Once again, a large number of international artists, gallerists, and creatives have gathered in Manarat Al Saadiyat for the opening of Abu Dhabi Art on Wednesday at 5 pm. The festival brings together an astonishing variety of carefully curated gallery sectors, workshops, talks, and installations, converting the city into an enthralling celebration of art from Marrakesh to the metaverse.
This year, as Louvre Abu Dhabi celebrates its fifth anniversary, coming at the event in the center of Saadiyat Cultural District is a poignant experience with views overlooking the Zayed National Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Natural History Museum, which are all starting to take shape.
The area demonstrates Abu Dhabi’s dedication to developing thought-provoking intellectual and cultural platforms, according to Rita Aoun, Executive Director of Culture at the Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi.
“Abu Dhabi Art has been a major initiative of the Department of Culture and Tourism for the past 14 years. It has substantially contributed to the growth of Abu Dhabi’s creative industries. How did it succeed? By acting as a magnet to draw and support creators, cultural practitioners, and artists,” Aoun claims.
Bouchra Boudoua, a Moroccan artist, and the UAE social enterprise 81 Designs presents a collection of embroidered ceramics in the theater. The artist and local potters in Morocco created the earthy ceramic collection Autumn Harvest before shipping it to the Ain Al Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, where Palestinian refugees added embroidery made of raffia fiber.
Jade Yesim Turanli, another of this year’s guest curators, has developed a gallery area highlighting Turkish art. Turanli explains her strategy as follows, “I specifically selected the galleries that support the careers of their artists and provide a clear path for the future.”
It is telling that there is such a large collection of modern and contemporary art from Iran, the Arab world, and North Africa. Christie’s reported earlier this month that it had made $3 million from the sale of modern and contemporary art from the Middle East. “There is a considerably higher volume of people that are interested in art for the Middle East, internationally,” Christie’s associate specialist of Middle Eastern art, Suzy Sikorski, told The National at the time.
According to Moore, there is an overall tendency in the art world where international museum directors attempt to include more artists of regional significance, particularly in the setting of the global mid-20th century.
