Art Jameel, an Dubai-based organisation that supports heritage, arts and education programmes, has announced the winners of the inaugural ‘Art Jameel Commissions: Sculpture’. Kuwait-based artists Alia Farid and Aseel AlYaqoub have been awarded the sculpture commission for their proposal of Contrary Life: A Botanical Light Garden Devoted to Trees, a site-specific installation-cum-community botanical garden made of artificial plants. Farid and AlYaqoub will be given a production budget of USD$70,000 (approximately £50,000) to create the installation, as well as technical support from architects and engineers. The commission by Farid and AlYaqoub will be revealed at the opening of the Jameel Arts Centre, in Jadaf, on the Dubai Creek, later this year.
The 2018 jury was made up of writer and curator Shumon Basar; independent curator and art historian Reem Fadda; James Lingwood, co-director, Artangel; Elvira Dyangani Ose, senior curator at Creative Time and lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London; Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president, Sharjah Art Foundation; and representatives of Art Jameel.
In 2019 and 2020 Art Jameel Commissions will focus on research/lectures and drawing/painting, respectively, and will be open to both artists from or based in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, and artists whose work takes an interest in these regions.
27 February 2018
