The press conference was presented by fair's spokespeople, Dyala Nusseibeh, Director of Abu Dhabi Art, and Alanood Al Hammadi, Project Head at Abu Dhabi Art, alongside this year's participants, including guest curators Simon Njami, Rose Lejeune, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath.

Photo above: Manarat Al Saadiyat / Courtesy of Abu Dhabi Art

Abu Dhabi Art 2021 is held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Office, and organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi. This year marks the art fair's 13th edition, between 17 – 21 November 2021 at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Abu Dhabi Art will see an impressive roster of gallery participation and newly commissioned works by a diverse line-up of featured artists.

This year, Simon Njami's gallery sector draws connections between artists through the language of music, spotlighting selected artists and galleries under a new curatorial framework: Kind of Blue. The exhibition's title references the album by Miles Davis, with Njami positioning jazz music as a metaphor for the open-ended parameters of the exhibition.

For the Performing Arts Programme, Rose Lejeune brings together new performance commissions by Louise Hervé & Clovis Maillet, Mays Albaik, Rand Abdul Jabbar and Super Taus. Each commissioned artist will select a site for a live performance in different locations around Abu Dhabi and at the fair to offer an abstract and poetic experience of various sculptural landmarks and sceneries around the city.

Abu Dhabi Art's Beyond: Emerging Artists, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, co-founders of multidisciplinary curatorial platform Art Reoriented, presented new works by three UAE-based emerging artists – Hashel Al Lamki, Maitha Abdalla and Christopher Benton. Their exhibition will be on show at Manarat Al Saadiyat from 17 November 2021 until 4 December 2021.

New commissions by artists Aya Haidar, Hazem Harb, Dr Najat Makki, Rasheed Araeen and Richard Atugonza will be presented as part of Abu Dhabi Art's Beyond: Artist Commissions programme. This year's programme is the most ambitious to date, with works shown in cultural sites throughout the capital. The artists' works will be revealed during the fair and will remain on view to the public until 22 January 2022.

The commissioned artists for Beyond: Artist Commissions shows large-scale artworks at the fair as part of Abu Dhabi Art's on-site programme, In and Around, to connect fair-goers to the off-site projects. Other artists who will be presenting their works as part of In and Around include Alfredo Jaar, represented by Giorgio Persano Gallery (Turin, Italy); Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, represented by Green Art Gallery (Dubai, UAE); Olga de Amaral, represented by Galeria La Cometa (Bogotá, Colombia); Seher Naveed, represented by Aicon Contemporary (New York, USA); Siah Armajani, represented by Rossi & Rossi (London, Hong Kong); Zarina, represented by Gallery Espace (New Delhi, India); and Zineb Sedira, represented by The Third Line (Dubai, UAE).

See the full Abu Dhabi Art 2021 Press Conference in the video:


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