Weekly News Roundup: November 24, 2023
By The Editors
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General view of Art Dubai 2023, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Spark Media. Courtesy Art Dubai.
Art Dubai Announces 2024 Exhibitors
For its 17th edition, the Art Dubai art fair named the 100-plus exhibitors slated to exhibit at the beachfront Madinat Jumeirah hotel from March 1–3, 2024, with preview days on February 28–29. Hailing from more than 60 cities across 40 countries, galleries participate across four major sections: Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba, and the third-edition of Art Dubai Digital. The fair’s artistic director Pablo del Val noted that 60-percent of artists and galleries are from the Global South, while the programming this year will seek to expand this concept beyond national boundaries. The section on emerging galleries, Bawwaba, comprises solo presentations curated by Emiliano Valdés, chief curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Medellin, Colombia, around the theme of healing. This year’s Modern section, curated by Christianna Bonin, an assistant professor of art history at the American University of Sharjah, focuses on artists and filmmakers from Africa, and West and South Asia who participated in cultural exchange programmes with the Soviet Union and how it impacted their practices. The Contemporary section is highlighted by 21 participants from Dubai, the largest number to date in the fair’s history as the emirate remains a growing commercial destination for the region.
KABELO MALATSIE (far left), Director of Kunsthalle Bern at Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2022, Day 1. Courtesy Experimenter Curator’s Hub.
Experimenter Curator’s Hub to Open
The 13th edition of the Experimenter Curator’s Hub is set to be held on November 24 and 25 at Experimenter gallery, located in Kolkata. The event brings together curators across the globe to provide a platform for the expansion and reinvigoration of curatorial thinking. Participating curators will include Inti Guerrero, artistic director for the 24th Biennale of Sydney, and Sharareh Bajracharya, co-artistic director of Kathmandu Triennale 2077. Natasha Ginwala, a curator and writer who is currently an associate curator at Berlin’s Gropius Bau, will moderate the discussion. Meanwhile, journalist and poet-writer Jacinta Kerketta, who documents and brings visibility to the struggles of Adivasi communities through her work, will act as the guest speaker for the event. The Hub is structured as an intensive program, inviting curators to present their practice and facilitate conversation surrounding resistance and activism in contemporary art. Audience members are welcome to converse and participate in the event’s critical discussion and debate.
Portrait of EUNHEE LEE (left) and ALAA MANSOUR (right). Courtesy Han Nefkens Foundation.
Han Nefkens Foundation Names Grant Winners
On November 21, Eunhee Lee, a Korean experimental video artist and documentary filmmaker, was awarded the Han Nefkens Foundation’s USD 15,000 Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Grant, while Alaa Mansour, a Lebanese artist, filmmaker, and archivist received the Foundation’s Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant, also worth USD 15,000. Both artists will have nine months to complete new video projects, to be presented by the institutions who have collaborated on the grant, including the Barcelona-based foundations Fundació Joan Miró and Fundació Antoni Tàpies. The Hans Nefkens Foundation will receive a long-term loan of Lee’s work before it is displayed at the MoCA Taipei, ILHAM in Kula Lumpur, Art Hub Copenhagen, and Beijing’s Inside Out Art Museum. Meanwhile, Mansour’s video will be presented at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore, the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, the MCAD in Manila, and the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai.
EMIN OZMEN, from Curved Line series, 2022, archival print, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.
Jimei x Arles Festival Releases Schedule
The Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival has announced that its ninth edition will be held from December 15, 2023, to January 21, 2024 at Jimei Art Centre and Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre (TSPAC), as well as galleries and art schools across Xiamen. This year, the festival will introduce the “Isles Project.” Themed “Art is Never Alone” Jimei x Arles will showcase over 100 international artists in 32 exhibitions, co-organized by the newly-instituted Arts Committee. The Committee comprises members from the festival’s co-initiators and hosts, including Les Rencontres d’Arles director Christoph Wiesner, TSPAC’s co-founder RongRong, and TSPAC executive director Yan Qi, as well as photography critic Gu Zheng, and Singapore International Photography Festival and DECK founder-director Gwen Lee. The festival will also present two prizes worth USD 14,000, the Discovery Award for promoting Chinese talent on an international stage, and a Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Image for emerging Chinese artists, curators, and researchers.
