notes

Men's Folio Interview / February 2012

2012-02-27T07:27:00.002-08:00

Singapore's foremost men's luxury fashion and lifestyle guide Men's Folio, has featured me in their February 2012 Issue. Thank you Hafiz Rashid for the opportunity and interview.

[OPINION] Turkey's renewable energy potential

2011-12-05T02:14:00.000-08:00

[OPINION] Turkey's renewable energy potential

The Emergent Artist Award Launches in Dubai

2011-11-16T20:35:00.001-08:00

Conducted in partnership with the Alliance Française of Dubai (the French cultural organization, who received the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards 2010 by Dubai Culture & Art Authority), the Emergent Artist Award (EAA) has been launched to address the vacuum for undiscovered artists to showcase their work on a world stage. This international contemporary photography competition gives voice to talents both within the region and internationally. Based in Dubai, the EEA has launched an international contemporary photography competition for its first edition on the 1 November, 2011.

Composed by high profile art professionals and academics, the panel of judges will assess all submissions scoring them on technical prowess, originality, and quality of execution. Jury member Sertac Tasdelen is himself an emerging artist, having found success following his exhibition ‘Resurrection des Mannequins’ last year at Portfolio Gallery. Speaking about the Award, Tasdelen said, “In support of the UAE's vibrant creative community, the Emerging Artist Award is an invaluable platform for emerging artists to express their ideas which also offers the contenders a unique opportunity to showcase their work on an international stage”All details about the competition can be found on the Emergent Artist Award - www.emergentartistaward.com.

New Toby website is up

2011-09-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

www.urtoby.com

Designare Magazine Interview Singapore

2011-09-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you Designare Homme for the Interview.

ELLE Magazine Interview

2010-12-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

Thank you Berrin Saran and ELLE Magazine for the opportunity.

2010-11-21T03:43:00.000-08:00

Affordable Art Fair has taken place 19-21 November 2010 in F1 Pit Building.

www.affordableartfair.com.sg

Whether or not it was affordable, it was amateur, not necessarily in a negative manner, yet in a positive. Indeed, some works of unheard artists took me to an another planet. That was the first affordable art fair in Singapore and I still think 'affordable' is not the right word for an art fair. Well, this is not invented by Singapore, and so better not to blame, Singapore is the tenth in the list. AAF is about more than just buying art. 'Its success is in making art more accessible and engaging new audiences' says Camilla Hewitson, Fair Director. That's really what we need in Singapore.

Here are some artists and works I liked. And thank you Dr. Pwee from Utterly art for the invitation

http://www.nthread.net/

http://www.robandnick.com/

http://www.af-art.co.uk/

http://www.paleyphoto.com/

http://www.willyrojas.com

BILMED Magazine Interview

2010-11-03T20:28:00.001-07:00

BILMED, a quarterly magazine of Bilkent University Alumni, features an interview with yours truly on this issue. Thank you Sermin Korkusuz for the opportunity. English translation will be available soon.

2010-10-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

My entry "Resurrection to Renaissance" has been selected to be displayed as part of the upcoming exhibition in JamJar Dubai! I will be displaying the mannequin I used in my photography series "Resurrection des Mannequins".

Museum ME UAE
Muqtanayati: One Hundred Treasures
14 – 21 October 2010
Private View: 14 October, 7pm
A story, through one hundred objects…

How can we represent a place? The experience of living can be printed in books, told through stories, remembered, documented, collected, but can we really capture a time past in its completeness?
The Arabic word Muqtanayati translates as ‘My Possessions’ and is a term used to describe collectable items that hold either a monetary or sentimental value to the collector. By inviting anyone and everyone to submit an object, which they felt linked to their journey in the UAE, we have captured a glimpse into the UAE’s community and constantly evolving landscape.
The one hundred objects selected and presented in this temporary collection are catagorised by artifact, domesticity and art, each accompanied by a story of its own. Absorbed in the fine print, it appears the two are inseparable, placing sentimental tokens on the same level as relics in a juxtaposition, which makes us question value.
‘Muqtanayati: One Hundred Treasures’ embraces the diverse range of experiences of those currently living in the UAE. Through these stories we are able to understand a place, its people, its values and its traditions in a moment of time.

