Dima Hamadeh is a researcher and writer currently based in Beirut. She holds a research MA in Cultural Analysis (Arts and Culture) from the University of Amsterdam and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the Lebanese University, Beirut. Her work is focused on areas related to contemporary art practices, in terms of their epistemological frameworks and thematics, modes and conditions of production, institutions and labour, within the Arab context. In 2014, Hamadeh launched an ongoing research initiative on Arab Feminisms, which studies Arab female/feminist representations – whether theoretical, literary or artistic – in the context of anti-colonial struggle, feminist Islamic hermeneutics, and militarised feminist movements. Since then she has organised related study groups in collaboration with 98Weeks Research Project, amongst others. Between 2014 and 2017, Hamadeh worked as assistant director of Beirut Art Center, where she initiated a platform that activated discussions on (art-)institutional futures in light of a shifting definition of cultural labour.
‘Cultural diplomacy’ has played an instrumental role in fostering a particular mode of self-identification among Arab artists and practitioners. The philanthropic support for Arab art promotes the perspective of a cultural ‘elsewhere’ and a personified ‘otherness’. The result is a ‘love’ that configures the ethos of the art market.