Starting on Wednesday, May 6, the eyes of the art world will be on Venice, as the VIP openings commence for the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale, sometimes described as the Olympics for art. In the Arsenale, Venice’s ancient shipyards, the UAE pavilion will showcase more than 100 artworks from 15 artists, many of whom have never exhibited internationally before.
And, not far from there, on the canals that characterise the city, the UAE is set to make another contribution to the biennial event. The Safina Radio Project is an itinerant recording studio in the form of a boat that will be traversing the canals for three days during the opening of the biennale, hosting a series of conversations and performances and picking up passengers who will be encouraged to listen and join in.
Commissioned by Alserkal Avenue, recordings from the boat, which can hold up to 14 people at a time, will be uploaded onto the Safina project website within 24 hours, allowing anyone in the world to experience the project.
The idea
“We will be bringing up subjects that are pertinent to the region and offering artists the freedom to respond to them,” says Anabelle de Gersigny, the project’s curator. “But there is a playful element, too – we didn’t want to be ‘too dry’ about the content.”
The starting point for the project was de Gersigny’s idea to launch an online cultural-radio station in the UAE, where artists, thinkers, writers and creative people could pool ideas and topics that they considered pressing and express themselves freely through dialogue, sound or music.
This was in line with Alserkal Avenue’s incubation programme, so it agreed to back the project and launch it in Venice.
“As Alserkal Avenue has been growing, we have been looking for projects to develop both here and internationally,” says Tairone Bastien, the programming director.
“One of the things that we find exciting and encouraging is that there are so many artists and curators here who use Dubai as a springboard for much wider ideas and we want to provide that opportunity for certain projects to grow.”
The artists
Bastien also says the way that Safina Radio Project acts as a hub for creative people to gather and express themselves mirrors the model of Alserkal Avenue itself. He adds that there might well be a future for the project beyond its initial three-day stretch.
“There is a conversation about how to move this forward, but for now, the Safina project in Venice is a great way for us to test it out.”
Artists who are exhibiting in the National Pavilion of the UAE will be taking part in the project. Hassan Sharif will be in conversation with Mohammed Kazem, alongside leading UAE curators Alexandra MacGilp and Cristiana de Marchi. Artists exhibiting at other pavilions will also be on board the boat. Lebanese artist Haig Aivazian, who is exhibiting at the Armenian pavilion under the curator Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg, will be in discussion with other artists, including Hrair Sarkissian, a Syrian-Armenian whose work addresses exile and displacement.
Unity in diversity
Although the themes in each conversation are specific to each artist, there is an overarching sense that these are the topics arising from the region, with displacement, dissonance and migration commonly being addressed.
The launch event for Safina Radio Project took place last week at A4, Alserkal Avenue’s community space, with a talk from Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, an exiled Iraqi artist, whose exhibition in Ayyam Gallery centres on the human desire to escape and issues of displacement.
Also, since the idea was agreed upon, de Gersigny and her team have been uploading verbal documentaries, abstract sound pieces, music and audio conversations to the Safina website, so people can familiarise themselves with the space and be exposed to new content.
“It is really important for people here to realise that others are asking all the same questions as they are,” says de Gersigny. “Safina acts as a bridge.”
It is also very much a home-grown project, says Bastien. “This is a Dubai project going abroad,” he says. “We want to maintain that identity.”
Abdelmonem bin Eisa Alserkal, the founder of Alserkal Avenue, agrees: “The idea of the home-grown [project] is not to limit the initiatives and ideas to Dubai, but rather to provide a springboard for these ideas beyond our regional borders.”
• The Safina Radio Project runs from Wednesday, May 6, until Friday, May 8, at the Venice Biennale. All content will be uploaded to safinaradioproject.org
aseaman@thenational.ae
