Art Dubai’s 16th edition opens with Refik Anadol’s ‘Glacier Dreams’

ISTANBUL (AA): Art Dubai, one of the world’s most important contemporary art fairs, brings together over 130 galleries from 43 countries for its 16th edition.

The fair’s director, Benedetta Ghione, highlighted the event’s role as a meeting point for the region’s creative industries, noting that it strives to present innovations every year.

Noting that this year’s extensive program fully reflects the event’s role, Ghione said: “As an independent organization, it is a catalyst for the creative economy in Dubai, a cultural hub that brings together great minds and contributes to this vibrant ecosystem.”

Making a statement to Anadolu Agency (AA) after the premiere, the art director of the fair, Pablo del Val, said that over 130 contemporary, modern, and digital galleries from six continents took part in the event. He specifically commended the successful selection of galleries from Türkiye, which represented five of the 76 galleries in the main section.

The contemporary section will display works of art from the Zilberman Gallery, x-ist, Pilevneli, Dirimart and Sanatorium from Türkiye. In the digital section, reputed new media artist Refik Anadol will exhibit the first phase of the “Glacier Dreams” project with the Pilevneli gallery.

Refik Anadol employed machine learning algorithms to process a dataset of visual materials sourced from online and institutional archives, as well as personal glacier visuals, to create an immersive audio-visual installation “Glacier Dreams.” This installation also features an olfactory component.

The first two days of the fair, which were held at Madinat Jumeirah, were by invitation, but from March 3 to 5, it is open to the public.

Praising the quality and geographic diversity of the participating galleries and highlighting Art Dubai’s role in promoting non-Western art and supporting galleries beyond the traditional centers of the art world, de Val said: “This is reflected in both the quality and geographical distribution of the galleries participating this year. We want to highlight the growing interest and appetite for non-Western art, the strengthening of galleries beyond the traditional centers of the art world, and the role Art Dubai plays here. There are galleries and they have the opportunity to dialogue with African or Asian galleries through different perspectives. As Art Dubai, we care about this pluralism.”

The fair will donate 50% of all online ticket sales to earthquake relief efforts in Syria and Türkiye. The organization also donated 25% of ticket sales from its 2022 event to Ukrainian refugees.