Local, Regional, Global: An Investigation of Art Dubai’s Transnational Strategies

Art Dubai, although a relatively young art fair, has achieved international visibility in just ten years. This article discusses Art Dubai’s role as a transnational actor and as a project of scale making that aspires to the global art fair model. The article employs anthropologist Anna Tsing’s (2000) concepts of “ideologies of scale” and projects of “scale making”. It considers the global art fair model as an ideology that dictates the necessary features of a successful art fair on a global scale. The article explores how Art Dubai creatively engages with some of these features, and also focuses on the transnational strategies the fair employs through its exhibitions and programs. If the fair has managed to successfully attract both private and institutional collectors, it has done so by branding itself as a “fair of discovery”, positioning itself as a hub between different world regions. This rhetoric generates success, while also catering to the Western taste for “discovery”