The Dubai-based art collector Elie Khouri is building a space in the city for his eponymous foundation. The Elie Khouri Art Foundation (Ekaf) will be located in the coastal district of Jumeirah 1, in a villa renovated and redesigned by Counterspace, a firm led by the architect Sumayya Vally. The space, expected to open in 2028, will host public exhibitions and educational programmes.
Khouri is one of the Unite Arab Emirates (UAE)’s biggest and best-known collectors. Originally from Lebanon, he made his name as the chief executive officer of Omnicom Media in the Middle East and North Africa, and has been based in Dubai since the 1990s.
He began making plans for the foundation around five years ago, as one of the London-based Deflina Foundation’s collectors-in-residence, a programme launched in 2017 that considers collecting as a practice and seeks to support more ambitious implementation. With them he conducted feasibility studies to better understand what Dubai needs.
“The whole idea is to give back and foster exchange of ideas, challenge thinking and bring new perspectives,” he tells The Art Newspaper. “Dubai is about entrepreneurship. They support people like me, people coming to fulfil their ambitions. And what Dubai needs is private institutions, because that's how they will build their own version of culture.”
Despite Dubai’s large number of artists and galleries, it has never had a major museum, and private foundations have become a significant part of its infrastructure. The Jameel Arts Centre and Alserkal Avenue, each backed by individuals, are the two pillars of the art scene, in addition to smaller foundations such as Ishara, which focuses on art from South Asia.
Ekaf has an emphasis on global contemporary art, though one in which art from the Middle East will play an important role.
“We are here to support talent internationally,” says Khouri. “We're not about the region, but since we are in the Middle East, we also look at the best talent here. We have a responsibility to the ecosystem and the galleries.”
Ekaf will take Khouri’s collection, comprising works by more than 300 artists, as its starting point, drawing from it for initial exhibitions. Later shows will increasingly involve loans and collaborations. Ultimately, Khouri intends to establish an Ekaf collection that is separate to his personal holdings.
The veteran art strategist Caroline Louca, who was formerly at Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism and Christie’s Middle East, has been appointed as the director of the foundation. Louca and Khouri are looking to hire a curatorial team closer to the completion date for the museum.
Louca underlines that community engagement will be a major part of the foundation, with plans for talks, lectures and education streams. The foundation’s location, in Jumeirah 1, is a bonus in this respect. Jumeirah 1 is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Dubai, where many affluent long-time residents live. Ekaf’s villa was home to an Emirati family in the 1980s, and Vally’s designs retain the elements of old-school Gulf architecture that is a source of nostalgia for many in the UAE.
"We are focusing on how we can make a place become part of the community—and not just focus on what we’re showing,” says Louca. “You can see beautiful artworks everywhere, but we want people to be a bit daring. We want them to walk in and ask questions—and not be embarrassed to ask questions—and then come back and ask more. If we can achieve that, it will be our barometer of success.”