Sharon Toval

Is the Gulf becoming the new laboratory of cultural power?
I recently shared my thoughts with the wonderful art critic Zeta Tzioti for ArtViews Magazine on the extraordinary cultural transformation taking place across the Gulf.
Are the Gulf countries simply importing Western museums, biennales, art fairs and cultural systems—or are they studying these structures, mastering their mechanisms, and gradually reshaping them according to their own cultural ambitions?
Could what appears at first as cultural dependency eventually become a form of reverse appropriation, shifting part of the art world’s centre of gravity away from the West?
We also discuss soft power, cultural diplomacy, the rapidly developing art ecosystems of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and the changing role of the curator within this new geography of cultural power.
Many thanks to Zeta Tzioti for this thoughtful and challenging conversation.
Read the full interview in ArtViews Magazine—Link in bio