Auction Results

2010-08-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

3 of my pieces from the series 'Resurrection des Mannequins' collaborated by Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Ayse Arman and Binnaz Gundogan have been sold in the auction organized by Canadian Business Council on Aug 30,2010. It total AED 9000 has been raised.

'Intruding' By Lateefa Bint Maktoum

'the Empty Tin' By Binnaz Gundogan. This piece was bought by Media Rotana Hotel

' the other me' By Ayse Arman.

David Bellemere

2010-08-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

David Bellemere

Natalia Vodianova, no need for words

2010-08-30T07:22:00.000-07:00

unreal, Natalia Vodianova

CBC Iftar Auction to Raise Money for Disabled Student's Tuition

2010-08-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

CBC Iftar Auction to Raise Money for Disabled Student's Tuition

3 of the pieces from Resurrection des Mannequins will be auctioned to raise funds for disabled student's tuition. Piece are collaborative work between me, Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Ayse Arman and Binnaz Gundogan

The Canadian Business Council of Dubai and the Northern Emirates, with a generous donation from Portfolio Gallery, will be hosting a silent art auction at its Annual Iftar dinner to raise 27,000 AED in tuition for a disabled student in Sharjah.

Inspired by Nadeem, a disabled student whose father died shortly after losing the family business, leaving his mother to raise him and his sister on her own, the CBC will use its charity account to pay part of his tuition fee, but more funds are needed. In an effort to raise the balance of the tuition, the CBC is hosting a silent art auction at its annual Iftar dinner, which will take place at the Media Rotana on August 30th.

We are reaching out to local artists and galleries who want to help by donating their work to the auction. The response we had from Portfolio Gallery was above and beyond what we expected. They have donated three striking pieces from their Rsurrection des Mannequins exhibit by Turkish photographer Sertac Tasdelen in conjunction with Sheikha Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Binnaz Gundogan and Ayse Arman.

We, of course, owe a special thank you to Tasdelen whose effort and photographic talent resulted in the creation of these pieces and the subsequent exhibit from which they have been donated,said CBC Membership Director Shane Phillips.

A piece of Nadeems own artwork will also be auctioned off at the event.

The Rsurrection des Mannequins exhibit showcased a limited number of Sertacs photographs, which were then given to collaborating artists who added their own artistic touches. The Portfolio Gallery exhibit was held to raise awareness for social responsibility and all proceeds went to charity organizations supported by the collaborators.

Intruding, the piece enhanced by Sheikha Lateefa Bint Maktoum, which will be auctioned off at the CBC Iftar event, represents a true meeting of the minds and a cultural crossover.

When I was first approach by Sertac to be part of this project, I was flattered and yet at the same time tentative as to whether participate, says Sheikha Lateefa Bint Maktoum.

As an Arab Muslim artist, the models I use in my own artworks are covered from head to toe with only their hands and face visible. The image I received from Sertac, on the other hand, was one with models covered with little clothing. I had to take time and to think about how to make this collaboration work whilst keeping to my own values and belief, but without completely smothering the existing picture. To me the collaboration is a meeting of two like-minded people and the outcome is a visual conversation, she explains.

Other local artists and galleries are invited to donate their works to the auction by contacting the Canadian Business Council on 04-359-2625.

Supporting this cause is in line with our desire to give voice to unique Dubai-based artists by showcasing their work in front of different audiences and our commitment to give back to the community. We hope to see other galleries follow suit, commented Rbia Naim, Events & Exhibitions Organizer, Portfolio Gallery.

www.studio22zerotwo.com

2010-08-27T07:19:00.001-07:00

www.studio22zerotwo.com

Vogue Italia - by Steven Meisel

2010-08-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

Magazine: Vogue Italia
Issue: August 2010
Model: Kristen McMenamy
Photographer: Steven Meisel

quite provocative, I like.

Vogue Italia - by Steven Meisel

2010-08-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

Magazine: Vogue Italia
Issue: August 2010
Model: Kristen McMenamy
Photographer: Steven Meisel

2010-08-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Guy Bourdin, the master.

2010-08-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

David Lachapelle

2010-08-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

Miles Aldridge, worth checking his work. www.milesaldridge.com

2010-08-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

Steven Klein

2010-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

New forms of Chinese art were heavily influenced by the New Culture Movement, which adopted Western techniques and employed socialist realism. The Cultural Revolution would shape Chinese art in the 20th century like no other event in history with the Four Olds destruction campaign. Contemporary Chinese artists continue to produce a wide range of experimental works, multimedia installations, and performance "happenings" which have become very popular in the international art market.

