Second Artist-in-Residence programme commences in House 11, at Al Bastakiya

The second artist-in-residence programme, held in collaboration with the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated Authority for culture, arts, and heritage, the Delfina Foundation, Art Dubai, and Tashkeel has commenced, in House 11, at the historical Al Bastakiya, following the arrival of the international artists.

The second edition of the annual residency programme is scheduled to be held until April 7, 2012, to coincide with the SIKKA Art Fair, the UAE’s dedicated Emirati and contemporary local fair.

The artists who are part of the programme include: Narrative collector and assembler of objects and films that thwart identification reflex Faycal Baghriche; Cairo-based artist Magdi Mostafa, who works primarily with site-specific, research-driven sound projects, multimedia installations and experimental music; and Deniz Uster, whose work often implies processes of transmutation, drawing upon the language of alchemy, who have been commissioned to create new performative or site-specific artwork for Art Dubai, the Middle East’s largest fair.

The international artists will work along with Emirati and local artists Hadeyah Badri, co-founder of Möbius Design Studio, a collective engaged in experimental processes, and conceptual and formal investigations; Zeinab Al Hashimi, is a young visual artist based in Dubai, who specializes in multi-media design and sources her ideas from elements of popular culture; and Nasir Nasrallah, a Sharjah-based visual artist whose practice is driven by the need to experiment with new concepts and methodologies and to transform raw materials into art.

They artists will showcase their works for the Open Studios exhibitions, which will run in concurrence with the SIKKA Art Fair, to be held in March 2012.

The 2012 programme has expanded its scope this year to serve as a platform for one upcoming, international curator, in collaboration with ArtAsiaPacific, a leading magazine covering contemporary art and culture from Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East.

Alexander MacGlip, the curator-in-residence, is part of a curatorial collective with Cassandra Needham, covering film, video, performance and installation practices, curating multi-media exhibitions with accompanying talks and performance programmes in London, Hamburg, and Kabul.

The artists-in-residence have been identified through a nomination process by the A.I.R. Dubai selection panel, consisting of all partners and a guest curator, November Paynter, Associate Director of Research and Programs at SALT in Istanbul and Director of the Artist Pension Trust, Dubai.