covered from Neshat’s upcoming, much-anticipated feature film, was a various aspects of the Middle East in its 4 December issue. crowd-puller because of the unfamiliarity of the character. “She An article reported the informal acquisitions team set up for [Neshat] is divine, beautiful, articulate and charming,” said the the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, appointed by Tom Krens, the gallery’s Barbara Gladstone. “She has absorbed both cultures Guggenheim Foundation’s former director and now senior and has retained her ‘Iranian-ness’.” While Neshat’s earlier advisor for international projects. The team, comprising 12 work featured charged subjects and carried heavy tones, her curators, includes Sharjah Biennial’s Jack Persekian, Cairo- newer work continues to bridge cultures in a subtle manner. based director of the Townhouse Gallery William Wells and Beirut-based Christine Tohme, director “I adore it [Run Like Hell]. It’s funny of the arts organisation Ashkal Alwan, among and ironic at the same time. People others. Then there was a full-page advertisement actually get scared of it because on the upcoming Sharjah Biennial, a clear of the real knives used.” – Nathalie indication of the biennial’s participation in the Brambilla, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin international art fair scene. And finally, there was on Farhad Moshiri’s artwork. Farhad Moshiri’s Run Like Hell at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin; artwork detail on adjacent image. 69 1 middle eastern art Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s 180 Seconds at CRG Gallery. Cairo-born Ghada Amer and Iranian artist Reza Farkhondeh were flatmates in New York and produced Detail of Ghada Amer’s Leila at Kukje Gallery. collective work which was exhibited at the Kukje Gallery alongside solo work by Amer. “You get a strong sense of The North African Contingent shared dialogue in this organic piece,” said the gallery’s One could not ignore Kader Attia’s magnetising artwork Jaime Schwartz of Do not Ruin the Day, which incorporates at Galerie Christian Nagel. The 250 x 150 x 25cm stainless Amer’s signature stitching and Farkhondeh’s love for pattern steel work, while instantly intriguing, possessed a seemingly imagery. Do not Ruin the Day retailed at $25,000, while Amer’s aggressive facet, largely due to its jagged, cyclical twirl. “It’s Leila was priced at $100,000. Schwartz felt a difference in this a frozen moment in the universe with a violent component to year’s fair given the current economic downturn. “It hasn’t it,” said the gallery’s Florian Baron, “and he [Attia] does so been doom and gloom but it’s not fantastic either,” she said. in a very stylish way of course.” Mysterious and reflective of For her, Amer’s success and appeal is simply due to “the type the unknown, Attia’s work certainly turned heads at the fair, of work and not the artist’s background.” but for the ABMB audience, the piece was “more of a design When surveying Basel fairs, Western galleries object.” While relatively unknown in the USA, the Algerian- representing Middle Eastern artists can be classified into one born Paris-based artist has shown at the Seattle Art Museum of two categories – those that do not place importance on an and Baron believes that Attia is “more a museum guy.” Having artist’s background and thereby deem art as art, regardless met the artist in Basel three years ago, Baron applauds Attia’s of the artist’s nationality; and those that do, believing in the “fearlessness” in creating big sculptural work. artwork or artist’s ‘appeal’ due to the artist’s roots. While Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi can be considered an Art both categories convey valid rationales, the fact remains that Basel ‘regular’. Hinting at the theme of Orientalism, Essaydi’s the Middle East is at the front of gallerists’ minds thanks to photographs of women covered in henna writings aroused the its standing as the next emerging art market. Through the ABMB audience’s curiosity. The triptych, sold at $18,500 from growing number of Middle Eastern initiatives, activities and Essaydi’s Les Femmes du Maroc series possesses “a sense exhibitions in the global art scene, the art world is taking note of exoticism,” according to the gallery’s Edwynn Houk. The of the region’s focus on art and culture. From one Basel fair creation of her photographs is a long and laborious procedure to the next, one can sense an increasing level of interest in which Essaydi approaches, “like a performance.” Houk believes the region and its art, and with that, stereotypes are erased, people are attracted to Essaydi’s work because she is Middle media-placed political labels diminish, art appreciation and Eastern, a region that “is the most mysterious and exotic” education are cultivated and art does what it is meant to do: for the American public, who are avid collectors of her work. inform and inspire. 