A Survey of Turkish Contemporary Art

2010-02-03T04:55:00.000-08:00

Dubaians proved their affection towards Turkey, not only by bringing their enthusiasm for Kivanc Tatlitug and Arabic dubbed Turkish series ‘Nour’ , but also by showing great interest for the exhibition “A Survey of Turkish Contemporary Art”, which was organized to celebrate the establishment of Akbank Dubai Ltd, opened on December 9, 2009. H.E. Mohammed Al Murr, Deputy Chairman of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, inaugurated the exhibition at Cuadro Fine Arts Gallery.

As the name implies, the exhibition includes 60 works of 20 Contemporary Turkish artists, and overall reflects the multiplicity and dynamism of Turkish art. Another aspect of the exhibition, which will be open until January 31, is its being the largest Turkish Art exhibition that is organized in the Middle East.

The exhibition’s curators are Murat Pilevneli, the owner of Galerist, and Bashar Al Shroogi, the owner of Cuadro Fine Art Gallery. It contains works of some of the leading contemporary Turkish artists with various styles and themes; such as; Ahmet Oran, Ays‏e Erkmen, Erinc Seymen, Evren Tekinoktay, Gokcen Cabadan, Haluk Akakce, Inci Eviner, Kezban Arca Batibeki, Memed Erdener, Mentalklinik, Murat Morova, Nazif Topcuoglu, Sarkis, Tayfun Erdogmus, Vahit Tuna, Yasam Sasmazer, Hussein Chalayan, Leyla Gediz, Haluk Akakçe, Selma Gürbüz and Elif Uras.

Although international media have started to confront Dubai and one of its favorite places, Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), in a bloodthirsty manner lately, hundreds of Dubaians visited the exhibition at DIFC on the opening night, as if saying boldly “We are not dead and still standing”. This is especially important, as it is a great success for Dubai galleries who are a bit depressed(!) lately, and it makes us proud as it is an exhibition on Contemporary Turkish art. Moreover, it was the opening of the Dubai branch of the biggest bank of Turkey. DIFC, is much more than just a financial center, it is a center of attraction that makes people forget that they are in Dubai. Cuadro Fine Art Gallery is situated right in the middle of it, as the largest art gallery of the Middle East. People cannot even go to the most hip restaurant of Dubai, Zuma, without passing by the gallery; therefore, choice of the place of the exhibition was excellent.

On the contrary to the expectations, the chic and fascinated visitors of the exhibition were not holding glasses of grape juice in their hands; but Veuve Clicquot glasses. Among the guests, the Turkish speakers were not more than 10 percent (this may be considered either as a good or bad), and even Ayse Arman was not there! I have to point out that, when someone says citizens of Dubai, do not imagine Arab’s clothed in white or black national dress, according to their gender. Citizens of Dubai, including me, are a population that represents people from 196 different nations, speaking 80 different languages.

During the opening of the exhibition attended by more than 500 art lovers, Suzan Sabanci Dincer, Chairman and Executive Board Member of Akbank was also there, and she represented Turkish businesswomen in the most elegant fashion. Opening party was, in one word, majestic; and the elegance in the details gave hints that it was organized by the only Turkish businesswoman who was awarded with the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Lale Ansign. On the next day, the details of the opening were on all local newspapers and magazines, as the local press showed a great interest in this event.

The exhibition that took place in Dubai, a city that goes at full throttle and evolves rapidly in the field of art, was also like a litmus test to define the place of Turkish art, in this region; its meaningful name was also implying this. Especially the local art circle was waiting curiously, “Is there a place for Turkish Contemporary Art in Dubai?” Although we Turks believe that Arabs are only interested in buying properties from Levent (!), they showed an interest in Turkish contemporary art even more than Turks do. 10 of the works are sold in the first 2 hours, and they are continuing to be sold, even while you are reading these lines. I believe that someone must have understood the potential of Contemporary Turkish Art earlier than us, as Yasam Sasmazer’s sculpture, standing next to the entrance of the exhibition, portraying a 7–8 years old girl, hiding some boxes under her blouse and trying to make them look like breasts, found a buyer even before the exhibition opened. I think that, Memed Erdener’s unsettling and sensational artworks were intentionally positioned at a place where they can also be seen from the outside, so that even people who are not interested in contemporary art would come in and visit the exhibition.

