Dubai’s arts district, Alserkal Avenue, has announced a week-long programme of exhibitions and public discussions in April.
Alserkal Art Week will run from April 13 to 20 under the theme A Wild Stitch. The programme “gathers voices challenging the single grand narrative, carefully threading space for multiplicity, hybridity and alternative perspectives that refuse to be neatly stitched into place”.
Among the highlights is Vanishing Points, a mixed-media exhibition inspired by South Asian cityscapes, at Concrete. The show will include photography, video, painting, and a site-specific installation. Works by Emirati artist Nujoom Al Ghanem and Indian artist Shilpa Gupta will be displayed throughout Alserkal Avenue. Curated by writer Fatos Ustek, Al Ghanem’s photography explores the connection between identity and the surrounding physical landscape, while Gupta’s sculptures take inspiration from the desert and the sea.
A diverse selection of regional and international galleries will present exhibitions centred on themes of displacement, resilience, and identity. I Am Soil. My Tears Are Water, a solo exhibition by Cuban artist Magdalena Campos-Pons at Efie Gallery, is a reflection on ancestral memory shaped by colonial histories across Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Meanwhile, Iraqi-Palestinian artist Sama Alshaibi will present a photographic series capturing Baghdad’s shifting landscapes at Ayyam Gallery.
Leila Heller Gallery is staging Iranian artist Reza Derakshani’s first solo exhibition in five years. I Paint Your Grace, I Paint Your Pain, I Paint Your Love is a meditation on memory and personal transformation. The programme also includes Majlis Talks, a series of public discussions in which participants will debate “unrealistic questions and impossible positions” within the UAE’s arts scene.
Alserkal Avenue will also host the Hong Kong Film Festival, from Saturday until March 28 at Cinema Akil. Presented by the Asian Film Awards Academy, the festival screens a selection of films spanning romantic fantasy, classic cinema and action genres. This year’s programme features newly released titles alongside timeless classics of Hong Kong cinema.
Among the films showing is An Abandoned Team, starring Lawrence Cheng, Amy Lo and Jay Fung, and Montages of a Modern Motherhood, starring Hedwig Tam, Patra Au and Chun Yip Lo. In the classics slot is 1993's The Bride with White Hair, a beloved film in the wuxia (adventures of martial artists) genre, the film follows a young man who is set to succeed to his clan’s throne, as he battles the powers of evil while falling in love with a female warrior.
AndhaDhun
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan
Rating: 3.5/5
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Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
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Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
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US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Key fixtures from January 5-7
Watford v Bristol City
Liverpool v Everton
Brighton v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v AFC Fylde or Wigan
Coventry v Stoke City
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Manchester United v Derby
Forest Green or Exeter v West Brom
Tottenham v AFC Wimbledon
Fleetwood or Hereford v Leicester City
Manchester City v Burnley
Shrewsbury v West Ham United
Wolves v Swansea City
Newcastle United v Luton Town
Fulham v Southampton
Norwich City v Chelsea
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At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
