Curator of Art Dubai Modern 2024
By Ian Tee

Christianna Bonin, Curator, Art Dubai Modern 2024.

Dr Christianna Bonin is an art educator, writer, and curator. Her research interests centre on visual art practices from the mid-19th century to the present, with a focus on interactions across Europe, Russia and Central Asia. She has nearly two decades of experience working with academic institutions, artists, and galleries. She is also Assistant Professor of Art History and Theory in the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD), at American University of Sharjah.

We speak with Christianna on the occasion of Art Dubai 2024, where she is curator of the Modern section. Titled ‘This Other World’, the section presents a perspective on modern art through the lens of artists and film-makers from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia who took part in cultural exchange programmes with the Soviet Union. In this conversation, Christianna talks about the East-East and South-South connections that are overlooked in narratives of global modernisms, as well as the value of curated sections in an art fair.

Mahmoud Sabri, ‘Untitled’, 1960, work on paper, 100 x 70cm. Image courtesy of Meem Gallery.

I would like to begin this interview with an introduction to your academic background. How did you land on this area of research? And what about it sustains your interest?

I have been interested in art in the Soviet context, and more broadly, the relationship between art and politics, for close to two decades. Research interests are also personal passions, and this is what sustains me. As a person, I am interested in reckoning with ideas, learning languages, or traveling to places different from the small town in upstate New York where I grew up. Though I have made these personal and professional decisions largely on intuition, I realise now that I believe in life as a kind of Hegelian synthesis: the more you see of the world outside of yourself, the more you can fold back and reflect on yourself. This is the only way to approach your “truth.”

I did an internship at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in college, which is in a part of eastern Germany that used to be socialist. I became very interested in the bipolar history of West and East Germany during the Cold War, and how art and architecture reinforce or challenge those divisions. It began there as a spark, and I have been pursuing these questions in different contexts since then - Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and now in relation to what we call the “Global South.”

I am continually amazed by the resilient creativity of artists. Whether in times of war or peace, and even now when the art you see at fairs can seem so repetitive and social media feeds us the patterns it knows we like, artists are still making, still helping us to see the world, to step outside, or deeper within ourselves.

Hafez Gallery’s booth at Art Dubai Modern 2024. Photo by Spark Media.

Art Dubai Modern 2024 focuses on the robust cultural exchange initiated by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s with Middle Eastern, African, and South Asian countries. Why is this theme relevant to Dubai, its audiences, and collectors?

The Soviet Union provided educational scholarships and exhibition opportunities to thousands of artists, filmmakers, musicians, and architects, inviting them to study in cities such as Almaty, Tashkent, Moscow, East Berlin, and Kyiv. It was a political and cultural programme parallel to those of Western countries.

These opportunities in the Soviet Union played a huge role in shaping the development of the arts and the construction of cities in what was then called the “Third World”. In other words, they had a major impact on how societies and cultures in these regions came to represent, and thus understand, themselves. Art Dubai Modern is highlighting a critical and overlooked aspect of the history of global modern art in the second half of the 20th century, as it emerged across these locales at different moments, and in different formats.

Today, Arab, South Asian, Central Asian, African, and Eastern European cultures all call the United Arab Emirates (UAE) their home. This section is an opportunity to question and link the history of these cultures together, through art.

“Art Dubai Modern 2024 is highlighting a critical and overlooked aspect of the history of global modern art in the second half of the 20th century, as it emerged across these locales…”

Christianna’s studio visit with artist Samuel Kakaire in Jinja, Uganda. Image courtesy of Christianna Bonin.

Afriart Gallery’s solo presentation of works by Samuel Kakaire at Art Dubai Modern 2024. Photo by Spark Media.

Why were artists from the Global South drawn to the exchange programmes organised by the Soviet Union?

There are diverse reasons. Some, such as Iraqi artist Mahmoud Sabri, went because of friendly political relations between the USSR and Iraq in the 1960s, and because of his aligned political beliefs. Others, like Samuel Kakaire from Uganda, went because of political instability in his home country and there were no viable options to study art in Uganda at that time. For artists from India, Syria, or Sri Lanka, such as Chandraguptha Thenuwara, it was often much easier to get a visa to the Soviet Union than the United States. Geographical proximity was also a factor.

Did these artists infuse their cultural specificity or geopolitical context with the training they received in the Eastern bloc? If so, how does this surface in their works?

Yes, in fact this is one of the main outcomes of these exchanges. Like any art student, the artists featured in the section are finding ways of reconciling what they know and have experienced, with what they are learning and encountering in a different context. Artists such as Mahmoud Sabri, Samuel Kakaire, and Chandraguptha Thenuwara became fascinated with the pictorial language and materials of Orthodox icon paintings. However,they transform those formal and material approaches to address personal topics. Abdul Mannan Shamma and Abdulsattar Al Mussa, on the other hand, studied history painting and oil painting techniques, and have found ways to create highly expressive and often political works that elicit an emotional response from viewers.

