Joanna Chevalier, Tamara Inja, Basel Dalloul, Abraham Karabajakian, Tarek Nahas
BEIRUT ART FAIR announces the selection committee for its 9th edition to be held from September 19 to 23 of this year. An experienced committee composed of personalities from the world of international art on which this event significantly relies. Two new personalities joined the committee: Joanna Chevalier, both curator and consultant in contemporary art, and Tamara Inja, artistic advisor for major collections in the Gulf countries, joining Basel Dalloul, Abraham Karabajakian and Tarek Nahas whose collections, respectively paintings and photographs, are among the most important in the Middle East and the Arab world. A committee that associates personalities from the world of Lebanese and international art, seeking to establish a dialogue around contemporary creation while decentering the gaze outside the Western field. The fair will present a new curated space, aiming at highlighting modern and contemporary photography of the region in collaboration with the most important Lebanese collectors, in Lebanon and worldwide.
Laure d’Hauteville, founder and director of BEIRUT ART FAIR asserted that: “the fair has secured the participation of major collectors and curators among the most important of the region and which have been solicited for the wealth of their expertise and their intellectual curiosity. The members of the 2018 committee manifest a common desire to establish, share and transmit a broader vision of contemporary creation in this region of the world, decentering the gaze out of the Western field.”
The selection committee of BEIRUT ART FAIR 2018 includes:
JOANNA CHEVALIER
Joanna Abou Sleiman Chevalier is a curator & art consultant. Since 2010, she curated exhibitions in Paris, such as “Who are you Peter” at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, and two events during La Nuit Blanche. She also curated several exhibitions in Beirut, such as “Heartland – Territoire d’Affects” at the Beirut Exhibition Center (2015), “Michel Deverne” in partnership with PIASA at Over the Counter (2016), “Patterns and forms” in partnership with Beirut Design Fair at Maison Rabih Kayrouz (2017). She is also the founder of “Talents Video”, a company that produces and distributes art films. In 2010, she produced and delivered ten films that created the link between video art and classical music. They were projected at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature during Paris Museum Night.
TAMARA INJA
Based in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) since 2004, Tamara Inja Jaber is an independent art curator and consultant for prominent Arab collectors in the private and governmental sector. A fierce art advocate, she aims to promote famous and promising Middle Eastern artists and their work in the Gulf region to the international market. In 2008, she curated “Lebanese Stories,” a landmark exhibition at the Dubai International Financial Centre, which garnered the attention of the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. In 2010, she co-curated in Beirut “Pieces for a Museum,” a retrospective celebrating the renowned and timeless works of Paul Guiragossian and Chafic Abboud. Tamara thrives to portray a comprehensive canvas of the Middle East by shedding light on the varied art practices of the Levant, the Gulf and Europe. Simply put, her mission is to bridge talented individuals with worthy institutions for the sake of art.
BASEL DALLOUL
Based between Beirut and Cairo, Basel Dalloul is the Chairman and CEO of Noor Group, a leader in the field of information technology that provides internet, telephone and video services to over 135 countries across the globe. Dalloul is a recognized authority in IT and was among the initiators of a revolutionary approach to internet services in the Egyptian market, while also pioneering the delivery of internet access to underserved areas in Africa and the Middle East. One of the most important collectors in the region, he has gathered some 3,500 exceptional works into the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation: mostly paintings and sculptures, with recent additions of installations, photography, and video art.
ABRAHAM KARABAJAKIAN
Abraham Karabajakian is the founder of Loyalty Investments & Insurance in Lebanon and Loyalty Insurance Brokers in Romania. In 2010 he co-organized and curated the exhibition Pieces for a Museum, in order to raise awareness of the need to create a modern and contemporary art museum in Beirut. In 2012 Karabajakian and his business partner Roger Akoury opened KA Modern and Contemporary Art, a private collection of modern and contemporary art – partly on view in the «KA» space near Beirut’s Marina of Dbayeh – that includes more than 600 works by major artists from Lebanon. He is also a co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees for BeMA – Beirut Museum of Arts, and serves as vice-president for the Mare Foundation, Museum of Recent Art in Bucharest.
TAREK NAHAS
Tarek Nahas is a business lawyer whose passion for photography has led him to amass an important collection of works since 2000. Nahas loves to share his passion with a wider audience, as evidenced in the 2015 exhibition Open Rhapsody, a Journey into Photography and Video Collections at the Beirut Exhibition Center, which he co-curated with Jean-Luc Monterosso (Director of La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris).
Nahas is also a member of several committees at major contemporary art museums in Europe.
Notes
Organized with the support of Bankmed, the 9th edition of BEIRUT ART FAIR will take place from September 19 to 23 in Beirut (Lebanon). Following the success of the 2017 edition which brought together 51 galleries from 23 countries, BEIRUT ART FAIR 2018 will present a focus exhibition dedicated to Lebanese photography, the section REVEALING by SGBL, the 7th edition of BYBLOS BANK AWARD for photography and a VIP program focused on exceptional tours of Lebanese private collections.
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