The oases of the UAE and their legacy of building communities will be the focus of an exhibition at Tokyo’s Atelier Muji Ginza.
The exhibition, titled New Circulation, will take place between November 29 and January 26. It will comprise artworks, photographs, videos and maps that explore several aspects of oases, from the many uses of the date palm to the irrigation system known as the falaj.
New Circulation is the first exhibition at the Atelier Muji that looks towards the UAE and the Arabian Peninsula. The gallery space highlights the ethos of Muji and its parent company Ryohin Keikaku. The brand has long been known for its recycling and sustainable production practices, and the exhibitions at Atelier Muji seek out ways to carry that vision into the future.
In the context of New Circulation, the exhibition will reflect upon the communal essence of oases, suggesting how their customs and technologies have the potential to inspire novel ways of thinking about sustainability.
The exhibition is curated by urban researchers Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib. The brothers are perhaps best known for being the founders of Brownbook, which examines cities around the world while highlighting points of cultural intersection. Their research, meanwhile, often focuses on concepts of sustainability gleaned from vernacular architectural practices.
One example of this is The Anatomy of Sabkhas. The publication accompanied the 2021 National Pavilion UAE at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The pavilion won the Golden Lion Award, the event's highest honour, and suggested how the country’s salt flats, if tended to, could be an important instrument in the fight against climate change.
Last year, the brothers collaborated with the luxury brand Cartier to present an installation that reimagined the manama. An elevated plinth that is designed to promote airflow during summer, the manama uses sustainable forms of construction to keep the temperature cool. The brothers suggested the traditional architectural form, with its passive cooling system, makes it ideal to use in public locations, including bus stops or rest areas.
In 2015, during the Milan Expo, the brothers created an exhibition for the National Pavilion UAE that looked at how dates, the palm tree and the falaj system produced a social and environmental ecosystem.
As such, New Circulation feels like a natural extension of the brothers’ research. However, it also aims to address a gap in their work.
"A lot of the research that we've been doing around urbanism is really narrowed down towards the topic of ecology, specifically ecology within desert landscape,” Rashid says. “One angle that we missed a lot is drawing out the topic of community within ecology. This is where the exhibition really fills the void.”
New Circulation, Rashid says, examines how social and cultural traditions formed around an ecological reality. In this case, the oasis and the falaj. An ancient system of irrigation, the falaj features hand-dug channels where water is transported from mountains and springs to nourish farms. The irrigation technique is included in the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
“What can a falaj inform us today?” Rashid says. “Why does it continue to exist when there are other ways of irrigation and networking?” It is a question that aims to traverse beyond nostalgia.
“Do we relinquish the centuries-old tradition of making aflaj, or do we have them in tandem as a form of natural intelligence?” Ahmed says.
This question will be represented within the exhibition through illustrations by Laith Khalifa. The Omani artist will depict the ancient irrigation system by charting its starting point in the mountains before it waters areas of date palms.
A series of archival photographs will also depict the significance of oases and the falaj within UAE history. One in particular stands out. It depicts the Bin Shabib brothers’ grandfather, Mohammed Saeed Al Mulla, sitting in a manama by a falaj, alongside UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the former Ruler of Dubai.
While the falaj has a starring role in New Circulation, the exhibition highlights it as a vital component of an oasis rather than exclusively looking at the water system. “We’re also talking about the material recycling from palm trees, and these resources that can become seating, social gathering spaces and architectural elements,” Rashid says.
He adds it aims to show how the desert is a resource, and contrary to its reputation of barrenness, it has a bustling ecology, full of life. A section will showcase this lushness. A series of maps will be pinpointing oases and falaj networks across the Hajar mountain range.
The maps will be complemented by a series of photographs by Shinsui Ohara. The Japanese photographer visited various locations across the country, including Al Ain Oasis, the Hatta Dam and its surrounding mountains, the Fujairah desert as well as Al Dhayah Fort in Ras Al Khaimah. While the maps offer a meteorological and topographical perspective of oases and falaj systems in the UAE, Ohara’s work will provide another interpretation of the landscape in a section aptly labelled East Meets East.
Other components of New Circulation will include a majlis area, where discussions around topics presented at the exhibition will take place, as well as a section dedicated to Brownbook.
Furthermore, Toraya Confectionary, a company known for its traditional Japanese sweets, will provide a lighthearted cultural fusion at the exhibition, presenting wagashi made with dates, instead of red bean paste. The sweet comes as a merry way of pondering the possibilities of new circulation, and how different cultures can come together to produce something that, though grounded in their disparate traditions, is entirely new.
