DUBAI: Abu Dhabi Art’s “Beyond: Emerging Artists” program was established to provide a platform for emerging homegrown creatives and support them in the development of their work through financial aid and expert guidance from established artists and curators. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle The initiative commissions new work by rising Emirati artists and exhibits them during the Abu Dhabi Art fair, which is returning for its 12 edition from Nov. 19-26 in a virtual format. For this year’s digital edition of “Beyond: Emerging Artists,” Emirati talents Hind Mezaina, Afra Al-Dhaheri and Afra Al-Suwaidi have been selected to produce works exploring the theme of “memory,” to be presented virtually through Abu Dhabi Art’s website from Nov. 19 to the end of December 2020. The work will also be presented in a physical format at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi in November. Hind Mezaina. Supplied “Our program exists as a vehicle to enable exceptional younger artists from across the UAE to realize ambitious new projects and exhibit them to a wide audience,” said Dyala Nusseibeh, director of Abu Dhabi Art. “Part of our mandate is to support the local art ecosystem and this particular project forms one of our cornerstone initiatives in this regard,” she added. The participating artists were handpicked by Maya El-Khalil, the curator of “Beyond: Emerging Artists.” Afra Al-Suwaidi. Supplied “For this year’s ‘Beyond: Emerging Artists’ program at Abu Dhabi Art, I am working with three incredibly talented women. Together, we acknowledge the art world’s currently altered sense of reality and each of the artists, through their distinctive practices, will be investigating how experiences of remembrance are constituted,” El-Khalil said in a press statement. Mezaina, who often describes her work as a form of “visual archaeology,” will be utilizing multimedia archival materials, such as photography and archival film, to express elements of collective memory, masculinity, heritage and the UAE. For her part, Al-Dhaheri will explore identity formation by way of her own hair strands, which she collects after they’ve fallen out. Meanwhile, Al-Suwaidi will present her thought-provoking work through the form of a collage that explores how trauma appears in domestic architecture and everyday surroundings in the home.