ART DUBAI MODERN 2022

Art Dubai Modern returns with a showcase of 11 distinct presentations whereby each of the participating galleries showcase works by one leading modernist artist. In doing so, the 2022 edition engages visitors with a broad panorama of artistic practices hailing from a number of diverse cities in Egypt, India, Lebanon and Morocco. Featuring its own design, the section consists of archival and didactic materials, which curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath employ to contextualise the artworks on display, and advance their notion of Transmodernism as a way of reflecting on the heterogeneous expression of a multi-polar modernity.

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, artReoriented. © “Fotostudio - All Eyes on You” — Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, artReoriented. © “Fotostudio – All Eyes on You”

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are founders and directors of the multidisciplinary, curatorial platform, which they launched in New York and Munich in 2009. They are curators of the Lyon Biennale 2022, the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022, and affiliate curators at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. In January, 2022, they took on their new position as directors of the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin.

Curatorial statement from Sam and Till for Art Dubai Modern

Art Dubai Modern returns with a rigorous exhibition program featuring a diverse number of leading artists from across North Africa, the Arab world, Iran, and South Asia. The title of this year’s edition takes its cue from artist K. S. Kulkarni (1918-1994) who sought to align his work with the “ soul of the people” and a “ process of progress.”

Kulkarni’s embrace of art as a tool that could at once reflect and respond to several post-colonial projects ranging from nation building to individual emancipation sets the tone for this year’s highly anticipated program. It beckons us to consider acts of collective solidarity as generative strategies of protest against, and rupture with skewed power structures. Through a range of solo presentations highlighting the variety within the expression of and discourse surrounding modernity, “The Soul of Progress” seeks to unpack a number of narratives pertaining to the progressive undercurrent, the networks of solidarity, and communal mechanisms by which histories of lesser-explored modernisms have been shaped and nourished.

The title also playfully debunks the avenues by which the story of the so-called “periphery” continues to be reduced through words and displays. If the statement, “we have never been modern,” to cite Bruno Latour’s critique of the theory and application of modernism, can be applied within the context of the so called “West”, the distinct range of paintings, sculptures, works on paper, tapestries and other media by the leading artists that are on view in this year’s Modern section, provide a renewed perspective on the contradictions, antagonisms, accomplishments, as well as the commonalities of an intense period of rigorous negotiation and creation that is anything but monolithic.