ACAW’s acclaimed annual art forum, FIELD MEETING, premiered for the first time in Dubai in collaboration with ACAW Consortium Partner, Alserkal Avenue —MENASA region’s foremost cultural destination and arts organization. Hosted at the coveted Concrete space, designed by Rem Koolhaas’ OMA, this iteration of FIELD MEETING investigated notions of collections far and wide beyond the limited lens of the global art market to ultimately “reveal, and reclaim the artist as the first collector”.

FIELD MEETING Take 6 also addressed the lack of artistic and institutional connectivity between various regions of Asia; particularly the wide gap that has prevailed for centuries between Eastern and Western regions of the continent. The forum linked MENASA professionals and institutions directly with a group of diverse practitioners through the staging of a dynamic string of performances, lecture-performances, pop-up exhibitions, talks and discussions by noted artists, thinkers and creative individuals whose efforts complicate categorical notions of Asia. (Many of whom presented for the very first time in the Middle East.)

Amina Ahmed (New York & Tehran), Khadim Ali (Sydney & Kabul), Stephanie Bailey (Hong Kong), Burçak Bingöl (Istanbul), Bingyi (Beijing), Ronghui Chen (Shanghai), Heman Chong (Singapore), Nikhil Chopra (Goa), Lara Day & Pi Li (Hong Kong), Natasha Degen & Sandra Skurvida (New York), Rana Dehghan (Tehran), Alexis Destoop (Sydney & Brussels), Arahmaiani Feisal (Yogyakarta & Tibet), Yuan Gao (Beijing), Nadira Husain (Berlin), Hasanul Isyraf Idris (Penang), Ranbir Kaleka (New Delhi), Naiza Khan (London & Karachi), David Libertson (New York), River Lin (Paris & Taipei), ST Luk-Arakawa & Madeline Gins (New York & Tokyo), Umber Majeed (New York & Lahore), Bahman Mohammadi (Tehran), Francesca Recchia (Kabul), Bassem Saad & Edwin Nasr (Beirut), Sam Samiee (Tehran), Moe Satt (Yangon), Ali Shayesteh (Hamadan), Zolaykha Sherzad (Kabul & New York), Vladislav Sludskiy & Olga Vesselova (Almaty), Haiyang Wang (Beijing), Wong Kit Yi / Ali Wong (Hong Kong & New York), Chongbin Zheng (San Fancisco & Shanghai)

Alserkal Avenue (Dubai) | British Council (London) | Capsule Shanghai (Shanghai) | Clark House Initiative (Mumbai) | Dastan Gallery (Tehran) | Eurasian Cultural Alliance (Almaty) | Health Elite Club (Hong Kong) | Hivos (The Hague) | M+ (Hong Kong) | Mah Art Gallery (Tehran) | National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan | PSM Gallery (Berlin) | Reversible Destiny Foundation (New York) | Richard Koh Fine Art (Kuala Lumpur) | Ronin Gallery (New York) | Roya Khadjavi Projects (New York) | Turquoise Mountain (Kabul) | Zarif Design (Kabul & New York) | Twelve Gates Arts (Philadelphia)