Art Dubai's Global Art Forum Explores Cultural Identity in a Borderless Art World

Art Dubai's Global Art Forum, curated by Shumon Basar and H.G. Masters, convened in March 2013 at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai's media city district. The forum, which began in Doha, gathered international speakers to discuss cultural localism and globalism within the art market. Discussions focused on redefining terms like 'Middle East' and creating new cultural identities through art, as highlighted by Colombian philosopher Oscar Guardiola-Rivera in a panel on MENA. The event reflected Art Dubai's positioning as a crossroads fair connecting Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Talks addressed how art scenes from emerging regions integrate into global networks while grappling with questions of identity. This discourse occurs as the art world becomes more homogeneous yet increasingly preoccupied with geographic and cultural specificity. The Sharjah Biennial, located near Dubai, exemplifies this tension between local identity and borderless imagination. The forum's thematic of 'definitionism' sought new terminology for 21st-century realities, moving beyond Western-drawn world maps. Ultimately, the conversations revealed an art world simultaneously universal in reach and obsessed with cultural differentiation.