“52 Weeks” is a one year campaign starting in October 2013. Artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries are invited to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant laborers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi.
www.gulflabor.org
October 2013 – October 2014
Gulf Labor Week 51:
SUHA TRABOULSI. Guggenheim Appetizer
Suha Traboulsi, Guggenheim Appetizer, newspaper cut-out, 2014.
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
Gulf Labor is a coalition of artists and activists who have been working since 2011 to highlight the coercive recruitment, and deplorable living and working conditions of migrant laborers in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness). Our campaign focuses on the workers who are building the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum (in collaboration with the British Museum).
“52 Weeks” is a one year campaign starting in October 2013. Artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries are invited to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant laborers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi.
www.gulflabor.org
Please read and/or sign gulf labor’s petition
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ZANNY BEGG and OLIVER RESSLER. The Right of Passage
The Right of Passage from Oliver Ressler on Vimeo.
To view the film website, click here
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Gulf Labor Week 38:
NIDA SINNOKROT
Image: KA (JCB, JCB), 2009
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 28:
TODD AYOUNG and JELENA STOJANOVIC
Image: A Paradox on Citizenry and Creativity, poster, 2014
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 27:
JAŠA. Crystal C
As a concluding action of Crystal C project, I planted a tree, a Weeping Willow, that was part of the installation.
In many situations of artist’s labour, the conditions and value are misunderstood in the market and money driven contexts; therefore I strongly believe that we need to fight for a true understanding of work and the motivations that fuel it. Bare survival is a reality of many; poets as workers. We need to redefine the idea of success, see it as a fist of clay that has to be molded by many hands into a new shape. Togetherness is not only a word, it should be the world.
JAŠA
Image: Crystal C / planting, Pioneer Works, New York, 2014
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 26:
G.H. RABBATH. Signing With Light
Image: ‘SIGNING WITH LIGHT’, still from a GIF animation, 2014
To view more images from the series please click here
‘SIGNING WITH LIGHT’ is an ongoing performative photography project by G.H. Rabbath taking place at the 392RMEIL393 art project spaces, in Beirut. People coming into the gallery space are told about the Gulf Labor project, and the ones who accept are photographed while reading posts from gulflabor.org or signing the petition.
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Gulf Labor Week 25:
RAWI HAGE. CARNIVAL
Image: CARNIVAL, poster, 2012
The text is an excerpt from the novel CARNIVAL by Rawi Hage (2012).
The author is grateful to the following people for their contribution to the design, and to the translations from English into the various languages. Jennifer de Freitas at Associés Libres Design, Foreign language typesetting: Resolvis.ca, Anita Badami and Rahul Varma (Hindi), Rita Boustany (Arabic), Asoke Chakravarty (Bengali), Dominique Fortier (French), Murtaza Haider (Urdu). Also a special thanks to Madhav Badami, Rana Bose and Azza Tawil.
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
PS. On Saturday, March 29 protesters dropped fake dollar bills into the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The action was organized by G.U.L.F (Global Ultra Luxury Faction)
To view more images of the action click here
To view video of the action click here
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Gulf Labor Week 24:
The Illuminator and Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.). Rebranding the Guggenheim
Image: At 10:00 pm on 24th March 2014, members of Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) joined by the OWS Illuminator occupied the facade of the Guggenheim Museum in Uptown Manhattan for over 40 minutes
The Illuminator Joins Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction:
Rebranding the Guggenheim for Exploiting Migrant Workers in Abu Dhabi
G.U.L.F. rebranded the Guggenheim’s flagship museum in protest of complicity at the ill-treatment and economic exploitation of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi who are beginning to build the new Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim on Saadiyat (aka ‘Island of Happiness’. G.U.L.F.’s act of messaging solidarity follows recent reports from Human Rights Watch, as well as investigative findings from members of the Gulf Labor Coalition (some of whom overlap with G.U.L.F.) who have just returned from a fact-finding mission in Abu Dhabi where where they visited several worker camps and spoke with workers. They confirmed a reality that is the opposite of happy: multiple labor violations, generated by a system built on human suffering and debt bondage.
