Art in Contact Zone in the UAE and Qatar: Trans-Regional Cultural Policy and Rise of New Artistic Movements

Dubai and Doha are attempting to be known as transcultural places. These cities are trying to be in a status that Mary Louise Pratt has 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. But how can Dubai and Doha become transcultural zones? What are the cultural policies to build a trans-regional identity? How have these policies affected artistic trends and artistic experiences? This chapter addresses how trans-regional cultural policies have made Dubai and Doha to welcome marginal arts, hybrid arts and multicultural arts. This chapter shows how Iranian and Arab artists have played a complex and multi-layered role in shaping the contact zone.

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Published in: Social Change and Transformation in the Gulf Region
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7796-1_19