Moreover, some art lovers who thought that Hussein Chalayan is English, learned that he is Turkish, and they enthusiastically stand for a long time while watching his video installation… Yes, Dubaians loved Contemporary Turkish Art.

These days, in which economic crisis shakes the world, Christie’s broke a new record with its November 2009 sales. It sold the calligraphy work of the Egyptian artist Ahmed Mustafa to $662,500$ (the most expensive Arabic Contemporary Art work until now), the work of Indian artist Tyeb Metha fetched $578,500, and the most expensive living Turkish artist Burhan Dogancay’s “Rift” was sold to $242,500. The recent success achieved in the Middle East region, by the auction houses shows us this: This is not only an artificial paradise in which petrodollars are being spent to buy million dollar residences and expensive Mercedes cars, anymore. United Arab Emirates is a “real” country that has started to become the cultural center of the region.

The investors, who realized this earlier, invested on Iranian Contemporary Art. A similar story also true for Chinese Art. Who will claim the Contemporary Turkish Art, and when will it happen? Keep this in mind, Dubaians are not only visiting the mansion house where the Turkish series Gumus (Nour in Arabic) took place anymore, they are also visiting the Contemporary Istanbul. Now, they do not only admire Kivanc, but Haluk Akakce and Nazif Topcuoglu as well.

Dec 2009

Dubai Art / II - 2009

2010-01-20T05:35:00.000-08:00

Dubai’liler Turkiye’ye olan hayranliklarini Arapca dublajli Turk dizileri ve Kivanc Tatlitug’dan ileriye tasidiklarini Akbank Dubai Ltd’nin kurulusu nedeniyle 9 Aralik’ta acilan “ A Survey of Turkish Contemporary Art” sergisine gosterdikleri muazzam ilgiyle ispat etmis oldular. Dubai Culture & Arts Authority baskan vekili H.E Muhammed Al Murr’un Cuadro Fine Art Gallery’de actigi sergi, isminden de anlasilabilecegi gibi Turk sanatinin cesitliligini ve dinamizmini yansitan 20 Cagdas Turk Sanatcisinin 60 isini kapsiyor ve 31 Ocak’a kadar izlenebilecek. Sergi bu gune kadar Ortadogu’da acilmis en buyuk Turk eserleri sergisi olma ozelligini tasiyor.

Galerist’in sahibi Murat Pilevneli ve Cuadro Fine Art Gallery’nin sahibi Bashar Al Shroogi’nin kuratorlugunde farkli stil ve tematik cesitlilikte isleri bunyesinde bulunduran sergide cagdas Turk sanatinin onde gelen isimlerinden kimler mi var? Ahmet Oran, Ays‏e Erkmen, Erinc Seymen, Evren Tekinoktay, Gokcen Cabadan, Haluk Akakce, Inci Eviner, Kezban Arca Batibeki, Memed Erdener, Mentalklinik, Murat Morova, Nazif Topcuoglu, Sarkis, Tayfun Erdogmus, Vahit Tuna, Yasam Sasmazer, Hussein Chalayan, Leyla Gediz, Haluk Akakçe, Selma Gürbüz ve Elif Uras

Batili basinin son gunlerde ustune hunharca gittigi Dubai ve onun en gozde mekanlarindan DIFC’deki (Dubai International Financial Center) sergiye ‘biz olmedik hala ayaktayiz’ dercesine yuzlerce Dubai’li katilim gosterdi ki bu son zamanlarda canlari sikkin Dubai galerileri icin ciddi bir basari, ve bunun Cagdas Turk eserleri sergisi olmasi ve bunun Turkiyenin en buyuk bankasinin Dubai ofisinin acilis gecesi olmasi bizler icin gurur verici. DIFC finansal merkez olmaktan ote insana Dubai’de oldugunu unutturan bir cazibe merkezi. Cuadro Fine Art Gallery DIFC’nin tam ortasinda Middle East’in en buyuk sanat galerisi ve onunden gecmeden Dubai’nin en hip restorani Zuma’ya dahi gidilemiyor, zira mekan secimi cok basarili. Sanilanin aksine uzum suyu degil, ellerinde Veuve Clicquot kadehleriyle sergiyi ilgiyle izleyen sik sanatseverlerin arasinda Turkce konusanlarin orani –belki olumlu belki olumsuz bir istatistik olarak - yuzde 10’u gecmiyordu, hatta Ayse Arman bile yoktu. Belirtmeliyim ki Dubai’li deyince akliniza cinsiyete gore beyaz veya siyah carsaflara burunmus Arap’lar gelmesin. Dubai’liler bendeniz de dahil olmak uzere 72 milliyetten 40 ayri dil konusan bir kalabaligi temsil ediyor. 500’u askin sanatseverin ilgi gosterdigi sergide Akbank Yonetim kurulu baskani Suzan Sabanci Dincer’de hazir bulundu ve sikligi ile gecede Turk is kadinini en zarif sekilde temsil etti. Davet tek kelimeyle muhtesemdi ve detaylardaki incelik, bu resepsiyonun Lale Ansign – Yilin Girisimcisi odulune layik gorulen ilk ve tek Turk is kadini – tarafindan organize edildigini ele veriyordu. Yerel basinin ciddi ilgi gosterdigi acilis resepsiyonu, ertesi gun butun gazete ve dergilerde yayinlandi.

