Following last year’s successful fair which attracted over 10,000 visitors, collectors, journalists, artists, amateurs and professionals from the world of art, the third edition of the International Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art, Beirut Art Fair, will be held from July 5 to 8 at the Beirut International Exhibition & Leisure Center.
Laure d’Hauteville launched in 1998 “ARTUEL”, the first fair dedicated to modern and contemporary art in the “ME.NA.SA.” region. After visiting numerous art fairs across the world and having observed the changes in the art market, she decided to organize Beirut Art Fair in 2010.
“Certainly, the “ME.NA.SA” region is very large, but one common fundamental cultural point brings together all the artists from Morocco to Indonesia: “THE EAST” (Near East, Middle East, Far East), just like an intercontinental banner. The idea of belonging to a platform in full bloom clearly reunites the majority of these artists. The field of contemporary art is rich with 60 museums, 6 biennales, 8 fairs, over 30 foundations, and more than 200 galleries… not to mention the number of emerging artists of high caliber, which Beirut Art Fair is pleased to provide a forum of expression at the heart of the “fertile crescent”. To me, the city of Beirut is at the heart of this dynamic” says Laure D’hauteville, fair manager and founder.
Indeed, the 40 galleries of modern and contemporary art participating, in Beirut Art Fair represent all facets of plastic art, through painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video, performance, street art and comics. The Beirut Art Fair is a strategic platform for the artists of the “ME.NA.SA” region, it is not only introduces these artists to the traders and the consumers but also highlights their contribution to the dynamic of artistic globalization.
“Thus, we clearly sense” adds Pascal Odille, the artistic director of the fair, “that the exhibiting artists… reflect, in their own way, whether through figurative or abstract painting, drawing, comic strips, sculpture, photography, installation, video, or street-art, their vision of the contemporary world and everyday life, confronted with strongly differentiated socio-political contexts”.
This is particularly true of the figurative paintings of Boutros Al Maari, of Nadim Karam and Paul Guiragossian, one of the most important Middle Eastern painters. Calligraphy and poetry are also strongly present in the paintings, the textiles designs, and the paper masterworks of Tajammul Husain, in the poems/sculptures of Simeen Farhat as well as in the geometrically inspired traditional patterns of Zoulikha Bouabdellah.
The tone of approach, for many of the region’s artists, consists of taking a certain distance from the real world, so often marked by a painful context due to the war, as well as political and economic upheavals.
In contrast to these representations distanced from an often traumatic reality, photojournalism, the witness of daily life is also strongly represented in the worlds of artists such as Rania Matar, Lara Tabet and Reem Al Faisal.
For the first time, an exhibition dedicated to the ME.NA.SA comics is showcasing over 30 original drawings. The comics corner offers through the “ninth art” an overview spanning from the Maghreb to Asia, passing by the Middle East, and unveiling how comic creators seize the political, social and economic situations of their native countries like Zeina Abirached in Lebanon, Mohamed El Sharkawi, Magdi El Shafi in Egypt, Gyps in Algeria or Zhao Golo and Zong Kai in China.
Pascal Odille reiterates her “desire to adapt to changes in the art market, to meet the expectations of collectors and to provide a vivacious platform for the galleries of the Middle East as well as Arab and Asians artists, leads us to a permanent reflection on the operating mode of the fair.
Our open approach to all contemporary artistic practices and our desire to provide greater visibility for all exhibitors and participants, do not compromise our quality standards in any way. Maintaining this level of excellence will be our main challenge for the coming years.”
Beirut Art Fair is very much a fair where even the trade can make discoveries and for consumers, a good advice is to buy where the trade buys.
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