How Art Dubai plays a pivotal role in transforming the region’s art scene
Benedetta Ghione, Executive Director at Art Dubai, on how Art Dubai creates high-impact art.
Can you elaborate on the initiative that is Art Dubai?
Art Dubai is the most significant global art gathering in the Middle East, and for the 2025 edition, the fair will spotlight around 120 galleries from over 40 countries across our four distinct gallery sections including Contemporary, Digital, Modern and Bawwaba. From performances, installations and experimental commissions from the likes of Mohammed Kazem, Héctor Zamora and Ania Soliman to talks as part of the Global Art Forum and the Digital Art Summit, there’s so much to see and experience during the fair from April 18 to April 2025 and preview days on 16 and 17 April. Plus, we support the arts and culture community year-round with many initiatives including the A.R.M Holding Children’s Programme and our professional development programme Campus Art Dubai, where we support aspiring art professionals.
How has Art Dubai evolved since it first began?
From our beginnings nearly 20 years ago, we have evolved into more than a week-long art fair. Art Dubai is now a major meeting point for the global art community of artists, collectors and institutions. As an incubator for a new generation of artists, we embrace an institutional responsibility to lead in innovation and thought leadership with arts and culture. Since we launched, we remain committed to giving a platform to artists from lesser represented geographies of the world, and approximately 76 percent of this year’s programme is drawn from MENA / South Asia.
Can you expand on the key highlights from this year’s programme?
Art Dubai is always evolving, and 2025 marks an evolution of the fair. First up, we’re launching a new programme with Alserkal Avenue, kicking off with renowned Mexican artist Héctor Zamora. Known for his bold, site-specific works, he’s bringing to Art Dubai a powerful performance exploring transformation and liberation; the performances at the fair will be complemented by a site-specific installation at Alserkal Avenue. We are also continuing to place strong emphasis on digital art and the impact of new technologies on creative practice.
In the Digital Summit, themed ‘After the Technological Sublime’, under the direction of Art Dubai Digital 2025 curator Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, we will unpack how AI and digital art are pushing creative boundaries. We’re expecting one of the most dynamic editions yet, with bigger ideas, deeper conversations and even more ways to experience Art Dubai. Our Modern section offers something quite different than anywhere else in the world and this year sees its expansion to Latin American for the first time. Venezuelan artist Darío Pérez Flores’ (Mark Hachem) work will reflect common concerns and empathies between Latin America and West Asia and North Africa.
“Art Dubai has established itself as an important institutional platform and a catalyst for Dubai’s cultural economy”
‘The New New Normal’ is a thought-provoking theme for this year’s Global Art Forum. What key discussions and ideas will it explore?
This year the Global Art Forum will examine how constant change reshapes our world, making everyday life feel as unusual and unpredictable as science fiction. Throughout its nearly 20 years, the Global Art Forum has always been ahead of its time and is a hub for cultural dialogue and innovation. This year, it’s commissioned by Shumon Basar and curated by Y7 – the UK-based post-disciplinary duo Hannah Cobb and Declan Colquitt – so expect sharp insights and big ideas from some of today’s leading thinkers, technologists, artists and forecasters.
In an era of rapid digital transformation, how does Art Dubai ensure that technological innovation is balanced with artistic integrity?
From early digital art pioneers to new emerging names, Art Dubai Digital has shown the evolution in this art form over the years. We are seeing huge growth in digital art with the artists expanding our very understanding and definition of contemporary art and culture. You will see pieces examining how artists and creative practitioners are working with advanced technologies particularly AI, virtual reality and augmented reality, interrogating the key environmental, socialand political challenges of our time.
How does Art Dubai play a pivotal role in the UAE as an incubator for creative talent?
Art Dubai is a catalyst and anchor point for the rapid growth of the UAE and the wider region’s art scene and creative economy which has evolved into a meeting point for international art collectors and the creative community. The development of Dubai’s cultural scene, the dynamism of the city and the rich communities of artists and creatives that call Dubai home, is reflected in the eclectic line-up at this year’s fair. We have 23 Dubai galleries and some inspiring local artists including Sara Al Haddad, Sara Ahli and Faris AbdullaAlshafar at Aisha Alabbar; and Hassan Sharif and Mohammed Kazem at Gallery Isabelle.
Outside of the fair, the Dubai Collection, an initiative of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and managed by Art Dubai, is the first institutional art collection for the emirate of Dubai and is an initiative that further enhances Dubai’s artistic influence and reach. Containing over 1000 pieces of work, the Collection includes artwork from private collections based in Dubai and the wider region. Whilst maintaining focus on the Middle East, the Dubai Collection is an international collection with no geographical restrictions, and artists from more than 40 countries are currently represented.
How will this year’s summit change the way we think about art and technology?
From early digital art pioneers to new emerging names, Art Dubai Digital has shown the evolution in this art form over the years. When we launched this new gallery section four years ago, Art Dubai was the first and only major international fair with a dedicated digital section. This year’s Art Dubai Digital Summit will offer thought-provoking conversations on ecological activism in media art, the hidden biases in artificial intelligence, and what the future holds for museums in an increasingly digital world. Through public talks, lectures and breakout sessions, museum directors, curators, artists and tech innovators will share insights on where we’re headed and what’s at stake.
This year we have several digital installations and hybrid works – phygital or works that are digital but in contemporary sections – showing how artists are integrating digital elements in traditional art pieces and changing how we think of the two mediums. For example, Egyptian/Polish/American artist Ania Soliman and her work Kahrabaa, takes its title from the Arabic for ‘electricity’. As a large-scale, site-specific installation, it traces complex interconnections between technology, nature, and memory and presents five-metre-high canvases that blend technological and organic motifs captured in a series of performative acts involving artificial and real plants being thrown onto the canvases. Pioneering kinetic sculptor BREAKFAST will debut a large-scale interactive installation, Carbon Wake, and this first-of-its-kind kinetic artwork will take centre stage at the main entrance of the Digital gallery section.
Alfred Basbous, Le mysterieux, Ed.8, 1991, Bronze, 46.5 x 21 x 16 cm, Courtesy of Alfred Basbous Foundation
How do you see blockchain, AI, and immersive technology influencing the future of Art Dubai Digital?
Curator Gonzalo’s theme for the 2025 Art Dubai Digital section ‘After the Technological Sublime’, brings together artists and creatives who are using digital technologies to address the challenges that humanity and the planet are facing today. Through their pieces, the artists raise critical questions and demonstrate the role digital technology has today and in the future. This year we have focused on artists active in artificial intelligence, virtual, and augmented reality, and other technological advances to interrogate some of the key environmental, social, and political challenges of our time.
How is Art Dubai shaping the region’s role in the global art conversation?
Art Dubai remains the most significant global art gathering in the Middle East, and our regional and international reach providesartists and galleries a global platform to connect with international audiences, fostering dialogue and new opportunities on a global scale. This year, we have 67 cities represented from across 39 countries. Over the years, Art Dubai has established itself as an important institutional platform and a catalyst for Dubai’s cultural economy, playing a key role in shaping its artistic landscape.
This is The Design Issue – tell us more about art that has design appeal?
The presentations for this year will encompass a diverse variety of mediums – from textile-based art, marble and resin sculptures, to glass wall pieces. French artist Joana Vasconcelos, whose textile sculptures are part of an ongoing series wrapping animals in handmade cotton crochet and five needle lace, is inspired by the ceramic’s artwork of Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (1846 – 1905), one of the most renowned Portuguese artists of the 19th century. Thomas Brambilla Gallery is bringing American sculptor, Bryan Hunt, and his series of wall pieces to this year’s edition of Art Dubai.
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