70 2 panel discussion changing perceptions Canvas organises panel discussion at Art Basel Miami Beach Moderator Judith Greer, artists Lara Baladi and Shirin Neshat, representative from the commissions office from the UAE pavilion for the Venice Biennale, Dr Lamees Hamdan and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Canvas magazine Ali Khadra. Through her work, Baladi not only demonstrated the gravity of the Red City’s construction in the face of human carelessness, but also TE X T A N D P H O T O G R A P H Y BY M Y R N A AYA D reflected a deep-rooted passion: here j is a Contemporary Middle Eastern udging by the nature of questions after the hour-long artist, moved by people’s plight and Canvas-organised talk, Will Art Transform the Face of making it heard through her art. the Middle East? it was evident that the panel’s chosen Greer kicked off the discussion by pitching the subject was appropriate for a Western audience at one question: which face of the Middle East is being tackled? of North America’s most important fairs. “Are there Western Cairo-based Baladi then showed a presentation of the work artists whose art is influenced by the Middle East?” and “Will she would be showing at the Cairo Biennial, a response to the Arabian Gulf be an artistic centre like Miami is?” were issues such as censorship and lack of freedom of speech. just some of the questions which tackled the crossover of “It’s all kinds of constraints put on us from various authorities,” artistic trends and developments between East and West and continued Baladi, whose body of work is a retort to the illegal the international contextualisation of the Middle Eastern art construction and poor living conditions of Egypt’s Red City on scene. Moderated by author and art collector, Judith Greer, the outskirts of Cairo. Voicing her concerns on a facet of the the panellists included Canvas Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Middle East that is left unaddressed by relevant authorities, Ali Khadra, prominent artists Shirin Neshat and Lara Baladi, the Lebanese/Egyptian artist chose to compare the Red City and Dubai-based Dr Lamees Hamdan from the commissioner to “what is probably the most expensive real estate project office of the UAE pavilion for the Venice Biennale. taking place in central Cairo.” Through her work, Baladi not 71 2 panel discussion the merit of Middle Eastern artists. “Auctions and art fairs are how [Middle Eastern] artists are perceived, and they are not the best venue to learn about artists,” she noted, highlighting the incorrect assumption that “if you sell for a lot of money, you’re a good artist and vice versa.” Laudable as they are, while the Gulf’s activities and planned projects have put the region on the world map in terms of culture (among other things), Khadra drew attention to the broadness and diversity that comprises the region. “From a publishing perspective, we look at a larger scope of the Middle East, which includes Turkey and Iran,” he added, going on to explain that the public and private sectors of the region have worked in collaboration with Canvas to “let everybody on the international circuit spread the word on Middle Eastern “Auctions and art fairs are how [Middle art.” Khadra went on to discuss the region’s cultural wealth Eastern] artists are perceived, and they are in terms of undiscovered talents, patrons, collectors, galleries not the best venue to learn about artists,” she [Neshat] noted, highlighting the incorrect and more, who work in synergy and promise prolonged assumption that “if you sell for a lot of achievement for the world’s next emerging market. money, you’re a good artist and vice versa.” On the topic of public and private sectors, Hamdan addressed the cultural initiatives set forth by the UAE’s private only demonstrated the gravity of the Red City’s construction sector. “While it is in fact the public sector who can afford to in the face of human carelessness, but also reflected a deep- build the museums and so on, the private sector is as important rooted passion: here is a Contemporary Middle Eastern artist, for the grass roots projects,” she said. Given that the UAE has moved by people’s plight and making it heard through her art. only recently celebrated its 37th anniversary of nationhood, On the world stage, Iranian-born Neshat is perhaps Hamdan added that it was a “natural progression” for the the best known artist as far as the Middle East is concerned. country to celebrate art and culture now. Noting the fact that she is an artist from the region but one that So will all of the above lead to a greater openness? Will is also part of the great Diaspora, Neshat emphasised that it provoke freedom of expression? her work accordingly “has a very distant relationship from Iran “Finally I can show my work in my region, to be part because I am psychologically, physically, intellectually and of the community that I belong to. It’s an incredible wave of logically not there.” In bringing this point to the fore, the New energy, intellectually and artistically and I want to be a part of York-based artist touched on another facet of the Middle East: it,” expressed Neshat. “The centre of the art world is still the the categorisation of artists and their work being reflective West and it is generally in [Middle Eastern] private sectors that of their nations. “You must go to Iran to see what it’s like to things are growing,” added Baladi. Hopeful and ambitious as be an artist living in Iran,” continued Neshat, “I am not that the panel was, the objective of this discussion was essentially person.” Currently in the final editing stages of her upcoming to educate and inspire the public. An audience member made movie, Women Without Men, based on the novella by Iranian a comment on US president Barack Obama’s foreign policy: author Shahrnush Parsipur, Neshat commended the cultural “We have a rare opportunity for somebody to get this president initiatives being set in the Middle East but sounded a word of [Obama] involved in the art we are talking about now.” Suffice caution on the “economic” determining factors that classify to say, it seems the public understood the panel’s message. 72
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