ForYourArt™ | KNOW | INTERVIEW WITH ANTONIA CARVER, EDITOR OF BIDOUN

KNOW	INTERVIEWS

Interview with Antonia Carver, Editor of Bidoun

ForYourArt invited Marisa Mazria-Katz, a NYC-based journalist, to blog on the art scene in the Middle East

Antonia Carver is editor-at-large of Bidoun magazine and manager of Bidoun Projects. Based in Dubai, she is a correspondent for The Art Newspaper and contributes to books, newspapers and magazines about contemporary art and film in the Middle East. Publications include With/Without: Spatial Products, Practices and Politics in the Middle East (editor, with Shumon Basar and Markus Miessen, Bidoun/Moutamarat, 2007) and BLINK (editor, Phaidon, 2002). Antonia is also a programmer for the Edinburgh and Dubai International Film Festivals, and a member of the Artist Pension Trust Intelligence Network.

1) What do you think precipitated the wave of enthusiasm for art currently overtaking the Middle East?

Contemporary Iranian and Arab artists – those living in and out of the region – have been making an impact internationally since the late 1990s, and grassroots initiatives in the region that had begun changing the way people began to connect with contemporary art. Having said that, it's almost impossible to generalize about the region, given the diversity, and the huge differences between the arts scenes in Cairo, Baghdad and Abu Dhabi, for example. On the commercial side, there have of course been mini-markets in cities like Cairo and Beirut, but Dubai has – dramatically – established itself as a commercial art capital in the last 2-3 years. This has meant that for the first time, in commercial terms at least, it's possible to refer to "Middle Eastern art," and compare this nascent market with India, China, Latin America, and so on.

2) Could you identify the turning point?

There have been a few: in terms of exhibitions and the production of art in the region (rather than artists having to seek grants and exhibit in Europe or the U.S.), Beirut's Home Works, a biennial curated 'festival' focusing on new work organized by Ashkal Alwan, began in 2002, and in 2003 Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi took over the Sharjah Biennial and transformed it from a provincial painting show into an international commissioning event. In terms of the market, Christie's held its first auction in Dubai of Middle Eastern, Indian and Western modern and contemporary art in May 2006 and made $4.7 million, doubling expectations – this marked the beginning of a surge of interest from locals and expat collectors in regional art. Since then, Christie's has sold over $100 million worth of art and jewelry in Dubai. The last sale included four works over $1 million, including Parviz Tanavoli's The Wall (Oh Persepolis), which sold for $2.8 million, a record for a Middle eastern work at auction. The announcement of the Guggenheim and other museums in Abu Dhabi will be a turning point, but we'll have to see how that pans out. Art Dubai, the art fair, began in 2007 and thanks to the ambition of the team there, set out to be a professional, international fair from the start. It doubled this year to over 70 galleries.

3) Were there any particular people you feel were responsible for the momentum?

A lot of people – but nearly all individuals, acting as entrepreneurs or just aiming to boost their cities and the way local artists are received and discussed, rather than governments or institutions. Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi and Jack Persekian of the Sharjah Biennial, Ashkal Alwan's Christine Tohme, Sunny Rahbar, Omar Ghobash and Claudia Cellini of The Third Line in Dubai (the Gulf's most professional gallery that's ambitious both in a commercial capacity and transforming the local arts scene), William Wells of Cairo's Townhouse Gallery, Zeina Arida and the team at the Arab Image Foundation, Amman's Darat Al Funun... And of course, phenomenal artists – Emily Jacir, Hassan Khan, Akram Zaatari, Farhad Moshiri, Walid Raad, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Tarek Al Goussein, Yto Barrada and so many others have really driven things forward in terms of innovative practice.

4) What has Bidoun's role been in the art scene in the Gulf and the wider Middle East?

We launched in 2003 as a magazine, aiming for the first time to provide a platform for discussion and the exchange of ideas about art, film and contemporary thought across the region, through the diaspora and the wider arts community. We have since morphed into an organization that publishes books and curates projects as well as producing a quarterly. We work in an innovative, international way: while the magazine is designed in New York, the editors are in Dubai, Cairo, Beirut and New York, and we rely on a collective of artists, writers, filmmakers, etc, all over the world, commissioning new art as well as writing for each, themed issue. Our geographical spread and deliberately rootless approach reflects the wider Middle Eastern experience and the international, transitional make-up of Gulf communities in particular.

5) Could you compare the development of the art community there to any other city?

No, not really. It's hard to think of another city where the art scene has developed in such a mixed-up, jumbled-up way and at such a pace. With the art fair and the auction houses, it has become established incredibly quickly as a commercial capital and serves as a surrogate art capital for many Tehran-based artists. Dubai seems to sprout a new gallery every couple of months. But most of the art dealt is from elsewhere – mainly Beirut, Cairo and Tehran – all of which have vibrant arts scenes of their own but increasingly rely on Dubai as a commercial window to the international world. The development of Dubai as an art capital for the region follows Dubai's role as a business and media center and its historical role as a trading post. Its close proximity and business ties with Iran, and the vibrancy – yet increasing isolation – of the Tehran arts scene meant that it could trade on the growing popularity of Iranian art among Iranian expats (following the pattern set by the Indian contemporary art market) but also for others based in the Gulf and elsewhere.

But the idea of "art for art's sake" is still in its infancy in Dubai and there are still no public exhibition venues, museums or commissioning bodies – although Sharjah has a plethora of museums, Abu Dhabi its Cultural Foundation, and Qatar the new Museum of Islamic Art with many other institutions planned.

6) What is your forecast for the art world in the Middle East, particularly the Gulf, ten years from now?

In an ideal world, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be commissioning really interesting new projects from artists based in the region, lecture series, and so on, and somehow, attracting local and international audiences that are drawn into debates around the work, while the Sharjah Biennial would be strengthened further and continue in its crucial role as a supporter of experimental, new, international practice. The international media will not be fixating on which nude the Louvre Abu Dhabi has declined to hang but will be excited by innovative displays and exhibiting artists' engagement with contemporary thought, or particular ideas within Islamic art, for example. The market will settle and grow steadily, and widen to take in conceptual artists, now that there are keen, broad-minded institutional buyers. The "state" will broaden its support and feel confident enough to allow artists to be artists rather than marketers, while the (current) mini-Medicis will continue to play their key, independent role and be joined by many others benefiting from the surge in petrodollars. Abroad, galleries and museums will finally exhibit the work of artists from the region in solo shows and group exhibitions that are themed around something other than religion and/or geography. Am I dreaming? Maybe. Maybe it's best just to wish for the commissioning of real, innovative public art and support for organizations that foreground curatorial practices, critical thought and the production of interesting, new work with integrity. Whatever happens, it'll be a fascinating decade that could see the Middle East join China, India et al in shifting the rickety old goalposts put up by Europe and America.