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National
pavilion Arab Emirates La Biennale di Venezia
ammounces
ambitious exhibtion with over 100 works |
Release:
FITZ & CO, New York |
Over 100 diverse works by 15 Emirati artists will create
dialogues across artist practices and explore the emergence of
contemporary art in the UAE over the past four decades.
1980 – Today: Exhibitions in the United
Arab Emirates was conceived as a retrospective on contemporary art
exhibitions in the Emirates over the last 40 years. Through an
unprecedented and dense grouping of over 100 works structured to create
dialogues between artists and across practices, curator Sheikha Hoor Al
Qasimi, President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, will show
the diversity and the history of the art scene in the UAE. Presented by
the National Pavilion United Arab Emirates la Biennale di Venezia at the
56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia,
the exhibition features work by fifteen Emirati artists: Ahmed Al Ansari,
Moosa Al Halyan, Mohammed Al Qassab, Abdul Qader Al Rais, Abdullah Al
Saadi, Mohammed Abdullah Bulhiah, Salem Jawhar, Mohammed Kazem, Dr.
Najat Meky, Abdulraheem Salim, Ahmed Sharif, Hassan Sharif, Obaid Suroor,
Dr. Mohamed Yousif, and Abdulrahman Zainal.
Left Image: Obaid Suroor, Ihmal Al Turath (Negligence of
Heritage), 1994, Courtesy Sharjah Art Museum
Right Image: Najat Meky, Portrait, 1984, Courtesy Sharjah
Art Foundation
“Reflecting our generation’s collective obsession with memory, many
recent exhibitions have been conceived to look at the past in order to
reflect on the present. For these archival exhibitions, curators travel
the world to discover overlooked artists and art scenes, institutions
invest in research, gathering material, and publishing texts. But how do
we connect all the information?,” said Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi. “This
exhibition - and its accompanying publication - invites viewers to make
connections directly between objects, historical archives, and the
collective memory they represent. The resulting discourse is both
personal and collective, and marks the beginning of a much more detailed
and intensive research project.”
Inspired by historic exhibitions in the UAE throughout the 1980s,
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi will structure the exhibition to follow the
aesthetic experience and encourage connections between works. In
addition to thematic groupings, some works will be arranged by artist to
highlight elements of an individual’s practice, while others will be
paired to create complimenting and contrasting dialogues between works.
Rather than following a didactic chronology, the exhibition will create
the sense of wandering through dense collections in conversation with
one another. The works, many on loan from institutions and private
collections as well as from the artists themselves, will demonstrate a
juxtaposition of conceptual and formal approaches, time periods, and
media. The selection of pieces will focus on sharing fundamental stages
of the artists' careers as well as that of the UAE art scene
collectively: Najat Meky and Abdulraheem Salim have primarily worked on
paper or canvas since 1990s, however their earlier practice focused on
sculpture and reliefs; Mohamed Yousif has in recent years been working
with found objects and elements from his natural surroundings, while his
older work included traditional wooden sculptures; and while Abdul Qader
Al Rais is best known today for his landscapes and abstract paintings,
he will exhibit a series of figurative paintings, some dating back to
1968. Works by Hassan Sharif from 1985 incorporating zinc and boiled
linseed oil on canvas will be paired with Notebooks, a series
he has been working on since the early 1980s.
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi’s research relied heavily on the public archives
of the Emirates Fine Art Society (EFAS): a trove of English and Arabic
books on visual art, theatre, and literature, as well as catalogs, photo
albums and copies of Al Tashkeel, EFAS’s newsletter, which has
been published since the 1980s. The Emirates Fine Arts Society is a
non-profit association that was formed in 1980 in Sharjah, and has long
served as a galvanizing incubator for the UAE’s art scene.
“For our fourth exhibition at the International Art Exhibition – La
Biennale di Venezia we are delighted to be working with curator Sheikha
Hoor Al Qasimi," noted Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan, Founder of
the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and the commissioner of the
National Pavilion UAE. "Thanks to her vision and leadership we are able
to share essential works from this key period in the UAE’s art scene and
also to build links for future generations. I applaud her contributions
to the development and advancement of the larger discourse on art from
the region.”
Featuring over 100 works, the exhibition design creatively represents
the subject and theme of the exhibition. In order to maximize the
National Pavilion’s 250 square-meter space and protect the historic
walls of the Arsenale – Sale d'Armi, a custom designed grid of mobile
vertical elements and an elevated floor will be installed. The concept
will combine free-standing modular showcases, a specialised hanging
system, and sunken alcoves to allow for a tailored presentation of
heterogeneous artworks.
Full biographies of each of the participating artists are available
here...
The 56th Venice Biennale runs from 9 May–22 November 2015, with a
preview from 5 May–8 May. The official opening of the National Pavilion
UAE - la Biennale di Venezia is on 7 May at 16:30.
The Curator
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi is President and Director of the Sharjah Art
Foundation. She is a practicing artist who received her BFA from the
Slade School of Fine Art, London (2002), a Diploma in Painting from the
Royal Academy of Arts (2005) and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from
the Royal College of Art, London (2008). In 2003 she was appointed
curator of Sharjah Biennial 6 and has continued as the Biennial’s
Director since that time. She is Chair of the Advisory Board for the
College of Art and Design, University of Sharjah; and Member of the
Advisory Board of both the Khoj International Artists’ Association,
India and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. She serves on
the Board of Directors for MoMA PS1, New York; KW Institute for
Contemporary Art, Berlin; the International Biennial Association,
Gwangju; and Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi is the first
Emirati to be appointed as the curator for the National Pavilion UAE la
Biennale di Venezia.
National Pavilion UAE at
la Biennale di Venezia
The National Pavilion UAE was established to endorse the UAE’s
contemporary art practices on an international platform and provide a
foundation to support the nation’s diverse and developing cultural scene.
The UAE’s participation at la Biennale di Venezia commenced in 2009 with
a national pavilion at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, and has
continued in subsequent editions of the art exhibition since. 2014
marked the UAE’s first participation at the International Architecture
Exhibition.
he National Pavilion UAE la Biennale di Venezia is commissioned by the
Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, and supported by the UAE
Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development.
www.nationalpavilionuae.org
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