What do art fairs do? : the case of Art Dubai

• Autor(a) principal: Zmpogko, Eva
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/27103
• topic: International art fair; Society; Social change; Politics; Art market; Art Dubai; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Artes

In a period of social and political volatility, the art world and the art market cannot remain untouched (Tefaf Art Market Report, 2017: 10). Changes, some of which are radical, have been noticed, bringing a new balance to the art world. This balance is characterized by many different notions, and one of those notions, that even manages to create new perceptions to what we knew so far, is the institution of the international art fair. But what do really art fairs do? This paper, the title of which has been inspired by Maria Lind’s curated Eleventh Gwangju Biennale (GB11), under the title The Eighth Climate (What does art do)? (ArtReview Asia, 2016), will start with a general introduction to the history of art fairs and how they formed to what they are today. It will then examine critically the relation of art fairs to contemporary society through three main extensions: society, politics and the art market. In order to answer this question, we will focus on a specific example as a case study: Art Dubai, an emerging art fair developed within an interesting social and political framework, that brought a fresh air and new standards in the art market of Dubai in the past twelve years. It managed to put the city to the spotlight of the international art map while aiming to become a bridge in discourse for the East and the West (Shannon, 2013: 260). With a critical examination of the long list of educational and non-profit activities supporting Art Dubai’s social goals, we will observe the political extensions that have been vital to its operation as well as the financial elements that generated new aspects on the local art market. This analysis is aimed at finding a series of possible answers for our research question In the conclusion, the updated image of the institution of the art fair will be presented, within social, political and financial extents, as a reflection of the case study in relation to the theoretical framework of the research.