The Critical Practice Programme is a professional development programme for UAE arts practitioners. For the fifth edition, Tashkeel selected Jalal Bin Thaneya, Chafa Ghaddar, and Silvia Hernando Alvarez, who will each embark on a journey of research, mentoring and experimentation, culminating in public outcomes at Tashkeel in 2019 and 2020.

Each programme is carefully constructed and built around the individual candidates’ practices and/or area of research. Tashkeel works with the artist to identify a key collaborator/mentor to build, challenge and work with them through the programme. This collaborator can be an artist, curator, critic or arts professional with whom the artist feels both comfortable working but also whose own area of research and/or practice ties in with the proposed programme and intended areas of focus.

The aim of the programme is to provide the artist with sustained and empowering support to develop their work in an environment that encourages progressive experimentation, cross-discipline exchange and cross-cultural dialogue. The curation of the courses remain responsive to the social, cultural and political contexts inherent in Dubai and the wider Middle East.

Jalal Bin Thaneya (UAE) is an industrial fine art photographer. Contrast and industrial landscapes are part of his signature photographic expression. This stems from his belief that without industry, our perseverance would not allow us to foresee a better future. Jalal has participated in various exhibitions and continues to research industrial topics relating to oil and gas, scrap yard processing and other specialist industries that have played a key role in the development of modern society. He has previously exhibited at Tashkeel in ‘Made in Tashkeel’ (2018), ‘Mind The Gap’ (2017) and ‘Connectivity’ (2016).

During the Critical Practice Programme 2018/19, Jalal plans “… to go beyond barriers and bring to the general public the world of industry.”

Chafa Ghaddar (Lebanon) is a graduate of Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) and later studied fresco and traditional painting in Florence. In addition to wall painting and surface finishing, working in murals, painting, drawing, photography and mixed media, she also explores the use of fresco in contemporary practices and other processes. Chafa has participated in several exhibitions and projects such as ‘Exposure 2012’ (Beirut Art Center), ‘On Fleeting Grounds’ and ‘Nostalgic Imagery’ (Galerie Janine Rubeiz), ‘Journeys through our Heritage’ (Beirut Exhibition Centre), ‘Works on Paper’ and ‘Feminites Plurielles’ (Galerie Tanit), ‘Strata’ in collaboration with A Hypothetical Office (Dubai Design Days 2017) and ‘Made in Tashkeel 2018’ (Tashkeel). She is currently developing a mural for Safa Public Library in Dubai, as part of A.I.R. 2017 in collaboration with Art Dubai, Tashkeel and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority. In 2014, Chafa Ghaddar received the Boghossian Art Prize.

During the Critical Practice Programme 2018/19, Chafar intends to contextualise and critique her own practice while challenging herself with new techniques and exploring and use of walls and surfaces as a medium.

Silvia Hernando Alvarez (Spain) is half-Castilian, half-Galician and lives in Dubai. She studied Fine Arts in Madrid and then Photography in France. Since obtaining her Master’s in 2017, she has spent time exploring her practice. Introduced to Tashkeel by former artist-in-residence Ruben Sanchez, Silvia has completed two Tashkeel courses (Critical Dialogues and Professional Practice). She is interested in non-truths and the history of representation – fact versus fiction and history versus myth.

During the Critical Practice Programme 2018/19, Silvia hopes to develop a project examining imaginary territories through photo-based materials and installation.