Sanat konusunda tam gaz ilerleyen ve hizla gelisen Dubai’de acilan sergi, manidar basligindan da (Survey) kendini ele verdigi sekilde Turk sanatinin bolgedeki yeri icin turnusol testi vazifesi goruyordu ve ozellikle yerel sanat cevresi sergiyi buyuk bir merakla bekliyordu, acaba Turk Cagdas Sanatina Dubai’de yer var miydi? Turkiyede sadece Levent’teki arazi satisiyla ilgilenendigini sandigimiz Arap’lar (!) Cagdas Turk sanatina Turklerden daha fazla ilgi gosterdi ve eserlerin 10’u ilk 2 saatte satildi, ve siz bu satirlari okurken satilmaya da devam ediyor. Saniyorum birileri Cagdas Turk Sanatinin potansiyelini bizden once kavramis olmali ki hemen giriste Yasam Sasmazer’in 7-8 yas boyutlarindaki bluzunun altindan meme diye sakladigi kutulari kavradigi heykeli ise daha sergi acilmadan alici bulmustu. Memed Erdener’in sarsici ve sansasyonel resimleri saniyorum bilerek disaridan gorunecek sekilde asilmisti ki ilgisi olmayanlar bile gelip sergiyi izlemek zorunda kalsin. Veya Hussein Chalayan’in Ingiliz oldugunu sanan ve bu sergiyle Turk oldugunu ogrenen bir kac sanatseverin hayranlikla dakiklar boyu video enstelasyanonun onune civilenmeleri… Evet, Dubai’liler Cagdas Turk Sanatini sevdi.

2009 Kasim’inda yapilan ve dunyanin ekonomik kriz’le calkalandigi su gunlerde yine rekor kiran Christies, Misirli Artist Ahmed Mustafa’nin kaligrafisi 662,500$’a – simdiye kadar satilmis en pahali Cagdas Arap Sanat Eseri-, Hintli Artist Tyeb Metha’nin eserini 578,500$’a ve yasayan en pahali Turk ressami Burhan Dogancay’in “Rift” adli eseri 242,500$’a satti. Muzayede evlerinin bu son donemde Ortadogu’da gostermis oldugu basari bize sunu isaret ediyor: Burasi artik sadece petro-dolarlarin milyonluk rezidanslara ve pahali Mercedes’lere aktigi suni bir cennet degil; Birlesik Arap Emirlikleri bolge icin bir kultur merkezi olmaya baslayan ‘gercek’ bir ulke. Bunu onceden farkeden yatirimcilar Iran Cagdas Sanatinin sonuna bir sifir koydular. Benzer hikaye Cin’de yasandi. Cagdas Turk Sanatinin sonuna o sifiri kim, ne zaman koyacak? Unutmayin artik Dubai’liler sadece Istanbul’da Gumus dizisinin cekildigi yaliyi degil ayni zamanda Contemporary Istanbul’u da ziyaret ediyor. Artik onlar, sadece Kivanc’a degil ayni zamanda Haluk Akakce’ye ve Nazif Topcuoglu’na da hayran.

