From more than 100 March Meeting Open Call applications, eleven essays were chosen for publication by Sharjah Art Foundation in a series of individual booklets in Arabic and English.
The paper selected for publication explored the challenges associated with the art world’s tendency of categorizing artists by accessible characteristics and how these themes of identity and classification impact their market value. The paper details how the arts have become avenues of commodifying cultural identities and how a new polycentric approach to art that is focussed on embracing non-Western cultural referential practices can help challenge and dismantle hegemonic power and bring the “margins” into the centre for a more inclusive and equitable art sector.