Discussion and book launch
Portrait of a Nation II and Art of the Emirates II

Both publications signal a transition from a field of creative activities to practices codified as art by being exhibited in galleries, museums or projects spaces, written about in newspapers and magazines, and documented as such. But what is lost when we call something “art”? What possibilities are bracketed off by the term, and what does this do to art’s political potential once it is removed from the practice of everyday life? In expanding what can be understood as art, is the art world consuming ideas rather than living them?

Join Maya El Khalil, curator of Abu Dhabi Festival’s ‘Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives’ exhibition and Melissa Gronlund, editor of Art of the Emirates ll, as they speak alongside guest artists Maryam Al Dabbagh, and Walid Al Wawi on the question of what is lost in the term “art”.

In collaboration with Art Jameel