Sertac Tasdelen,
Aralik 2009,
Dubai

Dubai Art / I - 2008

2010-01-20T05:31:00.001-08:00

United Arab Emirates… 4 million people sitting on 10% of world’s oil reserves share the highest gross national product per capita in the world, right here. This small country lying on the south of Persian Gulf is experiencing an epic economic boom
In this era where wealthy countries setting the global tastes, when the unavoidable rise of the Middle East is taken into account, we should not be so surprised if Andy Warhol of the year 2020 speaks Arabic. At least the prime players of the industry must be thinking like this as they have highly increased their investments in the region.
Dubai, the spoiled child of the seven Emirates, triggers this question: what makes a city, ‘a real city’? Foundations have already been established to answer this question, and yes, Dubai is becoming ‘real’. And what about Dubai’s transforming into a center for contemporary art?
The city hosted its first art fair in 2007. During the second year of Art Dubai –the international modern art fair– 400 artists were represented by 68 galleries from 30 countries. Not surprisingly, Art Dubai is now keeping up with Art Basel, New York, London, Berlin and Miami. The fair that was held on March 17-21 was designed to situate Dubai on the map of art world. Consequently ‘everyone’, from Glenn Lowry Director of Moma to Tom Krens of Guggenheim, was there to see this activity that has aroused interest.
At the opening night Veuve Clicquot was served, and while the flooding crowd was moving through the colorful installations the blue laser beam was illuminating the famous Karl Marx beard of Lawrence Weiner. Yes, this is Dubai. So, do not get surprised if you see Reem Koolhaas at atmospheric and labyrinthine Bastakiya, working together with some local students on the Master Plan of Dubai. Just like you do not get surprised when they are building the world’s tallest human made structure Burj Dubai, right in front of you. Although we do not want to believe, Dubai is re-writing the history.
Colossal auction houses must also have noticed the rapid development of Dubai, as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonham’s is side by side with the wonders of Dubai. The – record breaking – total sales that was made since the opening of Christie’s Dubai on May 2006 until now is USD 100,000,000. World record for the work of a Middle Eastern artist belongs to Iranian Parviz Tanavoli’s sculpture “The Wall (Oh Persepolis)” that fetched USD 2,840,000, also in Dubai. And 62: This is the number of world records broken by Christie’s in Dubai. As a result, it must not be hard for the European Boss of Christie’s Jussi Pylkkanen to say “Dubai is an art market that has proved its position”, or for the European Director of Bonham’s Matthew Girling to state that “Middle East is living its Renaissance”. Christie’s reached the figures $8.5 million on its first auction in Dubai, $9.4 million on the second and $15 million on last October. It has sold watches and jewelry worth $20 million, last April. Even though the sales were below the expectations on September 2008 (instead of the expected $32 million, the sales finalized at $16.9 million), 70% of the lots were sold ‘in an impressive way’. As the Managing Director Micheal Jeha pronounced “it is still a very liquid market”, and I assume that it will not be very sensible to expect a new record during these days when the financial crisis affecting the world is in its harshest state. Meanwhile, the thing that made us happy was the collection of 11 pieces that contained works of leading Turkish artists such as Abidin Dino, Erol Akyavas, Devrim Erbil, Burhan Dogancay, and they ‘all’ fetched good prices. The expected total amount for these works were $500,000 – 750,000 and they were sold to $600,000.
Of course these commercial achievements are not indicators that prove that Dubai is turning into a real center of art. But as the owner of The Third Line Gallery Sunny Rahbar says, “It will take some time for Dubai to compete with other leading cultural centers of the world but Dubai is heading in the right direction. Dubai’s art scene is not solely driven by commercial factors, but it is also going through a natural process that occurs in every developing society. The quality of artworks shown in local galleries across Dubai is continuously improving.” And citizens of Dubai know that improving the art scene in the city actually depends on educating society on art. Meantime, there are some institutions that fill this vacuum: Lateefa Bint Maktoum’s Tashkeel helps this with education programs, design & photography workshops, symposiums and art exchange programs; Art Dubai’s foundation branch START fills it with the forums, symposiums, and even with art-talks it organizes at DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) during lunch breaks.
Art galleries also got their share from all these improvements and their number is rapidly increasing. Today, there are more than 30 galleries in Dubai. While Sultan Al Qassemi’s Meem Gallery concentrates on Modern Arab and Islamic Art, galleries like B21 and XVA give priority to emerging artists. As Patricia Millns, a Dubai-based artist who was nominated this year for the European Art Prize and Gulf Art Fair, says “In some galleries you’ll see installations, with others you’ll see the contemporary orientalist movement or Vietnamese art.” Dubai has already reflected its multicultural qualities to its galleries. Local galleries have a wide range of art that cater for a wide range of the viewing public The lofty capital Abu Dhabi probably takes an example by Dubai. It will be the host of 27 billion dollar Saadiyat Island, Frank Gehry’s 323,000 sq-ft Guggenheim, Jean Nouvel’s Louvre with its half transparent dome, Japanese Tadao Ando’s Maritime Museum, Lord Foster’s National Museum and finally Zaha Hadid’s futuristic performance arts complex.
If Arab Emirates and Dubai is a bubble it has not burst yet.

