Three words title this year’s Art Here exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi, proposing what guest curator Simon Njami calls “a riddle”. Each word is in a different language. They do not directly translate from one another, and yet the exhibition’s theme resonates somewhere in between them.
The annual contemporary art exhibition, which features the artworks shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize and is running until December 15, is titled ouvertures (French for openings), awakenings and afaq (Arabic for horizon). The triptych theme, Njami says, has sharp connotations with Abu Dhabi and the Saadiyat Cultural District and how the emirate is positioning itself as a cultural hub, opening up to the world.
“I think that what I have composed is a riddle,” Njami says. “At times one word cannot say everything. I took the opportunity of the translation to enhance the different meanings. I think everything was contained in the opening, which is ouverture in French, and it’s a musical term, the first movement of a concerto or symphony. It is announcing something.”
For Njami, opening is not a solidified moment, but a process that leads to a heightened state of awareness, and that awakening seeks direction, striding towards the horizon.
“An artist is always looking for a horizon, a goal, an aim,” he says. “When you start with the opening or the awakening, it is to go somewhere.”
Besides being the exhibition’s curator, Njami is also on the jury of the Richard Mille Art Prize. He is joined by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and chairman of UAE Unlimited; poet and filmmaker Nujoom Alghanem; Maya Allison, founding executive director and chief curator of the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Galleries; and Guilhem Andre, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s scientific curatorial and collection management director.
With 200 applications for this year’s Richard Mille Art Prize, Njami says he scrutinised how well the proposals reflected his definition of contemporaneity. "It means something that is speaking about subject matters that are here and now, and with [contemporary] techniques," he says. "It could embroidering, it’s about how people use it. It's about the technology. It's about the spiritual. It’s about politics.”
Njami says he was also conscious of selecting works that he envisioned with be in dialogue with the physicality of Louvre Abu Dhabi. A story needed to materialise as visitors moved from one place to another, a narrative thread that was felt on an intrinsic level. “What I’m always telling young curators and scenographers is that your exhibition will be a success if people don’t see the strings, but feel it as if it is natural.”
Njami has succeeded in practising this himself. Art Here 2024 opens at the indoor forum area of Louvre Abu Dhabi. Five screens hang above the space, showing vast desert scenes shot in Tunisia. The artwork, Landscapes by Tunisian artist Nicene Kossentini, presents the human traces in these desert scenes. In one, plastic waste is entwined in desert shrubs. In another, a home made of palm fronds stands abandoned. A third shows a fishing boat is barely evident in the waters beyond the flat sands. As time progresses, these scenes become coated by a layer of wax that dries to an opaque texture before the feed cuts to black.
Landscapes could be seen as a poetic take on the passivity with which we observe global catastrophes, from climate change to war. “We are seeing the landscape, and suddenly it's disappearing,” Kossentini says.
From here on, the exhibition moves outside to the octagonal Damascene fountain, which is a highlight of Louvre Abu Dhabi's collection. A two-meter-high beach ball stands beside the 18th-century element. The sculpture, Debutante Ball by Emirati artist Lamya Gargash, is created using 3D-printed techniques and entirely with sand sourced from the UAE.
“I wanted to work with something close to home,” Gargash says. The work, she says, emanates from a childhood memory, where a person asked her where she was from, and upon responding, was told that the UAE was “just a big sandbox".
“I was young, so I took it to heart, but I did not know how to vocalise or defend myself,” she says. “But it has always stayed with me. The concept of awakening felt very fitting to the kind of journey that I was going through, through the journey of self-awakening, finding yourself and being rooted in who you are. So I thought, let me revisit that comment, turn a provocative negative statement into something positive.”
Sand echoes in the subsequent work as well. In Tilling the Soil, Franco-Tunisian artist Ferielle Doulain-Zouari has arranged a tessellation of hand-moulded clay bricks. Crushed blue glass runs across the tessellation with sand, moving as a straight line before curving at the midpoint. Half of the 250 bricks presented were made in Tunisia using traditional methods, the others were made in the UAE.
In fact, the design of the bricks – bearing prints and traces of the clay being kneaded by hand – was inspired by an archaeological site in Abu Dhabi. “I found a really beautiful picture of old mud bricks that were made in the Iron Age, and when people were building houses, they were leaving some prints with their fingers on the mud," she says. "For me, it was really beautiful, because it was like the trace of the individual person to do something that is collective.”
The process of learning these traditional techniques, Doulain-Zouari says, was an awakening in itself, as it pushed her towards unanticipated encounters. “Because of this project, I found myself in some places that are so unexpected,” she says. “I formed relationships, and learned from the other people.”
For Brides of the Sky, Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr drew inspiration from a tale about a group of women in a Syrian fort who withstood a Mongol invasion in the 12th century. They did so by disguising themselves as men and standing at the ramparts. Nasr came across the story as he tried to find how the designs of ramparts across the Middle East flourished over time, developing from angular blocks to floral designs that were sometimes referred to as brides of the sky.
He came across several stories that mythologised the designs, but the tale of the women standing up to the Mongols captivated him the most. Using the story as a springboard, he refashioned a traditional rampart design as two steel structures. The design abstractly recalls a human-shaped figure, reaching up towards the sky.
This beckoning of the sky and air sustains the final work of the exhibition. Shared Motion by Sarah Almehairi is a sculptural audio-visual installation that renders the word "wind" across four languages: English, Urdu, Farsi and Hindi.
The four iterations of the word are materialised in an arrangement of LED lights and steel, presented as overlapping soundwaves on a pool of water. The soundwaves light up as the installation’s audio component voices each iteration of the word, until they start to overlap.
“I was looking at the linguistic landscape of the countries surrounding the Arabian Sea, specifically through the lens of maritime trade,” Almehairi says. “That is why it's placed within the water, to bring that element in.”
Art Here is on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi until December 15
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
The biog
Born: Kuwait in 1986
Family: She is the youngest of seven siblings
Time in the UAE: 10 years
Hobbies: audiobooks and fitness: she works out every day, enjoying kickboxing and basketball
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
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The nine articles of the 50-Year Charter
1. Dubai silk road
2. A geo-economic map for Dubai
3. First virtual commercial city
4. A central education file for every citizen
5. A doctor to every citizen
6. Free economic and creative zones in universities
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8. Co-operative companies in various sectors
9: Annual growth in philanthropy
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Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
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Employees: 170
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Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
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Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
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What are the regulations?
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- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
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- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
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Rating: 4/5
if you go
The flights
Emirates fly direct from Dubai to Houston, Texas, where United have direct flights to Managua. Alternatively, from October, Iberia will offer connections from Madrid, which can be reached by both Etihad from Abu Dhabi and Emirates from Dubai.
The trip
Geodyssey’s (Geodyssey.co.uk) 15-night Nicaragua Odyssey visits the colonial cities of Leon and Granada, lively country villages, the lake island of Ometepe and a stunning array of landscapes, with wildlife, history, creative crafts and more. From Dh18,500 per person, based on two sharing, including transfers and tours but excluding international flights. For more information, visit visitnicaragua.us.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
