Art Dubai Unveils Extensive 2023 Program

The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference
The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference
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Art Dubai Unveils Extensive 2023 Program

The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference
The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference

Art Dubai has announced details of the program and partnerships for its 16th edition.

The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference, talks and education program, reinforcing Dubai’s emergence as a hub for art and culture and a significant contributor to global conversations about contemporary art.

The 2023 edition of Art Dubai will be held at Madinat Jumeirah from March 3 to 5, with previews on 1 and 2 March 2023.

Held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Art Dubai’s expanded 2023 program, developed in collaboration with local and international cultural partners, reaffirms the premier art fair’s role as the meeting point for the Global South’s creative industries and communities.

Highlights of the 2023 program include site-specific commissions and premieres by renowned international artists, presented in partnership with the region’s leading institutions.

The expanded program continues Art Dubai’s long-standing commitment to thought leadership and supporting the development of Dubai’s cultural infrastructure.

The Artist Commissions for 2023 are themed around food, community, celebration and hope, with artists selected from participating Art Dubai galleries and South Asia’s leading institutions.

Julius Baer has renewed its association with Art Dubai as its lead partner for another five years until 2027. The Swiss wealth management group will premiere a newly commissioned artwork by Refik Anadol, the new media artist and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence.

The commission will debut in Dubai as a part of Julius Baer’s new initiative, NEXT, which will encourage the interdisciplinary exploration of megatrends across the arts, science and technology.

Also debuting at the fair will be UAE First Immersion, a presentation of new artworks produced following the November 2022 visit to the UAE by some leading names in digital art.

The exhibit will be part of the expanded second edition of Art Dubai Digital, which will feature collaborations with various organizations pioneering new institutional models, including Lian Foundation and 6529’s Open Metaverse project.

Celebrating its 10th edition, Campus Art Dubai, Art Dubai’s flagship professional development initiative, will expand to incorporate placements with local partners, including Alserkal Avenue and Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai and 421, an Abu Dhabi-based emerging artists platform. With 421, the fair will present a new group exhibition curated by UAE-based artist and researcher Dania Al Tamimi.

The 16th edition of Art Dubai’s celebrated transdisciplinary conference Global Art Forum, commissioned by Shumon Basar, will explore the theme “Predicting the Present” and consider the central question: if it’s the end of history and the end of the future, what happens next?
The fair’s 2023 conference program will expand to include the first Dubai edition of Christie’s Art+Tech summit.

The summit brings together regional and global leaders, innovators, artists, and visionaries to foster meaningful dialogues on the intersection of Art and Technology.

The sixth iteration of the summit—and the first in the region—will survey tech trends, hear from artists incorporating tech in their practices, and explore current and future challenges and opportunities.

Highlighting the role played by collectors and philanthropists in developing the region’s cultural infrastructure, Art Dubai 2023 will include a series of high-level Collector and Modern Talks, presented in partnership with Dubai Collection, the first institutional art collection in the city and for the city.



Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)

Mexico said Monday it is awaiting a new response from Google to its request that the tech company fully restore the name “Gulf of Mexico” to its Google Maps service before filing a lawsuit.

President Claudia Sheinbaum shared a letter addressed to her government from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy. It says that Google will not change the policy it outlined after US President Donald Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.

“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” Sheinbaum said Monday during a morning press briefing.

As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as “Gulf of America” within the United States, as “Gulf of Mexico” within Mexico and “Gulf of Mexico” (Gulf of America) elsewhere. Turner in his letter said the company was using “Gulf of America” to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions” and that the company was willing to meet in person with the Mexican government.

“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world,” he wrote.

Mexico has argued that the mapping policy violates Mexican sovereignty because the US only has jurisdiction over around 46% of the Gulf. The rest is controlled by Mexico, which controls 49% and Cuba, which controls around 5%. The name “Gulf of Mexico” dates back to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.

In response to Google's letter, Mexican authorities said they would take legal action, writing that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction.”

The renaming of the body of water by Trump has flared tensions between Mexico and the US at a pivotal time for the neighboring allies.

Sheinbaum has had to walk a fine line with Trump amid threats of tariffs and Mexico and other Latin American countries have braced themselves for promised mass deportations, the brunt of which has still not been felt.

Along with the legal threat to Google, the Mexican president also announced Monday that Mexico and the US would hold high-level meetings this week on trade and security in an effort to maintain a “long-term plan of collaboration” between the two countries.

It's the latest round of talks between the two countries in which Mexico hopes to hold off a larger geopolitical crisis.