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# 60 Art World Luminaries Pressure UAE on "Chilling Precedent" Set by Recent Bans
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/60-art-world-luminaries-pressure-uae-on-chilling-precedent-set-by-recent-bans/
- Published: 2015-06-01T17:12:17.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:35:48.000Z
- Description: The directors of some of the world's most important art institutions, including the Tate and MoMA, have written a letter to UAE-affiliated art organizations asserting that "artists and academics should be allowed free passage to conduct research and work that is done in a peaceful and productive man
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: News, Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Museum, Louvre Abu Dhabi, NYU Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![Some of the museum directors that signed the letter to Saadiyat Island-affiliated development and arts organizations today. In total, 60 people signed the letter. They are floating above an artistic rendering of the future Saadiyat Island with the signature buildings of the Guggenheim and Louvre franchises prominently on display at the bottom right. (graphic by Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/saadiyat-island-letter-1280-2.jpg)

Some of the museum directors that signed the letter to Saadiyat Island-affiliated development and arts organizations today floating above an artistic rendering of the future Saadiyat Island with the signature buildings of the Guggenheim and Louvre franchises on the bottom right. (graphic by Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

An impressive roster of 60 museums directors, curators, editors, and other leading art world figures have written a letter to the art institutions and development organizations involved with Saadiyat Island, where franchises of the Louvre and Guggenheim Museums will open in the coming years. The directors of some of the world’s most important art institutions, including Tate’s Nicholas Serota and the Museum of Modern Art’s Glenn Lowry, have added their names to a letter asserting that “artists and academics should be allowed free passage to conduct research and work that is done in a peaceful and productive manner.”

The letter, which was released today, comes on the heels of news that a third member of Gulf Labor, artist Walid Raad, [was denied entry](https://hyperallergic.com/artist-walid-raad-denied-entry-into-uae-becoming-third-gulf-labor-member-turned-away/) last month to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he tried to attend the second part of the Sharjah Art Foundation‘s March Meetings. The artists participating in the 2015 Sharjah Biennial, which is organized by the Sharjah Art Foundation, subsequently released [a letter of their own](http://gulflabor.org/2015/12th-sharjah-biennial-artists-issue-statement/?ref=hyperallergic.com) urging UAE authorities “to lift entry restrictions for Ashok Sukumaran, Walid Raad, and Andrew Ross” (who was denied entry [in March](https://hyperallergic.com/as-professor-is-denied-entry-nyu-abu-dhabi-faces-new-pressure-to-evolve/)) and maintain “transparency and dialog.”

Signatories of the letter released today, the first of its kind to address the UAE and its burgeoning art scene, include the directors of many global art institutions, including the Queens Museum and Creative Time in the United States, Kadist Art Foundation and Le Consortium in France, Witte de With and Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, SALT in Turkey, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore, Tensta Konsthall in Sweden, MACBA in Catalonia (Spain), M+ in Hong Kong, and the Beirut Art Center in Lebanon.

The letter comes on the heels of a statement last week from the [Association for Modern and Contemporary Art in the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey](http://amcainternational.org/amca-statement-on-artistic-freedom-in-the-uae/?ref=hyperallergic.com) (AMCA) condemning the entry ban UAE authorities have imposed on Gulf Labor-affiliated artists Walid Raad and [Ashok Sukumaran](https://hyperallergic.com/as-third-member-is-refused-entry-to-uae-gulf-labor-renews-pressure-on-guggenheim/). The letter calls on UAE-based art institutions, including in particular the Guggenheim Museum, to convey their disapproval to UAE authorities and vocally dissociate themselves from the action.

Gulf Labor is an international coalition of artists working to ensure that migrant worker rights are protected during the construction of museums and other institutions on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.

The following is the letter in full:

> June 1, 2015  
>  
> To:  
> Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, Abu Dhabi, UAE  
> Tourism Development & Investment Company, Abu Dhabi, UAE  
> The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York, NY, USA  
> New York University, New York, USA  
> New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE  
> Agence France-Muséums, Paris, France  
> Musée du Louvre, Paris, France  
> Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE  
>  
> Recently, artists Ashok Sukumaran and Walid Raad were denied entry to the UAE on grounds of “security”. This comes after NYU professor Andrew Ross was similarly barred from flying to Abu Dhabi in March. Sukumaran and Raad have a long history of vital and sustained engagement with the UAE, often on the invitation of your institutions. Ross is a professor of standing in New York’s academic community. It appears that the reason these three members of our global arts and academic community were denied entry to the UAE is their involvement with the Gulf Labour Coalition.  
>  
> As you know, Gulf Labour is an artist-initiated group that has been active since 2010, asking museums and institutions being built on Saadiyat Island to create better conditions for their workers.These conditions of the creation of a cultural world should be of concern to us all, and the proposals of artists in this regard should be seen as a matter of debate, not of “security”. We assert that artists and academics should be allowed free passage to conduct research and work that is done in a peaceful and productive manner.  
>  
> We the undersigned oppose the barring of Ashok Sukumaran, Walid Raad and Andrew Ross from the UAE. We state that denying artists visas, stopping and deporting them after years of their work in the region, creates a chilling precedent and makes it difficult for arts and academic institutions in the UAE, and those working with the UAE to claim regional dialogue and artistic freedom. We urge your institutions to work with the concerned authorities to lift these bars on their travel.  
>  
> Sincerely,  
>  
> Nancy Adajania, Cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai  
> Negar Azimi, Senior Editor, Bidoun, New York  
> Mai Abu El Dahab, Director, Young Arab Theatre Fund, Brussels  
> Defne Ayas, Director, Witte de With – Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam  
> Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Raqs Media Collective, New Delhi  
> Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore  
> Achim Borchardt-Hume, Director of Exhibitions, Tate Modern, London  
> Sabine Breitwieser, Director, Museum der Moderne Salzburg  
> Doryun Chong, Chief Curator, M+ Hong Kong  
> Iftikhar Dadi, Professor, Department of History of Art, Cornell University, New York  
> Sebastien Delot, former Modern and Contemporary Art Curator of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Head of the Collection of The Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain Saint Etienne  
> Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, Vice-President, Arab Image Foundation, Beirut  
> Rana El Nemr, Board member, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo  
> Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven  
> Patricia Falguieres, Professeur à l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris  
> Solange Farkas, Director/Curator, Associação Cultural Videobrasil, Sao Paulo  
> Kate Fowle, Director-at-Large, Independent Curators International, New York  
> Anselm Franke, Head of Visual Art and Film, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin  
> Franck Gautherot, Co-director Le Consortium, Dijon  
> Charles Guarino, Publisher, Artforum Magazine, New York  
> Kathy Halbreich, Deputy Director, Museum of Modern Art, New York  
> Ranjit Hoskote, Cultural theorist and independent curator, Mumbai  
> Claire Hsu, Founder-Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong  
> Jitish Kallat, Artist and Curator, 2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennial  
> Geeta Kapur, Critic and Curator, New Delhi  
> Mami Kataoka , Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo  
> Sunjung, Kim, Artistic Director, Asia Culture Information Agency of Asian Culture Complex, Gwangju  
> Seungduk Kim, Co-director Le Consortium, Dijon  
> Koyo Kouoh, Artistic Director RAW Material Company, Dakar  
> Vasıf Kortun, Director of Research & Programs, SALT, Istanbul and Ankara  
> Carin Kuoni, Director, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School, New York  
> Marta Kuzma, Rector, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm  
> Dennis Lim, Director of Programming, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York  
> Maria Lind, Director, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm  
> Andrea Lissoni, Senior Curator International Art (Film), Tate Modern, London  
> Glenn Lowry, Director, Museum of Modern Art, New York  
> Maha Maamoun, Board member, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo  
> Bartomeu Marí, Director MACBA, Barcelona  
> Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston  
> Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, Managing Trustee & Honorary Director, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, Mumbai  
> Marie Muracciole, Curator, Director of Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon  
> Hammad Nasar, Head of Research & Programmes, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong  
> Lars Nittve, Executive Director, M+ Hong Kong  
> Anne Pasternak, President and Artistic Director, Creative Time, New York  
> Hila Peleg, Curator, Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens  
> Sharmini Pereira, Director, Raking Leaves, Sri Lanka  
> Natasa Petresin-Bachelez, independent curator, editor of L’Internationale Online, Paris  
> Jenelle Porter, Mannion Family Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston  
> Laura Raicovich, Director, Queens Museum, New York  
> Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston  
> Sukhdev Sandhu, Film critic and Writer, New York University, New York  
> Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, London  
> Sumesh Sharma and Zasha Colah, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai  
> Pooja Sood, Director, Khoj International Artists Association, New Delhi  
> Andrea Thal, Artistic Director, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo  
> Nato Thompson, Chief Curator, Creative Time, New York  
> Fawwaz Traboulsi, Writer and Historian, American University of Beirut, Beirut  
> Emilie Villez, Director, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris  
> Christine Van Assche, Chief Curator-at-Large, Centre Pompidou, Paris  
> Anton Vidokle, founder, e-flux, New York  
> Sheena Wagstaff, Chairman of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum, New York