SELECTION COMMITTEE 2019
Olivia Bourrat
Olivia Bourrat is the Curatorial Director of Agence France-Muséums, the French partner of the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum. An art historian and a national curator of the French Ministry of culture, she studied Art History at the École du Louvre and completed two Masters in Modern Literature and Art History at the Sorbonne (Paris-IV) before following doctoral studies at the EHESS (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences), and fulfilling the INP’s (National Heritage Institute) training program in 2006. She has taught the History of Taste and of Collection at the INP from 2011 to 2013, and teaches Museums' History at the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi. She joined Agence France-Muséums in 2014 as deputy director in charge of programs and mediation, and became deputy scientific director in 2015 in the context of the Louvre opening in Abu Dhabi. She worked as researcher at the Popol Vuh museum in Guatemala in 2004, and then at the Quai Branly museum in Paris in 2005. She was appointed Curator of Historic Monuments for the Rhône-Alpes region in 2007, before re-joining the Quai Branly museum in 2010 as Head of the Preservation, Conservation and Analysis team.
Jean-Marc Decrop
Jean-Marc Decrop is an expert specialized in Chinese contemporary art, and has contributed to its discovery abroad. From 1999 to 2007, he was partner and artistic advisor of the Loft gallery in Paris, where he produced several monographic exhibitions of prominent contemporary Chinese artists, developing a collection that has been loaning works to museums. In parallel, he organized exhibitions in 11 museums and foundations, for which he wrote catalogues. A major collector, he helped build many European collections. He later enlarged his scope to other emerging art scenes, notably Indonesia, Pakistan and Middle East. He is a shareholder in the Dubai gallery IVDE, to which he introduced Emirati artist Hassan Sharif. Since 2010, he has been one of Sharif's most important collectors, and owns some of the artist’s major works from the nineteen-eighties.
Tamara Inja Jaber
Tamara Inja Jaber is an art advisor for prominent Arab collectors and governmental institutions. Based in Dubai since 2004, Inja Jaber promotes Lebanese artists and their work in the Gulf region. In 2008, she curated 'Lebanese Stories', a remarkable exhibition showcasing the works of modern and contemporary Lebanese artists at the Dubai International Financial Centre. In 2010, she co-curated in Beirut 'Pieces for a Museum', a retrospective exhibition celebrating the renowned and timeless works of Lebanese painters Paul Guiragossian and Shafic Abboud. A fierce art advocate, Tamara thrives to create, through art, a bridge between her country of origin, Lebanon, and the Arab world.
Lyne Sneige
Lyne Sneige is currently the director of the Arts & Culture Program at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington, D.C. Before joining MEI, Sneige was deputy director and regional projects manager for Arts and Culture for the Middle East at the British Council, operating out of Beirut. Sneige spearheaded several initiatives such as the Creative Economy and Cultural Leadership agendas in the region, and is a strong advocate of the important role that artists play in their societies, as well as a main contributor to changing perceptions of the cultural sector in the Middle East as an important conduit for social and economic change. Sneige is a Salzburg Global Seminar fellow, a nominator to the Art Jameel Prize, the international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition organized in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a nominator for the newly established Agha Khan Music Awards, and an advisor for the educational and outreach program of the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA), that is set to open in 2023.
Marie-Ann Yemsi
Marie-Ann Yemsi is an independent art consultant and curator, born in Germany to German and Cameroonian parents. In 2005, she founded her own agency, Agent Créatif(s), which has developed a renowned expertise in cultural production and art consulting, with a focus on emerging artists and the artistic scenes of Africa and its Diasporas. She has been the curator of several international exhibitions, including "African Odysseys" at the Brass Cultural Center (Brussels) in 2015, 'The Days that Comes' at the Galerie des Galeries (Paris) in 2017 and 'A Silent Line, Lives Here' at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris) in 2018. She was the Artistic Director of ‘Afrotopia', the 11th edition of the Rencontres de Bamako, African Biennale of Photography in Mali (Dec. 2017 – Jan. 2018).