hanadi's blog

Art Dubai is the MENASA's first international contemporary art fair. The first edition, March 2007, brought together 40 of the art world’s leading artists, curators, museum directors, and professionals to discuss issues that affect art today, especially in the Middle East.

Art Dubai 2009 was a huge success. It received a wide press coverage as it was mentioned in the Financial Times twice, The Telegraph , The Art Newspaper and other newspapers and TV programs.

Art Dubai 2009 from Art Dubai on Vimeo.

A few years ago, I gave up joining online networks or groups as most of my experiences there were negative. Each group used to start very active and powerful but ends up boring with no much topics to discuss or insightful ideas to read about.

The 'Women and Work' network that was created by Silvia Cambie has encouraged me to join an online network again since the topics Silvia and other ladies are discussing there are really insightful and helped me in learning about more facts without spending so much time to research them!

Last month, I was invited to attend the Social Arab Web, 2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting in Beirut. The event was organized by The Heinrich Böll Foundation and Global Voices Online, with support from HIVOS and the Open Society Institute .

Around 80 Arab bloggers came together to exchange their knowledge and express their opinions about the trending topics in the Arab blogsphere. The event lasted for 5 days and covered many activites including different types of presentations, workshops and discussions.

The 10th International Toronto Art Fair was held at Toronto Metro Convention Center from 22 to 26 October .

One hundred art galleries from 12 countries have showed artworks of their finest artists. The art pieces varied from modern to contemporary art. some of them were really outstanding and I enjoyed exploring every bit of them!

I visited the exhibition on its last day. Although I arrived early but there were few galleries representatives who started to pack their works and about to leave. At the same time, One or maybe two of the publishing houses didn't show up at all that day so visitors were lucky enough to get some free publications since they left the materials on tables. Yes, I got some great Art magazines for free :-)

Last week, I had the chance to attend the opening of Roger Golden’s exhibition of sculpture (Feral) that took place at VAO gallery.

Golden’s work is figurative and most of his sculptures are life size and made from burlap and winterstone (cement – like product). These materials allow Golden to create the shape he wants and provide his sculptures with the required strength while keeping the weight of the sculptures light. He also works in bronze, clay, and found materials.

The sculptures of four people and six feral pets where featured in the gallery. What’s really interesting is that those sculptures can be arranged in multiple ways, each telling a different meaning. Viewers also play a major role in the show since they are invited to ‘anonymously suggest whether to place a young girl with an aggressive cat; or an old woman with a sad-eyed hound.’ Some of the stories viewers create will be displayed the second week of the show which mean that Four new stories will be created after rearranging the sculptures.

‘It is my great pleasure to say meedan is, with this tweet, officially opening beta’. That was the announcement of Ed Bice – Founder and CEO of meedan- on twitter!

meedan is live now, which means that people who speak English can be in touch with people in the other part of the world where they speak Arabic. Of course, it works also the other way around! Being in touch will open up wide doors for sharing news, events, discussions, etc. I believe that this will bridge the gaps between those people and help them in understanding each other in a better way, especially during the current circumstances where the gap between East and West is just getting bigger.

In October 2008, the participants and the organization team of Reloading Images Damascus project took part in a three weeks workshop in Damascus.

Moataz Nasr is one of the leading contemporary artists in the MENA region. He is Egyptian but his concerns about what is going on in the Arab world and his understanding of the similar culture and current circumstances that all Arabs are experiencing allowed his work to surpass the Egyptian borders and to speak with the tongue of all other people. Nasr has exhibited his work widely in the Arab world, UK and Europe and his work is in the collections of many Egyptian embassies around the world and in other private and public places.

The first time I spoke to Nasr was about two years ago when I started my research about contemporary art in the Middle East. We talked a lot (virtually!) and discussed many issues related to the topic. Moataz Nasr was very generous in providing me with all the required information and sending materials about his artwork. He was a good listener as well and he was a great source of encouragement along the way. This is why I was not surprised when I heard about his life dream of establishing a place where he can meet with young artists to offer his advice and support. He was thinking of a way to increase the awareness of contemporary art among people living in Egypt particularly and in the Arab region generally. Apparently, Nasr’s dream became true! He worked hard to convert his dream into a nice truth and the result was Darb 17 18 the new NGO opened last month in Cairo / Egypt and commenced its activities by hosting Crossings, the travelling exhibition featuring works of 12 Arab artists.

Three weeks ago, I attended the Arab Techies Gathering which was held in Cairo / Egypt and ran for four days (23 – 26) December 2008.

photo by Ahmed Mekkawy

The main reason behind holding the event is the increasing need for the use of technology in all aspects of our life. Talking regionally, people who live in the Arab world are becoming more interested in being increasingly open to the new types of technology and believing in how important the technology is in helping them change their life despite all the barriers that forced Arab people to stay in the dark for decades. That was of course because of different political and social circumstances. However, the Arab Techies gathering was the place where techies from different Arab countries, and with different backgrounds came to talk about their own personal / countries experiences, to discuss with other techies different ideas of how to develop and move forward and to learn also from others new things they didn’t know about before.