Palestinian Duo Basel and Ruanne Win 2016 Abraaj Art Prize

posted on: Oct 16, 2015

Palestinian artist duo Basel and Ruanne has won the 2016 Abraaj Group Art Prize, the most influential art prize in the MENASA region. Basel and Ruanne receive $100,000 towards a “dream project” which will be revealed as part of a group exhibition at Art Dubai 2016. The exhibition will be curated by Guest Curator Nav Haq and will also feature works by the three shortlisted artists, who have been announced as Dina Danish, Mahmood Khaled, and Basir Mahmood.

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme began their collaborative practice in 2007 and work across a range of mediums to explore themes of “surrounding returns, amnesia, déjà vu, what is, and what could.” The duo explained that their experiences in their native Palestine shape their practice “not in isolation, but in the sense of how that experience speaks to other moments elsewhere and provides a critical vantage point from which to read the contemporary moment.”

Commenting on the winning duo, Nav Haq said: “Basel and Ruanne have demonstrated that they possess maturity in how they use sound, image and space in their practice, but also a real sense of experimentation in their artistic visions of a social and political imaginary. There is a rare complexity to their art that I feel makes them genuinely significant artists, and I’m looking forward very much to working with them to develop their project for the upcoming exhibition at Art Dubai.”

The Abraaj Group Art Prize recognises notable artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Each year a jury awards the winning artist a major commission based on a proposal (rather than a completed work) which is then showcased alongside the work of three shortlisted artists in a thematic group exhibition at Art Dubai. The 2016-17 jury consists of Defne Ayas, Antonia Carver, Omar Kholeif, Fayeeza Naqvi, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Sandhini Poddar, and Frederic Sicre.

Source: www.blouinartinfo.com