Works by Abdul Mannan Shamma at Agial Gallery, installation view in Art Dubai Modern 2024. Photo by Spark Media.

Farhad Khalilov, ‘Meeting’ series, 2000, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 225cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Gazelli Art House.

In your curatorial statement, you mentioned that an important aspect is to spotlight the “growing importance of cities such as Kyiv, Cairo, Almaty and Tashkent as centres of international exchange and progressive ideas in those decades.” What are the historical nuances you hope to emphasise in highlighting these cities? And are there misconceptions you wish to address?

I want to emphasise that while many artists did study in the main Russian cities of Moscow and Leningrad, there were many other cities and institutions that were important centres for visiting students from decolonising nations. It is important that visitors understand that the artists were not only confronting Russian culture, not only “looking North” but often more looked horizontally, to very different religious and linguistic settings. And even though the funding for such exchanges and institutional networks has now been displaced, their art reveals aspects of the connections, sensibilities, and relationships that remain. In particular, I am thinking about Ashraf Murad from Azerbaijan; Fedir Tetiyankh from Ukraine; Fatima El Hajj from Lebanon; or Hakim Al-Akel from Yemen. State failure does not constitute aesthetic failure.

“…the artists were not only confronting Russian culture, not only “looking North” but often more looked horizontally, to very different religious and linguistic settings.”

Marcos Grigorian, ‘Untitled’, 1979, earth and straw on canvas, 182 x 182cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery.

Recently, there are a number of exhibitions and projects exploring the topic of South-South artistic ties such as ‘Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities’ by Kathleen Ditzig and Carlos Quijon Jr., and ‘Tropical’ (2023-24) at National Gallery Singapore. How does the theme in Art Dubai Modern 2024 add to the conversations taking place in institutions regionally and globally?

What I am doing with this project, and what I appreciate about this direction in curation and scholarship more generally, is the emphasis on how Afro-Asian artists themselves were strategically navigating their opportunities and environs during the Cold War. Of course, the Soviet Union and the United States were not the only places that artists studied abroad. Mahmoud Sabri studied in the United Kingdom and Moscow; Marcos Grigorian lived in the United States, Soviet Armenia, Iran, and was born in Russia. There is not a typical direction of influence or movement, and as critics, curators, and collectors. We need to be sensitive to this.

What are the opportunities and challenges in curating a section with a research component that is also situated within the context of a commercial art fair?

Curating an art fair brings both challenges and opportunities particular to the format. A curated art fair can communicate a focused idea to audiences, conveying meaning that might otherwise get lost among the glamorous hubbub of the marketplace and the thrill of sales. When curating the Art Dubai Modern section this year, I worked closely with galleries on their selection of artists. I was conscious that both galleries and the fair organisers have financial investments and desired outcomes. For example, an artist might fit into my curatorial framework but it may not be the gallery's bestseller. But this is one of the reasons why curated sections are so important at fairs.hey add symbolic and historical value to the market context, as well as a chance to discover artists who have otherwise remained on the sidelines of the market and/or art history. Many regulars to art fairs worldwide, myself included, will complain about the increasing flatness and sameness among them. And if there is one thing the art world can agree upon, it is the shared love of novelty. Novelty is what the curated section of a fair can offer.

Meem Gallery’s booth at Art Dubai Modern 2024. Photo by Spark Media.

Are there specific artists or research connections not included in this presentation which you wish to pursue further?

I am constantly thinking about ways that my projects can grow. I would love to expand this curated section into a larger museum exhibition, which would allow for an expanded selection of artists whose works are already in institutional or private collections, and to give greater attention to filmmakers and architects.

The Modern Talks programme that I have curated for Art Dubai will be a first effort to produce discussion and knowledge about these connections, and I hope this will grow in the coming years. Each panel is focused on a pairing of cities: Cairo and Moscow; Kampala and Baku; and Almaty and Colombo. A final panel on 3 March 2024, with Rostov, Luanda and Ramallah, will focus on leading Arab and African filmmakers who studied in the Soviet Union, and the question of how to tell the stories of underrepresented communities in mainstream cinema.

Lastly, you are currently working on a book. Could you say more about the project?

It is called Soviet Orient: Art and Empire in Central, 1900-75. The book focuses on the concept of “Orientalism” and representations of the “East” in Soviet art. Based heavily on original archival documents, the book will present a new view on how artists from Central Asia and Mongolia used their art to strategically navigate the politics of the period.

A&M is proud to be an official media partner of Art Dubai 2024. Click here to read our preview of the fair.

The Art Dubai Modern Talks, curated by Dr Christianna Bonin and presented in partnership with Dubai Collection, are happening on 29 February to 3 March 2024. Click here for more information.