Art Dubai: Before History (The Abraaj Group Art Prize)

Still from False Start, the 23-minute video by Yto Barrada as part of Before History; the Abraaj Group Art Prize exhibition. Image by Anna Seaman.

What is interesting about the Abraaj Group Art Prize is that it awards artists on the basis of submitted project proposals. In its new form, there is one winner who is awarded a US$100,000 grant for a commissioned piece of art, which is displayed in full at Art Dubai.

Last September, Moroccan artist Yto Barrada was announced as the winner for this seventh edition and she has been working with guest curator Omar Kholeif since then on the presentation showing this week at the art fair.

The primary presentation is Faux départ (False Start) a 23-minute digital video that explores the underground industry of fossil trade in the south of Morocco, which has sprung up around the region of the Atlas Mountains where archeologists have recently discovered real fossils. This is Barrada's tenth film and reflects her inspiration from every day people and her desire to become involved in the realities of lives of the communities she follows. The film is observational, has elements of documentary and sheds a light on this small pocket of people. It is coupled with the display of two fossils casts, which Barrada does not reveal if they are real or not.

The walk is displayed alongside the art from three shorlisted artists Sarnath Banerjee, Setareh Shahbazi and Mounira Al Solh in an exhibition that Kholeif has called Before History.

“The idea came from artists who are interested in the presentation and the layering of time; who are excavating into histories and stories and adopting them and telling their own narratives creating new meaning through the material,” says Kholeif.

Setareh Shahbazi, an Iranian, begins her work with original photographs that she manipulates through layering processes. Several pieces are shown here from a series called Spectral Days that is based on the premise that photography can also manipulate our thoughts. Sarnath Banerjee from India has created a graphic illustration project called Temporary Autonomous Zones talking about pirates and islands.

Mounira Al Solh, a Lebanese artist also presents a video work - The Mute Tongue. It takes 19 Arabic proverbs used in day to day life, that are funny and also, at times, insulting, being acted out by a Croatian performance artist who has no grasp of Arabic and so, has no idea what the proverbs mean as they are taken out of context. The film is difficult to watch due to the range of emotions it elicits from the viewer, which makes it, in my opinion, the strongest piece in this particular section.

* Art Dubai runs until Saturday at Madinat Jumeirah. It is open from 4pm-9.30pm tomorrow and from 2pm-9.30pm on Friday and 2pm-6.30pm on Saturday. For more info visit www.artdubai.ae