FIELD MEETING TAKE 6: THINKING COLLECTIONS
Vilma Jurkute (Dubai)
Welcome Remarks
Synopsis: In her role as Director of Alserkal Avenue, Vilma Jurkute welcomed all to FIELD MEETING Take 6 edition in Dubai, acknowledging the importance of hosting FIELD MEETING at Alserkal Avenue. Aligning with ACAW’s mission to connect Asia with itself, she views this gathering as the enabling of Dubai to reach beyond the MENASA region. It is an opportunity to connect with artistic communities of East and Southeast Asia through the distinguished perspectives of the invited FIELD MEETING presenters’ projects. Though Dubai has received criticism for being a neoliberal city of “super-fast” urbanism, Jurkute advocates that Alserkal Avenue works to “renegotiate, the new borders of knowledge geography” as a space not only for cultural and artistic production but one that allows for discussion and critic –a task FIELD MEETING readily takes on. To Alserkal Avenue, “thinking collections” means a “slowing down” to contemplate what the organization has learned from its collected knowledge over its 10 years in operation.
Vilma Jurkute is the Director of Alserkal Avenue and has spent the last decade developing creative industries across New York, Chicago, London and Dubai. Joining Alserkal Avenue in 2011, Jurkute has been instrumental in its evolution and responsible for overseeing the Avenue’s physical expansion in 2015 as well as the inauguration of Concrete in 2017. Jurkute also launched Alserkal Programming in 2015, and Alserkal Residency in 2017, affirming the organization’s commitment to the development of arts and culture in the region. Jurkute also serves on the advisory boards of the Global Cultural Districts Network and the Jean-Paul Najar Foundation.