Last night, G.U.L.F. renewed the call on the Guggenheim to own up to its responsibility as a leading cultural, educational and art institution, and not take economic advantage of the workers seeking the ‘Gulf Dream’. Workers should not be caught in a debt spiral where they must work for years on building the museum only to pay the fees that brought them to Abu Dhabi in the first place. Guggenheim has a choice here. It must refuse to lend its cultural capital to build the ‘Island of Happiness’ where art and luxury mask and maintain a racialized exploitative labor regime, while using its PR department and those of its partners to hide the facts and mislead the public. Unless the Guggenheim changes course with the new museum in Abu Dhabi, G.U.L.F. will continue to remind the Guggenheim that their brand is: “1% Global Museum.”
1% Museums means 1% Art.
Art built on Oppression Loses Meaning.
There are other possible Futures of Art.
To view more images of the action click here
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Gulf Labor Week 23:
HEND AL MANSOUR. Fist of the Day
Image: Fist of the Day, silk screen print, 2014
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
To view more works from the current exhibition Labor-Migrant-Gulf at Southwestern College, San Diego, click here
Gulf Labor is a coalition of artists and activists who have been working since 2011 to highlight the coercive recruitment, and deplorable living and working conditions of migrant laborers in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness). Our campaign focuses on the workers who are building the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum (in collaboration with the British Museum).
“52 Weeks” is a one year campaign starting in October 2013. Artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries are invited to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant laborers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi.
www.gulflabor.org
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Gulf Labor Week 22:
Labor-Migrant-Gulf, an Exhibit at Southwestern College, San Diego, March 13 to April 10, 2014
Labor/Migrant/Gulf explores migrant workers struggles throughout the world with pointed emphasis on workers from Central and Southeast Asia who work in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, Mexican workers on the US-Mexican border, and California’s migrant history. The exhibit at Southwestern College, a few miles away from the US – Mexican border joins artists from around the world to bring awareness to the human struggles of the world’s poorest laborers. Many of the artists in the exhibit that have shown in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah) first became aware of the conditions at the Sharjah Biennial in 2009 and began a petition to push the Guggenheim Museum to be mindful of the harsh and unsafe working conditions. A sub-theme is the artist’s identification with migrant laborers. Perhaps artists are one or two rungs above the world’s poorest labor pools? This exhibit attempts to break down hierarchies between established artist and other artists, therefore children and young adults are included. Labor/Migrant/Gulf at Southwestern College will be organized in two parts: One part is a traditional group exhibit of about a dozen artists. The other part is collective pieces made up of art from about 90 artists to form the shape of large boteh or paisley designs. The boteh/paisley is a significant ornamental design that has religious, historical, colonial, counter culture, and labor meaning and inferences. The boteh/paisley designs honor the Asian migrants that inspired this art exhibit.
Doris Bittar, artist/curator
Image: West Coast Artists vs. Guggenheim and Louvre Museums, mixed media, 2014
To view more works from the exhibit click here
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Gulf Labor Week 21:
MARYAM MONALISA GHARAVI. they built for eternity
Image: they built for eternity, acrylic and inkjet, 2014
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 20:
G.U.L.F. (Global Ultra Luxury Faction) . Is this the future of art?
Video: Protest action inside the Guggenheim Museum, New York City. Saturday, February 22, 2014.
G.U.L.F. took direct action against the Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of a solidarity initiative with South Asian migrant workers on Saadiyat Island. The following statement has been released by G.U.L.F. in response to a series of statements made by the Guggenheim Foundation this week:
Each time the Guggenheim speaks, its approach to migrant labour issues on Saadiyat Island sounds more like that of a global corporation than that of an educational or art institution. We would like to remind the Guggenheim that it’s a museum, with a mission to “explore ideas across cultures through dynamic curatorial and educational initiatives.” Museums should help the public come to a greater understanding of the global complexities we all face.
Each day the Guggenheim hides behind the excuse that “construction has not yet started on our building” is another day of evading decisions and actions which could prevent a future migrant worker’s servitude. Right now, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure is being constructed. That infrastructure includes roads, sewage, water, electric, net pipes, etc., leading to the museum. But other components of the work are also under way. We can only assume that money has been transferred to the Guggenheim here in New York in order to hire the curators and administrators of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. We know that events off-site have already been organized. Works of art have certainly been bought, insured, and stored. Last but not least, Saadiyat Island is being sold to investors on the basis of the Guggenheim’s name, along with those of the Louvre, the British Museum and others. How can the Guggenheim claim that construction has not begun?