Sertac Tasdelen
April 2008,
Dubai

see what you can discover

2008-05-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

The drive to explore is part of what makes us human. From pre-history to modern times, our ancestors have crossed great distances on foot, in boats and vehicles, and on the backs of animals to find new lands. They established trade, exchanged ideas, and ran into unimagined obstacles and rewards along the way. Not only do we explore geographically; we explore ideas, art, music, science, space, emotions, ways of communicating, and life itself. Exploration is a way of learning that spans all time periods and all cultures. People are attracted to things they don’t know about and have never seen. They also seek knowledge and the resources they need to survive.

So why do people explore? What do they hope to discover? Is exploration driven by curiosity? Is exploring about finding “what’s out there” and is making a discovery to the benefit of all? Or has exploration and discovery taught us that as long as we say “we saw it first”, whether it is a species of bird, a medicine, or a continent, it is ours to keep and use as we wish?

See what you can discover.

s-

Vibrations Within

2008-03-31T04:21:00.000-07:00

To realize is to be. To truly know is to become. The attainment of real knowledge involves an internal transformation of one’s own being, it is entering into truth. It is man’s birth to truth by feeling and mind, his sacrifice of mind to love. His complete conception of the existence of God, it is annihilation of self with the loved one which brings the pain of seeing the love of illusion of self

The conception of the personal self far from being necessary for the attainment of wisdom is in fact the greatest obstacle in its way. “Persona” means “mask”; our personal self is merely the mask in which our impersonal self is forced to parade during its pilgrimage upon the earth. And when the true self knowledge is attained the illusory character of mask will be realized. The personal delusion of self can have no real knowledge of truth, because it is not true, but delusive

In the true self consciousness of the divine man is freedom and rest, the misconception in man constituting his false egos are continually at war with each other, being engaged in the struggle for existence

Everything revolves and man carries on his live, his very existence by means of revolution in the atoms, structural stones of his body, by the revolution of his blood, by his coming from the earth and return to it, by his revolving with earth itself. Turning towards the truth, his growth through love; desert his ego, find the truth, arrive the reality, reality of bare soul.

S-

On photography

2008-02-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

Humankind lingers unregenerately in Plato's cave, still reveling, its age-old habit, in mere images of the truth. But being educated by photographs is not like being educated by older, more artisanal images. For one thing, there are a great many more images around, claiming our attention. The inventory started in 1839 and since then just about everything has been photographed, or so it seems. This very insatiability of the photographing eye changes the terms of confinement in the cave, our world. In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads -- as an anthology of images.

To collect photographs is to collect the world. Movies and television programs light up walls, flicker, and go out; but with still photographs the image is also an object, lightweight, cheap to produce, easy to carry about, accumulate, store. In Godard's Les Carabiniers (1963), two sluggish lumpen-peasants are lured into joining the King's Army by the promise that they will be able to loot, rape, kill, or do whatever else they please to the enemy, and get rich. But the suitcase of booty that Michel-Ange and Ulysse triumphantly bring home, years later, to their wives turns out to contain only picture postcards, hundreds of them, of Monuments, Department Stores, Mammals, Wonders of Nature, Methods of Transport, Works of Art, and other classified treasures from around the globe. Godard's gag vividly parodies the equivocal magic of the photographic image., Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern. Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.

To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge -- and, therefore, like power. A now notorious first fall into alienation, habituating people to abstract the world into printed words, is supposed to have engendered that surplus of Faustian energy and psychic damage needed to build modern, inorganic societies. But print seems a less treacherous form of leaching out the world, of turning it into a mental object, than photographic images, which now provide most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present. What is written about a person or an event is frankly an interpretation, as are handmade visual statements, like paintings and drawings. Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire.

Photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, tricked out. They age, plagued by the usual ills of paper objects; they disappear; they become valuable, and get bought and sold; they are reproduced. Photographs, which package the world, seem to invite packaging. They are stuck in albums, framed and set on tables, tacked on walls, projected as slides. Newspapers and magazines feature them; cops alphabetize them; museums exhibit them; publishers compile them.

For many decades the book has been the most influential way of arranging (and usually miniaturizing) photographs, thereby guaranteeing them longevity, if not immortality -- photographs are fragile objects, easily torn or mislaid -- and a wider public. The photograph in a book is, obviously, the image of an image. But since it is, to begin with, a printed, smooth object, a photograph loses much less of its essential quality when reproduced in a book than a painting does. Still, the book is not a wholly satisfactory scheme for putting groups of photographs into general circulation. The sequence in which the photographs are to be looked at is proposed by the order of pages, but nothing holds readers to the recommended order or indicates the amount of time to be spent on each photograph. Chris Marker's film, Si j'avais quatre dromadaires (1966), a brilliantly orchestrated meditation on photographs of all sorts and themes, suggests a subtler and more rigorous way of packaging (and enlarging) still photographs. Both the order and the exact time for looking at each photograph are imposed; and there is a gain in visual legibility and emotional impact. But photographs transcribed in a film cease to be collectable objects, as they still are when served up in books.

Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it. In one version of its utility, the camera record incriminates. Starting with their use by the Paris police in the murderous roundup of Communards in June 1871, photographs became a useful tool of modern states in the surveillance and control of their increasingly mobile populations. In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what's in the picture. Whatever the limitations (through amateurism) or pretensions (through artistry) of the individual photographer, a photograph -- any photograph -- seems to have a more innocent, and therefore more accurate, relation to visible reality than do other mimetic objects. Virtuosi of the noble image like Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, composing mighty, unforgettable photographs decade after decade, still want, first of all, to show something "out there," just like the Polaroid owner for whom photographs are a handy, fast form of note-taking, or the shutterbug with a Brownie who takes snapshots as souvenirs of daily life.

While a painting or a prose description can never be other than a narrowly selective interpretation, a photograph can be treated as a narrowly selective transparency. But despite the presumption of veracity that gives all photographs authority, interest, seductiveness, the work that photographers do is no generic exception to the usually shady commerce between art and truth. Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience. The immensely gifted members of the Farm Security Administration photographic project of the late 1930s (among them Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee) would take dozens of frontal pictures of one of their sharecropper subjects until satisfied that they had gotten just the right look on film -- the precise expression on the subject's face that supported their own notions about poverty, light, dignity, texture, exploitation, and geometry. In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects. Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are. Those occasions when the taking of photographs is relatively undiscriminating, promiscuous, or self-effacing do not lessen the didacticism of the whole enterprise. This very passivity -- and ubiquity -- of the photographic record is photography's "message," its aggression.

Images which idealize (like most fashion and animal photography) are no less aggressive than work which makes a virtue of plainness (like class pictures, still lifes of the bleaker sort, and mug shots). There is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera. This is as evident in the 1840s and 1850s, photography's glorious first two decades, as in all the succeeding decades, during which technology made possible an ever increasing spread of that mentality which looks at the world as a set of potential photographs. Even for such early masters as David Octavius Hill and Julia Margaret Cameron who used the camera as a means of getting painterly images, the point of taking photographs was a vast departure from the aims of painters. From its start, photography implied the capture of the largest possible number of subjects. Painting never had so imperial a scope. The subsequent industrialization of camera technology only carried out a promise inherent in photography from its very beginning: to democratize all experiences by translating them into images.

That age when taking photographs required a cumbersome and expensive contraption -- the toy of the clever, the wealthy, and the obsessed -- seems remote indeed from the era of sleek pocket cameras that invite anyone to take pictures. The first cameras, made in France and England in the early 1840s, had only inventors and buffs to operate them. Since there were then no professional photographers, there could not be amateurs either, and taking photographs had no clear social use; it was a gratuitous, that is, an artistic activity, though with few pretensions to being an art. It was only with its industrialization that photography came into its own as art. As industrialization provided social uses for the operations of the photographer, so the reaction against these uses reinforced the self-consciousness of photography-as-art.

Susan Sontag