As the realm of politics eyes the Arab world closely, the region’s art scene is emerging and changing almost every day. Vasıf Kortun, the curator the UAE pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, speaks about the country’s pavilion and how political change there has not been reflected in the art
Not confined simply to the political sphere, radical, though unrelated, change is also occurring in the Middle East’s arts world, according to Vasıf Kortun, the curator of this year’s United Arab Emirates pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale.
While the whole world is analyzing the situation in the Middle East and the Arab Spring, the changing art scene of those countries is amazing people from many countries as the region’s artistic scene continues to grow and develop.
“The Middle East region is very strong right now,” Kortun recently told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview. Among those Middle countries, Egypt is very strong, he added.
Middle Eastern neighbor Iran has another glamorous art scene – the product of a centuries-old artistic tradition. “Iran is another large empire in the region. From very early, the art scene in Iran developed. There is the Shiraz school, the Tabriz school; there are local masters of art,” said Kortun.
But the UAE is particularly shining with its art scene.
As the curator of this year’s UAE pavilion, titled “The Second Time Around,” Kortun has different and “deep” approaches to the region.
Kortun, who has been moving back and forth to the UAE for many years, said the country had a history that went well back.
Working with artists as artists
“For most people, the Arab world consists of people with money, and their people are building a [society] from scratch,” said Kortun. “What I wanted to do is to keep the project away from political and representational issues.”
Kortun wanted to work with artists as artists. “I did not want to work with artists as representations,” he said.
The curator also said he did not want to do something overtly open to urbanization issues. According to Kortun, everybody who visits the country is fascinated by the skyscrapers and the money, leading people to develop very strange misconceptions or perceptions of the UAE. “People don’t know the mountains. If you have not seen the biological diversity, you cannot see the ‘reality’ of the region,” the curator said.
For his project, Kortun did studio visits and met with artists, talking to them and getting to know them.
When asked if the artists from the UAE were questioning the political issues and the current uprisings in the Arab world, Kortun’s perception and conception of the Arab world and its art revealed themselves overtly.
“Artists are not questioning those issues too much,” he said, noting that he only dealt with the artwork and the artists.
He is also not in favor of questioning political issues; the most dominant factor must be art itself, he said.
“Some people, especially those coming from a European or American culture where there is a notion of the avant-garde and there is a notion that ‘artists should be engaged in political issues,’ might raise the question of why Arab artists are not dealing with the political issues,” he said, but added that he did not think it was an ideological question. “Dealing with emerging questions over the political situation is not necessary. I do not think that is something artists are strong at.”
There is obviously a red line, said Kortun, noting that there were thing that people were very sensitive about. “I was writing the exhibition catalogue, and two bloggers were arrested, while one professor from the Sorbonne was taken into custody.”
Tahrir Square and Egyptian revolution art
Kortun, meanwhile, said he was not impressed with the artwork at the Egyptian pavilion that was inspired by the massive protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in January and February.
“There is a confusion between footage, documentaries and work,” he said.
“I do not think it is right or ethical to make exhibitions about revolutions [just] two or three months after. I think there is a lot of garbage revolution art coming out of Egypt. It is opportunistic. It is a serious thing to make art out of a very important revolution,” Kortun said.
Iraqi Pavilion after 34 years
Iraq has returned to the Venice Biennale after a hiatus of 35 years.
“I think it is great to have an Iraqi pavilion, there is some good work in it,” UAE pavilion curator Vasıf Kortun told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Venice is a festival of nations, according to Kortun. “At the end of the day, it is good to have a show in Venice,” he said.
“The introduction of Iraq is not surprising for me,” said Kortun, noting that even countries that were experiencing difficulty could usually find one foundation to support their work.