Fullybooked

Art book fairs and reading insights

Fully Booked Dubai 2019

Program, symposium topics, exhibitors, and vendors from the 2019 edition of Fully Booked Dubai.

Fully Booked returned to Dubai Art Week and Alserkal Avenue as an art book fair in the United Arab Emirates.

Programming

Fully Booked’s "Guest Project" warehouse during Dubai Art Week featured individuals, groups, collectives, artists, designers, creatives, and publishers producing and working in the mediums of printed matter, books, prints, magazines, publications, multiples, and more.

The 2019 fair’s programming highlighted a breadth of local, regional, and international creative creative publishing practices within the Fully Booked warehouse (#9) in Alserkal Avenue.

Fully Booked during Dubai Art Week (March 18–23, 2019)

  • Daily 10:00–17:00 | Curated pop-up Art Book Shop & exhibition of international art books
  • Wednesday, 20.3, 13:30–15:30 | "On the Books" Symposium on Contemporary Arts Publishing
  • Thursday–Saturday, 21–23.3, 10:00–19:00 daily | Fully Booked Dubai Art Book Fair
  • Friday, 22.3, 16:00–17:30 | Panel discussion hosted by Ladies, Dine & Design: DXB.

Symposium

On The Books, an afternoon symposium presented by Fully Booked, covered topics related to contemporary art book publishing, including histories of artists’ book formats, the importance of public collections and archives, and the current state of independent publishing in the MENASA region—and beyond. The speakers participating in On The Books held perspectives on the cultural significance of art books through their professional accomplishments as publishers, editors, writers, artists, directors of cultural institutions, and organizers of activities centered around creative book formats.

Symposium Topics

Artist Publishing | An in-depth look into the process of producing the newly published photobook, Women of Kuwait, with artist and photographer Maha Alasaker. Women of Kuwait, published by Daylight Books, brings together 25 portraits from the series accompanied by excerpts from interviews with the subjects conducted by Alasaker’s creative partner, Nada Faris, a Kuwaiti writer and performance poet.

Developing Libraries & Collections | In 2018, Tashkeel opened the very first publicly accessible art and design reference library in Dubai which continues to house significant publications relating to art practice and theory with a focus on publications from the MENA region. Tashkeel Deputy Director, Lisa-Ball Lechgar, discussed how this library originated, its contents and usage, as well as the future of the library.

Art Book Fairs in Asia—Spotlight Hong Kong | The past decade has seen art book fairs emerging in all corners of the world. From small towns to major international cities, art book fairs connect artists and publishers and create communities. Daniel Szehin Ho guided attendees through his experience organizing BOOKED: Tai Kwun Contemporary’s Hong Kong Art Book Fair, while discussing the culture of independent publishing present in Hong Kong and East Asia which contributed to this unique event.

Symposium Bios

Maha Alasaker is a Kuwaiti visual artist based in New York City. Her work is focused on fine art, fashion, and editorial photography. Alasaker’s work has been published in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Vogue Arabia, Marie Claire, Lady Gunn, and Material Girl. Alasaker has been featured in numerous exhibitions in New York City, London, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Her personal work engages with identity and cultural issues.

Lisa Ball-Lechgar is Deputy Director of Tashkeel, a contemporary art and design centre founded in 2008 by Director, Lateefa bint Maktoum. Previously, she held senior positions at Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF); Clientele Bahrain; Mixed Media Publishing (Canvas); Arts & Business; and Comité Européen pour le Rapprochement de l’Economie et de la Culture (CEREC). Lisa has edited/co-edited several books on contemporary art including ‘Reference Point: A History of Tashkeel and the UAE Art’ (Tashkeel, 2018); ‘Bill Fontana: Acoustical Visions & Desert Soundings’ (ADMAF, 2014); ‘View From Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Mixed Media & Video Art’ (ADMAF/FotoFest, 2015); and ‘The Art of the Emirates’ (ADMAF/Motivate, 2015).

Daniel Szehin Ho is Publications Editor at Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong. He is in charge of publications, in particular managing the creation of artists’ books and guidebooks. He is also the Project Lead for Booked—Tai Kwun Contemporary’s Hong Kong Art Book Fair, an art book fair that brings together art book publishers, artists, and zinesters from Hong Kong, Asia, and around the world. He is also the co-founder and editor-at-large at Ran Dian, a bilingual online magazine on contemporary art in China and beyond. As a writer, he has written for Art Forum, Frieze, Kaleidoscope, Broadsheet, Art Agenda, and The Art Newspaper, among others.

Panel Discussion Hosted by Ladies, Dine & Design: DXB

A roundtable discussion with women from a variety of creative disciplines to discuss Communication in Creation: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Connection.

Panelists:

  • Leen Sadder — Founder of This Toothbrush
  • Zaina Kanaan — Co-founder of ChariCycles
  • Razan Alzayani — Producer at VICE Middle East; Co-founder & Producer at Kerning Cultures
  • Richie Nainaney — Founder & Creative Director of Orikami Lab
  • Maddy Butcher — Street Artist & Fine Artist Madeleine Butcher
  • Meera Al Qassemi — Experimental Filmmaker, Artist & Poet

With each of the speakers coming from a different creative discipline in the UAE, the panel explored the individual and shared approaches/tools they use to communicate through their work. This roundtable discussion focused on communication and questions that explore how art and design evoke empathy, how users connect with the creators’ work, and more.

Vendors

Exhibitors

  • 逗點人 / 7netic Illustration, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Amina Cheema, Lahore, Pakistan
  • AZEEMA, London, UK
  • Bon-Gah, Tehran, Iran
  • Brusselssprout, Dubai, UAE
  • Chago, Berlin, Germany
  • Dimitry Tetin/Metrodogs Publications, Highland, New York, USA
  • FAİL Books (Ece Ak, Şener Yılmaz Aslan, Ali Beşikçi, İkbal Cengiz, İrem Çakır, Gizem Demircioğlu, Beril Ece Güler, İrem Güngez, Murat Kahya, Gülsüm Kavuncu, Doruk Kumkumoğlu, Fatih Kurçeren, Toros Mutlu, Ekin Özdemir, Miray Özturan, Selen Solak), Istanbul, Turkey
  • Floki Gauvry, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • iya, oke, siap, sip!, Malang, East Java, Indonesia
  • Journal of Art Criticism, New York, USA
  • Kajal Magazine, New York, USA
  • The Kurrasah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • Micaela Terk (Goodbye Books), Berlin, Germany
  • The Middle Sister, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • Moniker Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • Open Projects Press, New York, USA
  • Paul Shortt, Gainesville, Florida
  • Prestel (Jitish Kallat), Munich, Germany
  • Saman Sohail & Anushka Gupta, Canada/India
  • Sarah Kazmi, Oslo, Norway
  • Tropical Futures Institute, Cebu, Philippines
  • Tzuhan, Berlin, Germany

Information

Fully Booked is a curated international platform for creative publications & artists’ books from or of the Middle East, North Africa, & South Asia, anchored by the annual Dubai art book fair. The flagship namesake fair premiered in 2017 in Alserkal Avenue, during the annual Dubai Art Week. The third annual fair was held in March 2019 during Dubai Art Week.

Alserkal Avenue—the region’s arts hub—was established in 2007 to encourage and support the region’s contemporary art scene. The Avenue’s aim is to foster an organic and prolific creative community in the UAE. Situated in Dubai’s industrial quarter, the Avenue is a cluster of architect-designed warehouses.

Benefit Editions

Five distinct Benefit Editions were commissioned and produced in order to make the 2019 fair a reality, in close collaboration with Mazin Al-Maimani, Shamma Buhazza, Shahrzad Changalvaee, Somnath Bhatt, & VVORK VVORK VVORK.