Keywords

1 Introduction

Wealthy countries in Arabian Peninsula are attempting to promote a new movement of Arab Art and Islamic Art. They want to form a new identity as the representatives of Islamic world. While, Islamic fundamentalists do display radical and rough Islam, these countries try to represent a contemporary portrait of the new Arab world in the era of globalization. This image is not based on nationalism, but on a transnational basis.

A transnational identity has been made in “contact zone” and this identity requires a high degree of cultural tolerance; In this region, Dubai and Doha are trying more than other cities to be known as “contact zone” and become a context for intercultural and transcultural experiences. In the transcultural statuses, different cultures merge and blend together. But can Dubai and Doha become transcultural zones? In other words, how can countries in Arabian Peninsula, as Salafi and Wahhabi lands, be able to accept cultural diversity? What new cultural policy does this trend change require?

In this article, we discuss the role of art in multicultural politics and shaping the contact zone; we also follow these questions: What are the cultural policies to build a transnational identity in the Arabian Peninsula countries? How have these policies changed artistic experiences? To answer these questions, we pursue changing policies from national museums to transnational museums, and changing policies from national art to transnational art.

Art studies in the region (including Iran and the Arab countries) are often referred to as Middle East art. Such as Lisa Farjam (2009) entitled “Unveiled: new art from the Middle East” which dealt with new forms and experiences in Middle Eastern art. Saeb Eigner and Zaha Hadid (2010) entitled “Art of the Middle East: modern and contemporary art of the Arab world and Iran” offers a more comprehensive view of the process of formation of Middle Eastern art. Also, the book “New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century” that edited by Hossein AmirSadeghi (2009) has an important article.

Neda Shabout et al. (2011) in book “Sajil: A Century of Modern Art” introduces 120 Arab artists whose works are kept in the Museum of Modern Art in Doha. Omar Kholeif (2015) published part of the Barjeel Art Foundation in a book entitled “imperfect chronology: Arab Art from the Modern to the Contemporary Works”. Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath (2010) in “Told, Untold, Retold” published under the pretext of an exhibition at the Doha Museum of the same title tries to explain 23 narratives by Arab artists. The authors call the modern Arab art movement transmodern. In this article, we will focus on Bardouil’s views on the new current of Arab art.

However, studies focusing on UAE and Qatari artists are limited. Melanie Sindelar (2016, 2017) is one of the researchers following the developments of art in Qatar and the Emirate. He has researched numerous articles on the art of the region and its impact on building a national identity. Robert Kluijver (2013) in a study entitled “Contemporary Art in the Gulf” has studied art in six countries of the Arabian Peninsula (Kuwait, Yemen, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar). With the establishment of major museums in Dubai and the UAE, numerous books and articles were written about the new situation of new Arab museums and museums; Like Karen Exell and Sarina Wakefield (2016) in the book “Museums in Arabia”, which deals with the central role of the museum in the construction of cultural heritage. According to them, the Arab museums in the region are more in the process of forming a trans-regional and trans-regional identity than of building a national identity. Suzy Mirgani (2017) in the collection of articles “Art and Cultural Production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)” establishes museums, exhibitions and investment in art, especially in Qatar and the UAE. But previous research has often been limited to the study of artists’ works and collections. But in the present study, we will analyze the structural flow of art in the region and follow it in a postcolonial approach.

Previous research, however, has often been limited to the study of works by artists or museum collections. But, in the present study, we analyze the art movement in the region and follow the policies and functions of art with a postcolonial approach and sociological analytical concepts. The methodological approach of this article is “trend analysis”. The process of political change that creates cultural policies and the artistic movement. By studying a series of events, concepts and works of art, we study the process of building a cultural contact zone in this region.

2 Theoretical Approach: Contact Zone and Trans-Region

Dubai and Doha are attempting to be known as transcultural places. These cities try to be in a status that Mary Louise Pratt (1991) named “contact zone”. Mary Louise Pratt as a postcolonial theorist tries to use “contact zone” concept to explain transcultural situation in which diverse social spaces merge together. She in “Imperial Eyes” (1992) tries to rethink the relationship between East and West by studying the “travel writing”; this relation is not hegemonic or cultural domination, but contact relation and cultural transition. This concept tries to challenge the relationship between European colonizer and non-European colonies.

