Art Dubai, Dubai - Gallery news: Art Dubai Announces Its Global Art Forum Fellows 2012

Art Dubai Announces Its Global Art Forum Fellows 2012

In response to the Global Art Forum’s theme of ‘The Medium of Media’, the Forum
Fellows returns in 2012 as an intensive writing workshop and a series of closed-door,
round-table discussions, culminating in a public presentation to be staged on the final
day of the Forum in Dubai (Saturday, March 24, 2pm). Organized by the critics
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and Murtaza Vali, the program brings together a dynamic
group of writers, including artists, curators and cultural practitioners who consider
writing a crucial part of their practice.
This year’s fellows are writer Rayya Badran (Beirut), critic and curator Jyoti
Dhar (Delhi and Dubai), artist Shahira Issa (Cairo) and writer and curator Rijin
Sahakian (founder of Echo/Sada for Contemporary Iraqi Art).
The Forum Fellows invites a number of people from the wider art fair community to
join in debates about the tensions and pressures that are brought upon writing in its
varied forms: criticism, journalism and as an artistic practice. Of particular interest is
the struggle to keep pace with the present without forsaking history as a crucial
resource for critical reflection.
The Forum Fellows programme also includes an intensive writing workshop, with the
participants producing and critiquing short texts on a daily basis.
The fellowship program comes to an end on the last day of the Global Art Forum with
a public presentation. The form of the presentation itself will be determined by the
fellows during their time together as an exercise in coming up with a dynamic way to
present written material in real time.
Notes to Editors:
The current edition of the Forum Fellows has been conceived, in part, as a response
to Oraib Toukan’s White Elephant, commissioned by Art Dubai Projects in 2011,
which turned a piece of prime art-fair real estate into a refuge and a void. In modest
fashion, the fellowship program hopes to fill in (and test out) the metaphoric space that
Toukan’s piece created in 2011.
Forum Fellows Biographies:
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie is a writer and critic based in Beirut. She is a contributing
editor for Bidoun, writes a column for Frieze, contributes regularly to Artforum, and
covers contemporary art and culture for the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star. Shehas written numerous essays for journals, anthologies, and exhibition catalogues.
Murtaza Vali is a critic, curator and Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. A
recipient of a 2011 Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-
Form Writing, Vali is a Contributing Editor for Ibraaz.org and ArtAsiaPacific, edited
Manual for Treason for Sharjah Biennial X and curated ‘Brute Ornament’, on view
March 19 - May 5, 2012 at Green Art Gallery, Dubai.
Rayya Badran (b. 1984, Beirut, Lebanon) is a writer based in Beirut. Her first
publication, Radiophonic Voice(s) was published by Ashkal Alwan during Homeworks
5 in 2010. She is currently working on short form sound pieces including (In)action.
Shahira Issa (b.1982) is currently working on a long-term project that explores the
tension between artistic impulses and notions of culture that inform the circulation of
artworks. In 2008, Issa co-founded Pericentre Projects that developed the ongoing
project Kharita. In 2009, she was nominated for the 5th Bonaldi Art Prize. Issa lives
and works in Cairo.
Jyoti Dhar is currently Rapporteur and Editor of Sarai’s City as Studio 02 project in
Delhi. She was Critic-in-Residence for KHOJ’s residency on Art, Science and Ecology
and curated ‘In Decay’, Ralf Ziervogel’s solo at Carbon 12 gallery in Dubai. She
regularly contributes to ArtAsiaPacific and Harper’s Bazaar Art.
Rijin Sahakian (b. 1978, Baghdad, Iraq) has developed multidisciplinary arts
programs in the United States and internationally. She received her M.A. in
Contemporary Art and Policy from New York University. She was awarded a graduate
Fulbright Fellowship in Amman, Jordan, where she was also a visiting scholar at the
Columbia University Middle East Research Center. Sahakian founded Sada (Echo) for
Contemporary Iraqi Art in 2010, which she currently directs.

Forum Fellows 2011
In 2011, the Forum Fellows programme was launched with a focus on five cities --
Antakya, Dhaka, Karachi, Jerusalem and Tehran. Art Dubai’s Curatorial Advisory
Board and other leading curators, artists and gallerists nominated young curators and
arts administrators to take part; the selected candidates (who attended the Forum and
took part in presentations), included: Emrah Gökdemir (Antakya), Salauddin
Ahmed (Dhaka), Mirna Bamieh (Jerusalem), Sumbul Khan (Karachi), Sohrab M.
Kashani (Tehran) and Noor Al Suwaidi (Abu Dhabi).
Contact:

Art Dubai
Farah Atoui, Press and Marketing Manager
farah@artdubai.ae
+971 4 384 2009
artdubai.ae
To register for Art Dubai 2012 press accreditation please go to:
http://artdubai.ae/accreditation
Art Dubai
Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-
President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai
Over the last five years, Art Dubai, the leading international art fair in the MENASA
(Middle East/North Africa/South Asia), has become a cornerstone of the region’s
booming contemporary art community. In 2011, Art Dubai welcomed 20,000 visitors,
including 60 international museums groups.
The sixth edition of Art Dubai takes place March 21-24, 2012, at Madinat Jumeirah,
and features 75 galleries from 32 countries, in addition to a new programme of artists’
and curators’ residencies, commissioned projects and performances, workshops, the
unveiling of the works by Abraaj Capital Art Prize winners, and the critically acclaimed,
six-day Global Art Forum.
Art Dubai is held in partnership with Abraaj Capital and sponsored by Cartier. Madinat
Jumeirah, on Dubai’s beachfront, is home to the event.