Bardaouil and Fellrath curate UAE’S emerging artists in Abu Dhabi Art
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi Art has announced that the guest curators for its 2021 Beyond: Emerging Artists programme will be Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, co-founders of multidisciplinary curatorial plaform Art Reoriented. They have chosen three Uae-based emerging artists - Hashel Al Lamki, Maitha Abdalla and Christopher Benton - to participate this year and create new commissions for the exhibition in November. “We are honoured and delighted to have such distinguished curators as Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath helming the Beyond: Emerging Artists programme for 2021. “With their critical insights into Modern and Contemporary art from the region, they will bring a deeply informed art-historical context and perspective to bear on what can be viewed as a new moment for the contemporary Emirati art scene today,” said Dyala Nusseibeh, Director of Abu Dhabi Art.
Al Lamki is inspired by the evolution of the UAE’S cultural dynamic since the early 2000s, while performance artist Abdalla explores the real and the imagined using memory and folktales. Benton’s multimedia works span sculpture, photography and film. “We are thrilled to be curating Abu Dhabi Art’s 2021 Beyond: Emerging Artists programme,” said Bardaouil and Fellrath. “The next edition will showcase new commissions by three very diverse artists whose practices are marked by a truly interdisciplinary approach, in both conceptual reference and choice of media.
“Departing from a position of heightened social engagement, and with remarkable formal inventiveness and intellectual rigour, Maitha, Hashel and Christopher touch upon a number of pertinent issues that are of significant relevance to the socio-cultural context of the UAE, as well as the current discourse within the global arts community.” Al Lamki said: “I am super excited and thankful to be selected for the Beyond: Emerging Artists programme this year, to be among other great artists that I consider friends and family, and work with star curators Sam and Till.”
His project for the programme, titled Dice, highlights the paterns of the world, showing that everything has a rise and fall, and is meant to repeatedly evoke a sense of tension and release.
Abdalla said: “My work oten revolves around local stories, folktales and mythology and explores the boundaries of these stories through performance. “I plan on exploring one of these folktales in particular this year, a folkloric female character who pushes boundaries and is feared by the community. Working with Sam and Till will be fantastic, they are curators that I have been following and admiring.” Benton said that “I am presenting a project that is looking at the date palm tree as a symbol for the movement of people, ideas and products across the world, and across decades. I am envisioning my project as comprising a large-scale installation, video and sculpture.”
Beyond: Emerging Artists 2021 will be on show at Manarat Al Saadiyat November 19 - January 22, 2022. The fair’s upcoming edition will open to the public at Manarat Al Saadiyat from November 18 - 21, with an opening reception on November 17. Nusseibeh has been the Director of Abu Dhabi Art since 2016. Having graduated with a BA from Cambridge University and a Mlit (with Distinction) from Glasgow University, she spent a year at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi, followed by four years at the Saatchi Gallery in London as Head of Education.
Here, she organised annual student shows, the education programme at the gallery and a travelling exhibition of works from the Saatchi collection to Ipswich in order to broaden outreach. In 2013, she became founding Director of Artinternational Istanbul, managed by leading fair organisers Angus Montgomery, a position she held until 2016 when she joined the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi. Bardaouil and Fellrath are Founders of Art Reoriented, a multidisciplinary curatorial plaform launched in 2009 in New York and Munich. They are Curators of the Lyon Biennale in 2022, and Affiliate Curators at Gropius Bau in Berlin.
As an independent voice, Bardaouil and Fellrath have collaborated with more than 70 institutions worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Tate Liverpool, Moderna Museet, Reina Sofia, ARTER, and the Montblanc Cultural Foundation.
In 2016, they were part of the team of curatorial atachés of the 20th Biennale of Sydney. At the Venice Biennale, they were curators of the National Pavilions of Lebanon in 2013 and the United Arab Emirates in 2019, and they are Curators of the French Pavilion in 2022. Al Lamki was born in the UAE, where he has experienced not only the rapid industrial and architectural growth of Dubai and the rest of the Emirates, but also the cultural complexities and dynamics that came as a result of the construction boom.
He infuses these vibrant perspectives to bring them into his practice, which focuses on social innovation, sustainability, environmental and philanthropic practices. He is represented by Leila Heller Gallery. Born in 1989, Abdalla’s paintings and mixed-media work oten evolve into series and articulate strong cultural narratives; they are assemblages of memory, travel and human interactions. She is represented by Tabari Art Space. Benton (b. 1988) is a Uae-based American artist working across sculpture, photography, and film. His practice explores how the working-class uses culture and innovation to stage resistance to post-colonial and neo-liberal forces. Past work has been presented at Dubai Design Week, the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial and Jameel Arts Centre. He is currently pursuing his MS in Art, Culture and Technology at the Massachusets Institute of Technology, with the support of Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation.