Dubai: An unlikely haven for Middle Eastern artists
Dubai’s transformation over the past 100 years from sleepy village to bustling trading entrepot to global metropolis was achieved in part by creating a tax-free environment to attract Persian traders across the Gulf. The city has since drawn in vibrant Arab and Asian expatriate communities, lured by its connectivity, political stability and economic freedom.
At the start of this century, an equally dramatic transformation began in Dubai’s art scene. Artists from all over the Middle East, fleeing war, violence and persecution, have arrived in the emirate. “Dubai has become a safe haven for the intellectuals and creatives of the region,” says Manal Al Dowayan, a Saudi artist whose installations often have a feminist bent. “As an artist living here, I have access to a growing and exciting art scene that is supported and protected by the community.”
The cultural influences on this community are diverse: in the 1970s Palestinian-born painter Youssef Dweik came to Dubai; the late Iraqi artist Ismail Fattah worked in the United Arab Emirates following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003; the brothers Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh, known for their arresting paintings and installations, entered self-imposed exile from their native Iran in 2009; and Tunisian “calligraffiti” star eL Seed has set up a studio in the city.
More recently, the tumult of the Arab spring has driven people, businesses and money from troubled states such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria to Dubai, inflating property prices and filling the city’s hotels. Meanwhile, second-generation expatriates born or raised in the UAE to non-Emirati parents, such as Dubai-raised Chinese multimedia practitioner Lantian Xie, have been making a name for themselves.
“An unfortunate reality is that as political, economic and social issues affect the wider region, more people flock to the UAE as a place of refuge, to raise a family and find employment,” says Myrna Ayad, director of Art Dubai, an annual fair that has run since 2006. “For an artist, Dubai provides a diverse network of patrons, collectors and gallerists. It’s a scene that offers them a solid international stage from which to successfully launch their careers.” The scene, she adds, has created programmes and spaces, such as Tashkeel, an artists’ studios complex, that are attractive for regional artists. Elsewhere in the UAE, institutions such as the Sheikha Salama Foundation of Abu Dhabi offer education and residencies, while the Sharjah Art Foundation supports artists through its biennial.
Artists have to carefully negotiate the red lines of accepted expression in Dubai
Renowned Syrian artists have also moved to Dubai, including painters Safwan Dahoul and Tammam Azzam. Azzam, 36, came to Dubai from Damascus in 2011 along with his gallery, Ayyam, which transferred its operations to the Gulf as the civil war intensified back home. “I spent four years in Dubai from 2011. I went there because it is a safe place,” says Azzam, who works as a graphic designer as well as a fine artist. The nature of his work, which describes the destruction of the war and supports the populist revolt, means he cannot return to Syria, he says. “Some of my work is political — I have been supporting the revolution since the first moments.”
But while Dubai offers political safety, it is an unlikely haven in other respects. Freedom of expression there has been curtailed since the Arab spring raised tensions over political freedom and sectarianism in the Middle East. Artists work in a sometimes strained atmosphere, carefully negotiating the red lines of accepted expression in the city’s burgeoning gallery scene and at Art Dubai.
In the absence of work visas, artists obtain residence visas at the invitation of a gallery or Emirati national. Artists from countries afflicted by Arab spring violence say it is increasingly difficult to secure such papers. The authorities are concerned about importing revolutionary zeal that might undermine the Gulf’s stability.
Azzam left Dubai for Germany to take up a fellowship on an academic arts programme, in part because the country offered longer-term stability for a foreigner. His UAE visa only allowed for visits from his parents, not his siblings, and there was no chance of naturalisation in Dubai. He says if he had lost his contract with the gallery, he would have had to leave the country within a month.