Ahmed says he hopes the exhibition puts forward “this idea that although the region is going through an economic transformation, we're still rooted in our core identity".
However, as keen as the Bin Shabib brothers are to present facets of UAE culture to Japan, they are interested in seeing how audiences at the Atelier Muji respond to New Circulation.
“It will also help us reshape this presentation into a contemporary form,” Ahmed says, hinting that the New Circulation might grow to become a travelling exhibition, introducing the oases and aflaj of the UAE to other countries around the world.
"So at the same time, although we're really interested in looking at what we're taking from here there, but we're equally interested in looking at how they're going to respond, and also help us to shape this presentation into a contemporary form."
The years Ramadan fell in May
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The five pillars of Islam
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying or online bullying could take many forms such as sending unkind or rude messages to someone, socially isolating people from groups, sharing embarrassing pictures of them, or spreading rumors about them.
Cyberbullying can take place on various platforms such as messages, on social media, on group chats, or games.
Parents should watch out for behavioural changes in their children.
When children are being bullied they they may be feel embarrassed and isolated, so parents should watch out for signs of signs of depression and anxiety
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
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Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
The years Ramadan fell in May
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
No more lice
Defining head lice
Pediculus humanus capitis are tiny wingless insects that feed on blood from the human scalp. The adult head louse is up to 3mm long, has six legs, and is tan to greyish-white in colour. The female lives up to four weeks and, once mature, can lay up to 10 eggs per day. These tiny nits firmly attach to the base of the hair shaft, get incubated by body heat and hatch in eight days or so.
Identifying lice
Lice can be identified by itching or a tickling sensation of something moving within the hair. One can confirm that a person has lice by looking closely through the hair and scalp for nits, nymphs or lice. Head lice are most frequently located behind the ears and near the neckline.
Treating lice at home
Head lice must be treated as soon as they are spotted. Start by checking everyone in the family for them, then follow these steps. Remove and wash all clothing and bedding with hot water. Apply medicine according to the label instructions. If some live lice are still found eight to 12 hours after treatment, but are moving more slowly than before, do not re-treat. Comb dead and remaining live lice out of the hair using a fine-toothed comb.
After the initial treatment, check for, comb and remove nits and lice from hair every two to three days. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes.Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay.
Courtesy Dr Vishal Rajmal Mehta, specialist paediatrics, RAK Hospital
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
RESULTS
Time; race; prize; distance
4pm: Maiden; (D) Dh150,000; 1,200m
Winner: General Line, Xavier Ziani (jockey), Omar Daraj (trainer)
4.35pm: Maiden (T); Dh150,000; 1,600m
Winner: Travis County, Adrie de Vries, Ismail Mohammed
5.10pm: Handicap (D); Dh175,000; 1,200m
Winner: Scrutineer, Tadhg O’Shea, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
5.45pm: Maiden (D); Dh150,000; 1,600m
Winner: Yulong Warrior, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
6.20pm: Maiden (D); Dh150,000; 1,600m
Winner: Ejaaby, Jim Crowley, Doug Watson
6.55pm: Handicap (D); Dh160,000; 1,600m
Winner: Storyboard, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
7.30pm: Handicap (D); Dh150,000; 2,200m
Winner: Grand Dauphin, Gerald Mosse, Ahmed Al Shemaili
8.05pm: Handicap (T); Dh190,000; 1,800m
Winner: Good Trip, Tadhg O’Shea, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Read more about the coronavirus
More on Quran memorisation:
How it works
1) The liquid nanoclay is a mixture of water and clay that aims to convert desert land to fertile ground
2) Instead of water draining straight through the sand, it apparently helps the soil retain water
3) One application is said to last five years
4) The cost of treatment per hectare (2.4 acres) of desert varies from $7,000 to $10,000 per hectare
Gully Boy
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Producer: Excel Entertainment & Tiger Baby
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi
Rating: 4/5 stars
TICKETS
For tickets for the two-day Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) event, entitled Dubai Invasion 2019, on September 27 and 28 go to www.meraticket.com.
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More on animal trafficking
More on animal trafficking
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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ON%20TRACK
%3Cp%3EThe%20Dubai%20Metaverse%20Assembly%20will%20host%20three%20main%20tracks%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEducate%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Consists%20of%20more%20than%2010%20in-depth%20sessions%20on%20the%20metaverse%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInspire%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Will%20showcase%20use%20cases%20of%20the%20metaverse%20in%20tourism%2C%20logistics%2C%20retail%2C%20education%20and%20health%20care%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EContribute%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Workshops%20for%20metaverse%20foresight%20and%20use-case%20reviews%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
