Art Dubai is gearing up for an exciting 17th edition for 2024, as it announces the first details of the programs and exhibitions.
Mak2’s ‘Home Sweet Home: Baptismal Reverie 2’. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Peres Project
Known as one of the top international art platforms for artists from the Middle East and the Global South, Art Dubai 2024 will take place from March 1-3 at Madinat Jumeirah, after previews on February 28 and 29. Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the fair is a highly-awaited event on the city’s cultural calendar and promises to uplift the region’s creative ecosystem.
Art Dubai 2024: Global Art Forum and Commissions
This year, Art Dubai has announced an expanded program of collaborations with local and international partners. Some of the highlights include new commissions and premieres by globally renowned artists as well as an extensive education, talks, and thought-leadership program. The flagship summit of Art Dubai, Global Art Forum is curated by Shumon Basar and Nadine El-Khoury, and will explore the relationship between extreme weather and extreme change. Over the two days, the forum will “present the cultures, technologies, sciences, and initiatives around extreme weather and extreme change with many of the world’s most compelling artists, architects, academics, curators and thinkers.” Speakers contributing to the forum include Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal, director, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Samir Bantal, director, AMO at Office of Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam; Anne Holtrop, founder, Studio Anne Holtrop, Bahrain; Monira Al Qadiri, artist, Kuwait and Berlin; Gabriel Alonso, artist and researcher, Madri; and others.
As part of the Art Dubai 2024 commissions, visitors will be able to view a series of new performances, films, and activations based on topics of “hope, community, and the power of art to help us navigate challenging times.” A hard-to-miss digital installation by Canadian-Korean artist Krista Kim will allow guests to connect through the universal language of the human heartbeat. Presented by the Swiss Wealth Management Group Julius Baer, lead partner of Art Dubai ‘Heart Space’ will visualize each visitor’s unique heart rhythm in real time via hypnotic patterns and meditative shapes displayed across a dynamic LED canvas.
Swiss watchmaker and jewelry house Piaget will also inaugurate a new partnership with Art Dubai through a new exhibition. Titled ‘The House of Gold’, the exhibition will showcase a series of jewelry, watches, patrimony pieces, and private collections to highlight gold as the ultimate luxury and a symbol of perfection, central to the brand’s philosophy. The exhibition will take place in Piaget’s own bespoke booth, alongside newly commissioned artworks, workshops, and immersive experiences.
“Art fairs like Art Dubai have a responsibility to be far more than commercial platforms and Art Dubai continues to play an important institutional role in this region’s cultural ecosystem, supporting artists, scholarship, cultural education, and thought-leadership,” stated Pablo del Val, Art Dubai’s artistic director. “Our program this year reflects the increasingly diverse and multicultural communities of our home city, providing more opportunities than ever for artists from across the Global South. Dubai is a place of relentless reinvention, possibility, and opportunity, and these commercial and institutional partnerships are central to all our activity, supporting our world-class non-commercial programs.”
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