Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 63

In addition, citizenship is the UAE is patrilineal, and there is not much
room for naturalization (ibid.). So, those born to Emarati mothers do not
become Emarati citizens. Citizenship is, as such, defined not only by ethnic
origins but also by sex and gender in a way that restricts access to full civic
and cultural participation and representation. At the same time, the UAE
state produces “neoliberal” subjects who, through their entrepreneurial
activities, can benefit from privatized rights, consumer and business-based
models of quasi-citizenship. In doing so, the UAE deploys “multiple logics
of citizenship”, as Vora (����:���) puts it, whereby different groups are
given differential treatments, privileges, and forms of belonging according
to neoliberal ethos of productivity and economic participation, in which
a particular kind of foreigner is favored: the Western-educated, English
speaking, middle-class expatriate.
The hierarchical structure of UAE identities and citizenship often carries
over into the realm of cultural production and representation. Recently,
the UAE has been receiving much international attention following the
massive expansion in its museum and cultural projects. Examples include
the construction of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi as
part of the Saadiyat Island master plan whose total cost exceeds $�� billion
(Davidson ����). These emerging developments are indeed representative of
the country’s ambition to become a cultural hub in the Gulf region and brand
itself as a progressive and open Arab country. Museums are after all “identity
machines”, as McClellan (����:���) argues, and often play a significant role
in cementing the notion of nationhood and staking a claim of civilization
and progress.
However, this vision of promoting national identity and constructing a socalled
civilized image through culture does not seem to always sit comfortably
with a context where censorship exists and the class structure is heavily
demarcated and racialized. Abu Dhabi has already been criticized repeatedly
for the working conditions of migrant labourers building its cultural
institutions. In March ����, for instance, a petition has been launched by
Gulf Labor, which more than �,��� artists signed, calling for the boycott of
Guggenheim over the treatment of migrant workers in the Saadiyat Island
(see gulflabor.org). In October ����, a coalition of international artists has
launched a “�� weeks” campaign to protest against the labour conditions
on the Saadiyat Island. Artists and members of the Gulf Labor have been
exhibiting, on a weekly basis, artwork that highlights the living and working
conditions of workers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi (Batty
����; Gulf Labor n.d.). One of the active members of Gulf Labor is New
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