Even if we were to take at face value the claim that construction of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi has not begun, we would say the following: NOW thousands of workers who will build your museum are taking on the massive debt that will take them years to repay; NOW workers are being recruited with promises that will not be fulfilled, for jobs that will pay less than they expected; NOW workers are applying for the passports that may be confiscated as soon as they land in the UAE; and, surely, NOW is the time to do something about all of this.
It is unfortunate but not surprising that the Guggenheim refuses to open its doors to a serious public dialogue about the migrant labor issues in Abu Dhabi. A museum of its stature must foster public education about the conditions under which art is viewed. The Guggenheim is stepping back from this social responsibility as it focuses on expanding into new global markets.
As for the underpaid Guggenheim guards’ wages in New York, passing off culpability to a subcontractor is no longer an acceptable practice, even in the corporate world. The Guggenheim should pay all employees at least a living wage, even if they are on a contractor’s payroll.
Sadly, the Guggenheim’s latest response confirms our expectation. It has tried to hide behind technicalities and PR spin as it waits for news cycles to die down. We know the composition of their board and it does not surprise us. A 1% Global Museum with a 1% Board that cares very little about its lowest-paid employees and the example it is setting to the world.
We will be back.
G.U.L.F
(Global Ultra Luxury Faction)
To see the timeline of G.U.L.F. direct action, click here
To view the flyer that was distributed during the action please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 19:
ANNA STUMP. Migrant Labor did not exist in the Wonderland of Knowledge Encyclopedia
Image: Migrant Labor did not exist in the Wonderland of Knowledge Encyclopedia, 1938.
Gouache and Collage on Paper, 2013.
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
Gulf Labor is a coalition of artists and activists who have been working since 2011 to highlight the coercive recruitment, and deplorable living and working conditions of migrant laborers in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness). Our campaign focuses on the workers who are building the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum (in collaboration with the British Museum).
“52 Weeks” is a one year campaign starting in October 2013. Artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries are invited to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant laborers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi.
www.gulflabor.org
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Gulf Labor Week 18:
JOHN PITMAN WEBER. Migrant
Image: John Pitman Weber, Migrant, Woodcut, 2013 (detail)
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the poster, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 17:
CHARLES GAINES and ASHLEY HUNT. Cultural (En)richment
Image: Cultural (En)richment, poster, 2014 (detail)
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the poster, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 16:
JIM GOLDBERG
Image: JIM GOLDBERG, Akima and Arif. Bangladesh, 2007.
We drove all day and into the night to reach this village in the north of Bangladesh.
The village could not sustain itself, as it was no longer farmable.
The trees had been cut down, the streams poisoned, and the floods had gotten worse.There were plenty of children, grandfathers, and grandmothers, but few mothers, fathers, and teenagers.
Everyone who was of age and able had left to seek work in Dhaka, or paid away their savings to a middleman
who arranged for them to be sent to the Middle East.Akuma had only seen her father once, seven years before, when he returned to the village and Arif was conceived.
Three fathers from the village had disappeared that year alone.
Jim Goldberg
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 15:
Who Builds Your Architecture? is an interdisciplinary advocacy group that works to educate architects and other allied fields on the effects of globalization on architecture labor. WBYA? promotes fair working conditions and sustainable building practices at building sites worldwide.
Image: WBYA? proposes new standards be added to the AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in order to fulfill our professional and ethical obligation to those who build our architecture. (Printable PDF, 2014)
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of this week’s contribution, please click here
For more about WBYA? click here
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Gulf Labor Week 14:
PEDRO LASCH. Of Saadiyat’s Rectangles & Curves
Image: PEDRO LASCH, Of Saadiyatʼs Rectangles & Curves, or Santiago Sierraʼs One Sheikh, Two Museum Directors, Three Curators, One University President, Two Architects, and One Artist Remunerated to Sleep for 30 Days in 13 x 14 foot Windowless Room with Shared Bathroom and No Door (2013). From ART BIENNIALS & OTHER GLOBAL DISASTERS by Pedro Lasch
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 13:
MARINA NAPRUSHKINA. Life is as beautiful as…
Image: Life is as beautiful as… Poster, 2013 (Detail)
Office for Anti-Propagada, Marina Naprushkina
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 12:
RASHA SALTI. And Justice for All
Rulers think they can lacerate our social fabric with sectarian, ethnic or cultural strife, turn us against one
another, but our civility and solidarity are recorded in poems, novels, paintings, photographs and films.