His purpose to build this concept is to debate about a type of problematic nationalism; for example, nationalism for immigrants, exiles and dominated ethnicities. “This concept signifies intersecting categories of identity and experience (mostly national, race, gender, and class). Since contact zones are sites of asymmetrical power relations, they have often been locations of conflict and even violence; although contact zone can also be sites of mutual exchange and understanding; both aspects of the contact zone-as place of contestation and Struggle, or as site of mutual respect and dialogue are significant and should be considered” (Edelstein, 2005, p. 27).

“The concept is used quite widely in literary studies and Cultural Studies as well as Postcolonial Studies as a general term for places where white Western travelers have encountered their cultural, ethnic, or racial other and been transformed by the experience. Contact zones are most often trading posts or border cities, cities where the movement of peoples and commodities brings about contact” (Oxford Reference, 2020). The concept of the contact zone has generated considerable controversy among scholars. This concept has been used in Postcolonial Studies in the Literature (like: Banarjee, 2013), as well as Sociolinguistic Research (like: Edelstein, 2005), as well as Studies of Immigrant communities (like: Atari, 2013), also Educational Research (like: Howes, 2020). Moreover, the “museum as contact zone” has been a concept that has discussed the inclusion of different cultures in museums (see. Clifford, 1997). The understanding of museums as “contact zones” has been widely appropriated in the museum literature; like Philipp Schorch (2013) that has done ethnographic study of visitors acts of interpretation in museum as “Cross-cultural mediation”. Also, Giulia Battaglia (2019) that has studied staging intercultural encounters in Modern Art Museums and Biennials. Robin Boast (2011) that has researched neocolonial function in Museum as Contact Zone. Andrea Meyer and Benedicte Savoy (2013) have debated about history of museum as a product of transnational processes and cultural exchange in contact zone ND Harriet Purkis (2015) has studied biennial and art exhibition as a contact zone.

The concept of “contact areas” by Marie-Louise Pratt and “third spaces” by Homi K. Bhabha and other similar concepts try to explain networked social communication in a global context. In this context, many kinds of cultural experiences have formed like transcultural, Cross-cultural, intercultural, mix-culture and multi-culture. These intertwined cultural experiences are more prevalent in commercial ports and border towns; Like Dubai, Doha, which cultivate this cultural context. But can Dubai and Doha be transcultural? Can they be transnational? To answer these questions, we should study the trend of nationalism to transnationalism in countries of Arabian Peninsula.

The countries of Arabian Peninsula were not interest in nationalistic movement. What promoted nationalism in this region was not language or race or national boundary, but Islam. For example, Saudi Arabia emphasized on the idea of Islamic world more than being interested in the idea of the Arab world. As Egypt tried to become leader of Arab world, Saudi Arabia has tried to become leader of Islamic world. Moreover, the idea of “national state” has not had a political function in monarchy with tribal political system. In Saudi Arabia, political system is not based on nation—state paradigm, then the concept of nation or “national art” has an ambiguous meaning. In fact, the problem is not only in the evolution of the concept of state but also in the evolution of the concept of nation, a problem that has gradually become more apparent since the 1990s.

The Migration of labor force to oil-rich countries have increased since the late of 20th and the beginning of 21st. Nowadays, a large proportion of the population in the Arabian Peninsula are foreign workers. How can we talk about “nation” in Qatar when migrant workers compose 86% of the population or 88.5% in the UAE? What can bring foreigners and national people together and prevent political tensions among the population is transnational identity and transnational art; at least the transnational image must be made.

Therefore, construction of national and transnational identity became one of the most important policy-making in these countries and “Museums grew with unprecedented explosions” (Alraouf, 2014, p. 3). Museums can make cohesive cultural identity by monuments and shared cultural heritage. They can even form imaginary communities and nations (Anderson, 2006, p. 167). In this situation that Qatari and Emirati people become minority in their countries, Arab museums have played an important role in making cultural identity (Eggeling, 2017, pp. 12–15). What links populations with different nationalities is the transnational image. But what does transnational identity mean? What are transnational museums?

Transnational is a dream land in the universal modernity; in this land, the boundaries of identities are merged and have gained universal unity. A unity beyond the differences that can be formed in a “trans-place”. The trans-place societies are formed by a wave of immigrant workers and foreign laborers. These societies in economic system are based on global trade, and in cultural system are based on universal culture. The universality has been the transcendent and ultimate point of modernism. Therefore, the societies that are known as a trans-place are a kind of super-modernism or transmodernism.

