artparis - AbuDhabi 2008 to hold two special exhibitions

From the 17th until the 21st of November, 2008, artparis-AbuDhabi organized by ADACH (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage) will take place at the Emirates Palace with 58 international galleries presenting the artistic work of the 20th and the 21st centuries in all its diversity.

An exhibition of emerging artists from the Arab world: 'Movement and communication...Travels through desert and sea'

Integrated into the fair, artparis-AbuDhabi, an exhibition entitled "Movement and communication...Travels through desert and sea" is destined to enrich the economic and cultural exchanges encouraged by artparis-AbuDhabi. This exhibition will be organized by Amal Traboulsi, a specialist in art of the Middle East.

Works by approximately twenty artists explore the influence of the desert and the sea on artistic creation in the Arab world, the diagonal stretch of a region which is geographically arid yet culturally rich. "The images and ideas transported along these channels continue to enrich the creativity of modern and contemporary Arab artists."

Through photography, painting and video, the exhibition shows the way in which contemporary Arab artists have been moved by natural elements that are as intimidating as they are fascinating. Amal Traboulsi comments: "Visually, the desert is graphic. The wind passes, drawing lines; those which are associated with grace and immobility. Despite its aridity and dryness, the desert generates these visions that the interior eye of the artists express perfectly in all their magnificence. an insisting dialogue, the sea answers us, from the other side of the imaginary and like her ally the desert, speaks to us from the depth of our being. Monumental, yet continuously illusive in itself, the sea stirs our senses and emotions."

Amal Traboulsi brings works by the following 19 artists from the Arab world together for this exhibition: Faisal Samra (Saudi Arabia), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Mateu (Iraq/Spain), Danièle Chikhani (Lebanon), Chaouki Chamoun (Lebanon), Abdallah Akar (Tunisia), Ricardo Mbarkho (Lebanon), Salem Dabbagh (Iraq), Rachid Koraichi (Algeria), Mohammad Rawas (Lebanon), Maya Eid (Lebanon/Canada), Nadia Oufrid (Maroco), Amal Dagher (Lebanon/France), Jocelyne Saab (Lebanon), Omar Youssoufi (Maroco), Samir Khaddage (Palestine), Abdel Qader el Rais (UAE), Majdal Abdel Beik (Syria), Joseph Abi Yaghi (Lebanon).

With the Sculpture Garden, art invites itself into the gardens of the Emirates Palace

Hosting more than 3,000 works of art from the 17th until the 21st of November, the Emirates Palace will further be encircled by sculptures, installed in the Palace gardens for the duration of the fair. A dozen galleries participating in artparis-AbuDhabi are setting some of their artists' works free from the walls of the Emirates Palace, exposing them instead in the « Sculpture Garden.

There one will encounter works by Philippe Hiquily and Allen Jones (presented by galerie de Patrice Trigano), Vladimir Skoda (galerie Baudoin Lebon), Julian Wild (Waterhouse Gallery), Igor Mitoraj (Die Galerie), Giuseppe Penone (galerie Triangle Bleue), Wim Delvoye (galerie Guy Pieters), Lalanne (Paul Kasmin gallery), and three Indian artists presented by a gallery from UAE (1x1 Art Space Gallery): N. N. Rimzon, Vivek Vilasin et Biju Joze.