Ahead of the official reopening of Metro Al Madina, Beirut's storied cabaret venue later this year, artist Hatem Imam is presenting his second solo show at the new venue.
Titled Slumber's Tongues and running until July 20 at the previously shuttered Aresco Palace Theatre, the show is organised by Art Design Lebanon, the non-profit online and pop-up platform known for staging exhibitions in unconventional spaces. It is presented as Imam’s most ambitious exhibition to date, featuring 10 oil and mixed media paintings and 13 monotypes, all created in the past six months, with abstract landscapes as the focus.
“My work has always been investigating abstraction and landscape,” Imam tells The National. “I'm interested in this idea of creating images of places because we want to demonstrate a certain relationship or dynamic that exists between us and the place, whether it's about belonging or ownership or exerting power over certain spaces.
“Paradoxically, in order to create images of a landscape, you need to be outside of it – for example, on top of a hill or a rooftop, to be able to see the city or landscape – to be able to capture it,” he adds. “There's a lot of writing about alienation as the condition of generating landscape images or artwork.”
Imam says the show is a departure from his earlier work, as his new abstract pieces have started to have figures emerge from the patterns he creates. He sees it as a continuation of his interest in how the eye tries to make sense of abstract shapes, searching for something familiar to relate to – often the form of people or faces.
Slumber’s Tongues is the third exhibition of Imam’s work with Art Design Lebanon – but his fifth collaboration with founder Annie Vartivarian, who hosted his first solo show in 2018. Having seen his work evolve over time, she was keen to exhibit his latest offerings.
“When I first met Hatem five years ago, it was clear he is a person who knows what he wants. He has a vision for his work – not just the paintings, but the whole installation, down to every creative detail,” Vartivarian says.
“I wanted to run this show last May, but he wasn’t ready psychologically, with everything that was happening in the country. He went on a residency and then came back in November with a plan.
“He said ‘at the end of the year I will stop working [at Studio Safar] for six months, and we will do the show,’” she recalls. “I couldn’t be happier to now showcase his works.”
Specifically designed with Metro’s new space in mind, the scenography of the exhibition is an integral part of the art experience, leaning into the theatrical elements of the space. Imam had a clear vision for how the works would be displayed.
“I do believe that the way in which you're showing the work could say something additional about the art,” he says. “In this show, there are three aspects that I wanted to apply – the first is that I wanted to impose a certain distance between the artwork and the viewer. I want them to see the artworks from far away.
“The second thing is that you can only see one painting at a time, as they're not lined up next to each other. The third thing is that there's also a soundscape that is related to each one of the paintings,” he adds. “With all of this in mind, I needed a big space and I also felt that there is an element of performance at Metro's new location, which the theatre lends itself to and so the layout worked well for what I had in mind.”
To achieve these goals, Imam has created a series of corridors in the space, with a single painting placed at the end of each, forcing the viewer to see each one individually, at a distance, before coming closer. It also separates the viewers themselves, allowing the audience to experience each artwork alone – echoing the peaceful isolation often associated with seeking out a view of a landscape.
Each painting has a track playing from a speaker behind it, which means that as viewers get closer, the sound gets louder. The soundscapes are a continuously looping pulsing sound, created on a synthesiser, acting as the heartbeat of each painting.
The paintings themselves are colourful, tangling patterns of lilac, blue and pink with black and white. The bright hues are a poignant match to the vibrant music, which Metro will once again stage when it officially reopens in a few months – the space is currently only partly open while refurbishments are being completed. When done, cabaret productions will be staged again.
Founded in 2012 by Hisham Jaber and a group of theatre enthusiasts in a small, intimate space in Hamra, the venue quickly became a cultural hot spot, known for its satirical musicals and concerts. Some of its shows, such as Bar Farouk and Hishik Bishik, have been running for 10 years and have been performed on global stages.
Moving to Clemenceau Street, the bigger space will allow it to showcase other types of culture, as it seeks to diversify its offerings. It will also help the theatre to financially sustain itself amid Lebanon’s economic crisis, by increasing its seating capacity from 250 to 1000, with a wider stage allowing for larger productions and hosting international shows, films and workshops.
Slumber’s Tongue runs until July 20 at Metro Al Madina in Beirut
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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.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
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Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Sara Suleri, with an introduction by Kamila Shamsie
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
