The Emirati and international artists working on site-specific projects for Sikka Art Fair and Art Dubai

Five artists are undertaking a three-month residency in Dubai in the lead up to the city’s art week, working on site-specific art works to be displayed at both the Sikka Art Fair and Art Dubai

The Turkish curator Ipek Ulusoy Akgül, right, and the artist Maitha Demithan, who will create a portrait of Art Dubai. Jaime Puebla / The National / February 18, 2014

The walls of Maryam Al Qassimi’s temporary studio in Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood are covered in the pages of textbooks that teach children etiquette, including how to eat and drink.

The childlike animated figures are central to the Emirati artist’s installation set to be unveiled at Sikka Art Fair, which runs from Saturday to March 25.

“These images are not generally considered cultural images, but I think they are because everyone recognises them and gets that sense of nostalgia,” she explains. “My work is an exploration of what constitutes culture and specifically my own culture.”

Al Qassimi, from Sharjah, is one of three Emiratis taking part in the annual Artists in Residence (A.i.R) programme run by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, Tashkeel, Delfina Foundation and Art Dubai.

For three months – it started in January and runs until the end of March – she is given a studio space inside a house in Al Fahidi, along with the other Emiratis and two international students. They are working towards two art pieces, one to be installed at Sikka and one for Art Dubai, which takes place from March 19 to 22.

The idea is that all the artists will benefit from a cultural and artistic exchange that will be reflected not just in the work that they will display at the fair but also as they move forward with their practice.

Supporting them in the position of curator-in-residence is Ipek Ulusoy Akgül, a Turkish curator and public-arts programmer who recently moved to Dubai.

“My role is that of a mediator. I support the development of the artist’s work over this time by sharing research and engaging in constant conversation about their practice,” she explains.

Ulusoy Akgül will complete her residency with a curatorial essay about the artist’s work as well as create a programme for Sikka, where the five artists will display part of her work.

In addition to the pieces that they’re putting together under her guidance, the artists are also working on Art Dubai Projects, a non-profit programme that commissions a variety of artists each year to create site-specific pieces that will be displayed within the grounds of the fair.

Al Qassimi is working on the instructional behaviour man­uals for Sikka; for Art Dubai, she’s creating an installation around the giant artificial incense burners at Madinat Jumeirah, where Art Dubai will take place.

Fawz Kabra is the curator for the Art Dubai Projects, where she guides the five artists-in-residence as well as seven other international artists scattered all over the world, for the art­­works that will be presented through­­­­out the grounds of Art Dubai.

“In terms of selecting artists, we did so in terms of those whose practices were really interesting when thinking about the space of the fair,” explains the writer and curator, who lives in New York.

“The prompt that I got from Art Dubai was to intervene in the fair, so for me it was thinking about what that word means and what does it mean to invite someone to intervene.”

Alongside Al Qassimi is Maitha Demithan, who will be using a technique called live portraiture. Throughout the course of the fair she will work on impulse and, by the end of the four days, create a portrait of Art Dubai.

Then there is Sunoj D, an Indian artist who has tackled the perception in his home country that Dubai is equated with money. He will be installing a three-channel sound-art piece of spoken numbers in three languages.

“I thought the idea of money works well at the art fair,” he explains. “But in the end, you forget the idea of money and you move into another level.”

Also in the A.i.R residency are Sara Al Haddad and Nadia Ayari; the other artists in the Projects programme include Youmna Chlala, a Lebanese artist based in New York, Amina Menia, from Algiers, and Mounira Al Solh, who lives in ­Amsterdam.

“When they come across their works in the fair, I want people to take a moment and stop and pause,” says Kabra.

“That should be the result of this dialogue.”

• Art Dubai takes place from March 19 to 22 in Madinat Jumeirah. For more info, visit www.artdubai.ae