However, from a critical point of view, super-modernism is not a place for all people or any person from every culture. Super-modernism is actually a kind of non-place; where it does not point to any geography, climate or history; the Sterilized space from history, memory and culture. Marc Augé—French anthropologist—used the term “non-place” to refer to spaces where concerns of relations, history and identity are erased (Augé, 1995, pp. 78–79). Non-place has shaped the same behaviors in transit, shopping, consuming, choosing and playing. This is a super modern world.

From this perspective, museums and galleries are like non-place that accept people as tourists or visitors. The non-place neither create a special identity nor a relationship, but create isolation and homogeneity. “The non-place is the opposite of utopia: it exists, and it does not contain any organic society” (Augé, 1995, p. 95). Actually “the non-place is same what Michel Foucault called a heterotopia” (Augé, 1995, p. 112).

Arab countries attempt to be trans-place but, in the critical point of view, they are non-place; they have accepted foreign workers and global immigrant labor and have formed a context for global identity. In the critical point of view, Dubai and Doha are artificial and non-organic countries. These cities are more touristic place that led people to certain places on certain routes to visit or shop in the city. Even the museums in these countries are touristy and have established branches of the Louvre, Guggenheim and the British Museum instead of being local or indigenous. Like the MacDonald branches that have kept tourists away from local food and have formed a standard taste, transnational museums have also propelled tourists to standard of consume of art. Thus, the “non-place” and “trans-place” concepts have optimistic and pessimistic function in these cities.

Qatar and UAE are international and transnational regions. In this meaning, these regions are not only an opportunity for exchange international art, but also, they are a context for the development of transnational art. But how can transnational art be made? Does that mean they are sterilized and non-geographic!?

3 Production of Arab Culture: National Museum to Transnational Museum

Georgetown University in Qatar published report about Art and Cultural Production in the GCC (2007) and emphasized that museums have significant role in creation of identity in Arabian Peninsula. Especially in the UAE and Qatar that established Islamic museums and some branches of famous museum like Guggenheim and louver. Also, they have been hosting for international events and festivals. These museums and cultural events are part of activities for display new portrait of nation in the global.

Countries need an “image of the nation” to build power, and museums do that. But most of population in Countries of the Arabian Peninsula are foreign and concept of “nation” in Qatar and Dubai is not clear. Actually, national citizens are minority in their countries. Therefore, museums in these countries instead of make an image of Indigenous culture, try to create an image of transnational or multinational culture that encompasses a wide spectrum of immigrants and foreign worker residing in these countries.

Unlike, national museums were built during the twentieth century based on racial prejudice and political unity (such as Egypt, Iraq and Syria), national museums in countries such as the UAE and Qatar do not seek representation of political unity or racial prejudice, instead they want to create common cultural symbol. The previous museums usually followed ethnographical and archaically approach; like “Qatar’s national museum that was opened in 1975 in an old royal palace, and displayed of archaeology, Bedouin ethnographic material and material relating to the pearling industry, complete with a lagoon with dhows, and an aquarium. Also the national museums in Bahrain (1971) and Saudi Arabia (1974)” (Exella & Rico, 2013, pp. 676). But the new Arab museums in the area are mostly the pioneer for art experiences and make new space for cultural developing. Like Zayed National Museum that was designed based on the feathers of a falcon as national symbol in the UAE by Norman Foster’s. Also, the new National Museum of Qatar designed by Jean Nouvel to look like desert rose, a crystal formation that materializes in Qatar’s deserts (Exella, 2016: 66). These designing refer to desert and Arabian traditional life, also these have become the new and identifiable trademarks in Qatar and the UAE that are being repeated as a brand everywhere. These museums are not only as a part of Cultural heritage of the past but are as a part of Cultural heritage of the future.

These are not museums of indigenous peoples but museums of global citizens with trans-cultures. For example, “Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha, 2010) and The Museum of Islamic Art (Doha, 2008) are transnational museums not local museums” Exella & Rico, 2013, pp. 678). They have collected artistic works from around the Arab world and the Islamic world and represented the image of this region as a global museum (not a regional or indigenous or national museum).