[…][/…]
What we have demonstrated, what we have showed, was unimaginable to them: men and women, from across classes and
generations, standing peacefully side by side, sharing food,song and dance,shaping their destiny and taking their dignity …
[…][/…]
In 2013, an ever growing number of Arab artists has not only rescued me from surrendering to despair, but given me the strength to imagine that the future is mine, ours, and not to those who rule us and their policemen “out of order.” Nearer than suspected … and with justice for all.Rashi Salti
– And Justice for All
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 11:
LYNN LOVE and ANN SAPPENFIELD: 50° Celsius
Image: 50° Celsius, page layout from 2010 Supplement to the New Emirati Britannica, Third Edition (Detail)
The 2010 Supplement focuses on science, technology and natural history, and was commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE for the Tenth Sharjah Biennial, 2011.
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the work, please click here
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Gulf Labor Week 10:
NO DEBT IS AN ISLAND. Andrew Ross and MTL (Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Husain)
Launch of a solidarity initiative, December 2013
A triptych; multimedia components and a printable PDF
A high school graduate with an offer from a prestigious art institute dreams of artworld renown and takes out loans that will burden her for decades. Her brother is enrolled at NYU, national leader in student debt–the university is a growth machine, feeding off tuition and cheap credit to expand at home and overseas. In Bangladesh, the eldest son of a heavily indebted family dreams of Gulf riches, and borrows money to pay his recruitment and transit fees for passage to the UAE. There, on the “Island of Happiness,” Abu Dhabi’s showpiece real estate venture, his bonded labor is now linked to the “indenture” of the American students. Their respective financial obligations are connected to, and amplified by, Abu Dhabi’s over-leveraged boom economy, which rests on an ever-growing carbon debt. No Debt Is An Island traces the chain of debt that sustains the fortunes of the international art market, the global aspirations of Anglophone higher education, and the ascent of the Gulf petroleum states.
BREAK THE CHAINS
Make the links
Follow the money
Do the research
Walk the talk
Pressure the brands
Raise the bar
Break the chain
(and keep the oil in the soil)
From NYU to the Guggenheim – February 17 – 21st
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Gulf Labor WEEK 9:
Maha Traboulsi and Farid Sarroukh in collaboration with Walid Raad
POSTER: Talking to Press Again Sadly, 2013
Image: poster (detail), 2013 © Maha Traboulsi and Farid Sarroukh in collaboration with Walid Raad
To download, print, or simply see a higher resolution version of the poster, please click here
For more information: gulflabor.org/2013/week-9
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Gulf Labor WEEK 8:
Mieke Bal & Michelle Williams Gamaker (Cinema Suitcase)
POSTER & VIDEO: Condoning is Doing Refuse Complicity Exploitation Brings You Down
Image: Mieke Bal & Michelle Williams Gamaker, poster, 2013/© Mieke Bal & Michelle Williams Gamaker
poster download
Video: Mieke Bal & Michelle Williams Gamaker, Exploitation Bings You Down Condoning is Doing Refuse Complicity, 2013
For more information: gulflabor.org/2013/week-8
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Matt Greco & Greg Sholette
Saadiyat Island Workers Quarters Collectable, 2013
“Shop-Dropped” 3-D Prints, printed label, plastic boxes: unlimited edition
Photo Credits: Karin Cintron
Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world Abu Dhabi has yet to agree on measures to assure fair labor conditions even as they seek to legitimize their cultural endeavors by purchasing the choicest of Western brands: The Guggenheim, Louvre, New York University.
“Saadyiat Island Workers Quarters Collectable” of Matt Greco and Greg Sholette was “shop-dropped” at the Guggenheim Museum gift shop in New York as part of a larger campaign by Gulf Labor Coalition called “52 Weeks.”
For more information: http://gulflabor.org/2013/week-7
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Gulf Labor is a coalition of artists and activists who have been working since 2011 to highlight the coercive recruitment, and deplorable living and working conditions of migrant laborers in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness). Our campaign focuses on the workers who are building the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum (in collaboration with the British Museum).
“52 Weeks” is a one year campaign starting in October 2013. Artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries are invited to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant laborers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi.