News
The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor
London book launch: 19 November, 18:30, Rivington Place
Ibraaz and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation are pleased to announce the publication of Gulf Labor's first book The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor (edited by Andrew Ross [for Gulf Labor], OR Books, 2015).
Following successful launches in Venice and New York, The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor launched in London on Thursday 19 November 2015, at Rivington Place.
The launch was preceded by a panel discussion involving Gulf Labor member Guy Mannes-Abbott, contributor Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Rima Kalush of Migrant-Rights.org and Amnesty International's James Lynch. The panel was chaired by Ibraaz Editor-in-Chief Anthony Downey.
Listen to or download a podcast of the panel discussion here:
The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor is the chronicle of a campaign at the forefront of a new wave of worldwide cultural activism. The Gulf Labor Coalition is a cosmopolitan group of artists and writers who are pressuring Western cultural brands, including the Louvre, Guggenheim, British Museum and New York University, over their exploitation of thousands of migrant workers building their Starchitect-designed branches on Saadiyat Island, the so-called 'Island of Happiness' off the coast of Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Since 2010, Gulf Labor's campaign has centered on a boycott of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and included direct actions at global Guggenheim sites, the instigation of international legal scrutiny, and 52 Weeks of…, an initiative of weekly visual prompts.
The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor is a campaign handbook with archives and research reports on life and work in Abu Dhabi, contextualized by essays commissioned from core Gulf Labor members on and around these issues.
The Gulf is edited by Andrew Ross (for Gulf Labor), with contributions from: Hans Haacke, Walid Raad, Guy Mannes-Abbott, the Global Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.), Mariam Ghani, Gregory Sholette, Naeem Mohaiemen, Rene Gabri, Ayreen Anastas, Haig Aivazian, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, and more.
There are also artwork contributions by Hend Al Mansour, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, Todd Ayoung and Jelena Stojanovic, Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker, Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler, Emily Verla Bovino, CAMP, Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, Sam Durant, Claire Fontaine, Andrea Fraser, Mariam Ghani, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, Paul Graham, G.U.L.F., Gulf Labor West, Hans Haacke, Rawi Hage, Pablo Helguera, Thomas Hirschhorn, Aaron Hughes and Sarah Farahat, The Illuminator, John Jurayj, Janet Koenig, Silvia Kolbowski, Lynn Love and Ann Sappenfield, Guy Mannes-Abbott, Mazatl, Pat McElnea, Jasa Mrevlje, Marina Naprushkina, Jenny Polak, Walid Raad, Georges Rabbath, Jayce Salloum, Rasha Salti, Dread Scott, Gregory Sholette and Matthew Greco, Andreas Siekmann and Alice Creischer, Nida Sinnokrot, Situ Studio, Suha Traboulsi and Jaret Vadera.
For more information on The Gulf High Culture/Hard Labor (edited by Andrew Ross [for Gulf Labor], OR Books, 2015) and to purchase the book, visit OR Books and The Gulf Labor Coalition.