Dubai and Doha have cosmopolitanism thinking or they have tried to introduce themselves in this approach. “Foreign workers in the UAE is 81%, in Qatar is 82%, Kuwait is 68%, Bahrain is 40, Oman and Saudi Arabia is 25%” (Exell, 2016, p. 133) and they have made cosmopolitan identity in this region; so they need a transnational image. This image is made in transnational museums. These museums have given symbolic power to countries in the region that can exhibit their identity in the global. Moreover, for construction of transnational identity, the UAE has opened franchising of museums of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. These museums have become an important destination for contemporary artwork. Also, the establishment of Christie’s and Sotheby’ auction house confirms that these countries have international and global situation.

Arab countries in the region have developed international cultural policies to create a transnational image of themselves. “They supported global festival and art universal events for example Qatar has supported the Tribeca festival after 9/11, also joined to international artistic events for example Qatar-Germany partnership to open Philharmonic Orchestra in February 2017” (Eggeling, 2017, p. 16). A “regime of globalization” is formed in the increased cooperation with international heritage entities, like UNESCO, ICOM and ICOMOS. These countries are trying to register new sites in the UNESCO World Heritage List like Al Zubarah (in Qtar, 2013) and Umm an-Nar (in UAE, 2012) to show their connection with the world heritage. Also, cultural funding has been spent by Qatar and the UAE to cherish appreciate the global art and universal values of culture. They have spent a lot of money to buy Western art for their new museums. Purchases that reflect the appreciation of Arab countries for universal-Western art and for a new representation of Arab-Islam identity.

The construction of a cosmopolitan identity in this region can be critically examined. Actually, the construction of transnational identity in this region is not trans-place and cosmopolitan but is non-place. In the critical point of view, “The non-place construct a kind of dystopia rather than an embodiment of the utopia in which universal identities are formed” (Exell, 2017, pp. 56–57). The ambiguous space detached from the text and suspended in time and place, like what Michel Foucault called heterotopia or dystopia. Although transnational and trans-regional means common area, but this area is not neutral and has beneficiaries. For Qatar and the UAE, which are the hub of global trade, it is better that emphasize on transnational art. In this context, it is not unexpected that international institutes of art such Christie’s auction, louver and Guggenheim museums were established.

Actually, the emphasis on transnational identity is part of political economy also is part of planning for tourism developing. Usually, cultural heritage projects are justified as a program for the development of the tourism economy rather than as preserving historical value. Of course, cultural policymakers in these countries emphasize another aspect of transnationalism art; they are still trying to introduce this region as “contact zone” with highly cultural tolerance; an area that embraces cultural diversity, multinationals and intercultural and multicultural events. But how in the depths of Salafist-Wahhabi fundamentalism is such a cultural tolerance possible? The UAE and Qatar, with a focus on transnational identity, seek to reduce their local identity conflicts in the face of Western, often secular, cultural events. The solution is elsewhere; in shaping new Arab art. An art that has both local legitimacy and universal acceptance. A new type of Arab art experience that can both be a part of the art world events, as well as being able to live in a fundamentalist religious community. But what are the features of this new art movement?

4 New Art Movements in the Region: Post-modern Art to Transmodern Art

Formation of arts market of the Middle East in the United Arab Emirate and establishing of new museums in Qatar has been showing high effects on the contemporary art of Iran, Iraq and other countries of the region; some artists have found the opportunity to be engaged in searching contemporary narration of Islamic arts independent from governmental orders which, in turn, has led to the formation of a critical movement in contemporary art of this region.

They display their critical and political works on Islam and the cultural situation of Middle East in the Dubai galleries and exhibitions Dubai. For this purpose, studying the Middle East Art is somehow the study of the rejected and marginalized arts in this region. Thus, it is necessary to study the Middle East Art as a different concept of Islamic Art and different from art in the Islamic countries. Middle Eastern art is a postmodern narrative of art in Islamic lands that is different from contemporary Islamic art.

The Middle East art, more than being a new aesthetic type, is product of a specific type of cultural discourse. In this discourse, Middle East Art reconstructs the media stereotypes about Islamic fundamentalism (in reference to Al-Qaida, September 11 and ISIS). The Middle East art is not the Islamic art. The main theme of this art is expressing the challenges of religious life in the modern era. They emphasize on the disharmony of religious life and the heterogeneous composition of religious elements and everyday life. These are the features of postmodern art. But the proper description of contemporary Islamic art is transmodernism, not postmodernism. What creates postmodernism in art is an unstable and ironic mixture of modernity and tradition. What is experienced in postmodernism is not a return to tradition or revival of local culture, but is a combination of local signs with pop art. The Middle East art is produced and reproduced by art market and auction houses, museums and galleries. But cultural policy-making does not seek to deconstruct Islamic art, but to reconstruct contemporary Islamic art. Therefore, policy-makers follow the transmodernism, which is other way.

The transmodernism has critical view of postmodernism. Some theorists such Enrique Dussel (1995) and artists like Billy Childish and Charles Thomson (with remodernism manifesto; 2000), Nicolas Bourriaud (with Altermodern concept; 2009), Alan Kirby (with Digimodernism concept; 2009) and Luke Turner (with metamodernism manifesto; 2011) have tried to calling for a period of new spirituality in art, culture and society to replace postmodernism. This approach is being developed by marginal and non-Western cultures. Ziauddin Sardar (Pakistani intellectual) thinks that: “transmodernism is the transfer of modernity and postmodernism from the edge of chaos into a new order of society. As such, transmoderism and tradition are not two opposing worldviews but a new synthesis of both. Traditional societies use their ability to change and become transmodern while remaining the same! Both sides of the equation are important here: change has to be made and accommodated; but the fundamental tenets of tradition, the sources of its identity and sacredness remain the same. So, we may define a transmodern future as a synthesis between life enhancing tradition—that is amenable to change and transition—and new forms of modernities that are shaped and articulated by traditional cultures themselves” (Sardar, 2006, p. 296). Just as there are different ways to be human, there are different ways to be modern. “Traditional societies can be (trans)modern too and can shape their own models of modernities based on their own norms, values and worldviews. This shift restores parity to cultural relations. The conventional ideas that it is only ‘the west’ that modernizes ‘the east’ is turned upside down: ‘the east’ can just as easily transmodernise ‘the west’! The west thus has as much to learn from the east—and I am not referring here to obscurantist ideas on mysticism and ‘spirituality’—as it has to teach. Transmodernism thus introduces new ways of listening to non-western cultures. It directs the ear towards the debates that are going on in all cultures and civilisations striving to find contemporary interpretations of their basic values within the complexities of their histories, and contemporary relevance of their cherished ideas” (Sardar, 2006, p. 297). This approach has been accepted by countries such as Qatar and the UAE that are trying to create transnational and transnational policies.

Sam Bardouil and Till Fellrath (2011) as a curator in Mathaf (Doha Museum) wrote in their book “told, untold, retold” that the new Arab art movement is transnational. Bardouil think that concept transmodernism is postcolonial concept and in this context, world can hear the sound of art from the Middle East. Transmodern art is new opportunity for combination of abstract art (as a global form) and conceptual art (as a local Content). Artworks that emphasize on spirituality in the modern era. Bardouil classifies some experiences of Middle Eastern artists such as Wafaa Bilal, Adel Abidin, Mounir Fatmi, Kader Attia, Ghada Amer, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Lara Baladi, Ahmed Alsoudani under the concept of transmodern. Examining some Art works can clarify this conceptual approach.

In Magnetism installation (2009) by Ahmed Mater, we can see the black cuboid magnet is a small simulacrum of the black-draped Kaaba, the “Cube”, that central element of the Meccan rites. His circumambulating whirl of metallic filings mirrors in miniature the concentric tawaf of the pilgrims, their sevenfold circling of the Kaaba (Mackintosh-Smith, 2010). This work has a minimalist and abstract style. These styles are paid attention by other artists such as Mattar Bin Lahej and EL Seed. Abstraction and formalist style was re-noticed by artists in Islamic region, and many artworks were affected by this movement like Ammar Al Attar’s artwork. Attar in “Salah series” (2012) took a photo of portraits of people, when the people prayed and shift this theme to pattern which he made new concept of prayer. Also, zoulikha bouabdellah in “silence” series (2008) that made installation of shoes and prayer mat. In this work, she played with limits and illustrated the contradictory situation of the fashion hall and the prayer hall, which showed that Muslim women were standing in two different worlds. Arwa Abouon in one of her works show word of “Allah” (2008) in Vision test page (Snellen chart) as symbol of seeing and knowing; simple and minimalist work that shows religious concept. Adel Abidin in one of his works with title the Delicious (2007) made mosque with sugar. The ants attacked to the mosque, after a while breaking it into grains; this works mention to the instinctive motive of the worship. Mounir Fatmi in his work “the Wooden Cube” (2004) reconstruct Kaaba as a medical assistance box. These artistic experiences go beyond of context and can make intercultural and transcultural experiences.

Reconstruction of Islamic geometric patterns by light and shadow is an important part of the new experiences of trans-regional art. Like the works of Rashad Alakbarov, Anila Quayyum Agha and Najat Makki.

Rashad Alakbarov (Azerbaijani artist) uses a clever arrangement of wooden planks and other such objects that somehow project intangible works that come to life through a play of shadows and lights (Bekhrad, 2013). In one of his works presented at the 2012 Sharjah Islamic Art Festival, the objects are cluttered in such a way that the shadows cast on the wall under the appropriate lighting create Islamic geometric patterns.

Anila Quayyum Agha (American Pakistani artist) creates a space of light and shadow from Islamic motifs in a work entitled Intersections (2014). Agha’s Intersections is an immersive gallery installation centered around a suspended cube. Each of the cube’s six sides is laser cut with the same delicate patterns, derived from decorative motifs found in Spain’s historic Alhambra, an international highlight of traditional Islamic architecture and design. A single light bulb within the cube casts shadows of interlacing patterns onto the room’s walls, ceiling and floor–and subsequently the people within the space. Describing his work, the artist says that the doors of this new sacred public space are open to everyone, even non-Muslims and the light shines for everyone.

Najat Makki created “Visual-Audio Flaps”, an installation that combines movement, sound and visual effects. Sphere, made of stained glass, rotates and produces a sense of rotating galaxies in the universe. The light emitted from the center of which reflects the motifs on the walls and the surrounding space and creates a galactic image of Islamic space. The sphere and its rotation, like the earth and the centralism of light in it, and regular reflection of the patterns around it, are a kind of reconstruction of Islamic geometry in new dimensions. This work was presented at the Sharjah Islamic Art Festival in 2018.

Zoulikha bouabdellah in “Walk on the Sky” work, a three-dimensional installation, embodied the constellation Pisces from conception of the astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903-986). The piece made use of the polygonal star, one of the symbols most depicted in Arabic art and architecture throughout the ages, and closed the space with a floor of mirror. This is an interactive work, and the viewer, by walking (on the stainless-steel floor) feels the changes above the head, thus creating an experience of walking on the sky. The work won the Abraaj Art Prize in 2009.

We can mention more artists. They usually work in abstract, conceptual and minimalist styles and are part of the Islamic art movement in the contemporary period. These works have a position beyond nationalism and have trans-regional audience. Artistic events and biennials of Arab countries such as Abraaj and Art Jameel have been able to support this trend to some extent. Transmodernism in art has created new hopes for the development of the experience of modernity in Islamic lands. Unlike postmodern art, which frustrates contemporary Islamic art in these lands.

5 Conclusion: Transcultural Contact Zone

The concept of the “Arab world” was formed in the discourse of nationalism, and today the concept of a “new Arab world” is being shaped in the discourse of transnationalism. Transnationalism means to the extension of social, political and economic processes beyond the sovereign boundaries of nation states. Transnationalism forms the “contact zone”; where cultures come together and shapes multi-culture, mix-culture, Cross-cultural and transcultural.

Arab oil-rich countries attempt to represent new image of their societies based on transnational and transcultural situations. First of all, since a large part of the population resides as an immigrant labor force in the region, arts and culture in these countries need a transnational image to link the population together. This image was created by transnational museums in the UAE and Qatar and developed with intercultural and intercultural policies. Second, the emphasis on transnational identity is a part of political economy in this region; Dubai and Doha have active global ports and international workforce with transnational relations.

In the end, it is worth to note that we cannot talk about Art, only based on local artists (Emirati or Qatari artists) in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. As it was mentioned, Art in this region can be transnational and trans-regional with artists from other countries that work in the same region. Art in this region is a product of cultural policies in the “contact zone”. Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese and Iranian artists who immigrated to Qatar and the UAE due to war or political bottlenecks and now work in new Arab art centers form transnational art. The UAE galleries and museums in Qatar have also welcomed them, and these artists have found their way to international exhibitions and markets.

These art movements on the one hand, try to be contemporary and a part of global art, and on the other hand, they are trying to be in line with the political economy of the Arab oil-rich countries.