Middle Eastern art in the spotlight as Helsinki's Kiasma museum reopens


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

Two years after being forced to close owing to pandemic restrictions in Finland, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki has reopened with an overhauled interior and an exhibition that sprawls across the entirety of the building’s five floors.

ARS22 — Living Encounters features cutting-edge visual art, performances and films from across the world. The exhibition runs until October 16.

It is the 14th series of major exhibitions that present the latest from the contemporary art world. The ARS exhibitions began in 1961 in the Ateneum museum in Helsinki. ARS22 is the 10th exhibition in the series to be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

It includes 15 artworks commissioned specifically for ARS22, as well as works by 55 artists from 26 countries, including the UAE and Iraq. The artworks reflect on the exhibition’s themes of coexistence and our relationship to the planet.

“The concept behind ARS22 was to build an entity where multiple voices would coexist together. To create a museum as a platform for encounters, we curated an exhibition where many narratives, instead of one linear storyline, would exist,” said Piia Oksanen, one of the show’s curators.

“This is why invitations were sent to artists from different backgrounds, from different geographical areas, working with a variety of media.”

The exhibition has a space dedicated to art from the Middle East. According to Oksanen, “there is growing interest in artists from the Arab world.”

Artists from the region invited to take part include Emirati visual artist Farah Al Qasimi, Iraqi textile artist Kholod Hawash, Iraqi-American multidisciplinary artist Michael Rakowitz and art collective Slavs and Tatars.

Farah Al Qasimi's work will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki as part of ARS22 — Living Encounters. Photo: Kansallisgalleria; Finnish National Gallery; Petri Virtanen
Farah Al Qasimi's work will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki as part of ARS22 — Living Encounters. Photo: Kansallisgalleria; Finnish National Gallery; Petri Virtanen

Al Qasimi’s work features images of butterflies perched on an orange slice, a hospitalised falcon and a woman watching anime on her iPhone. The images reflect on the concept of paradise in contemporary culture, in religion, desire and the entertainment industry.

Hawash, meanwhile, is presenting vibrant patchwork quilts that depict humanitarian issues including the refugee crisis, religious freedoms and social justice.

Mother Tongues and Father Throats is a five-metre-tall carpet that depicts an illustration of an open mouth showing where certain letters of the Arabic alphabet are voiced from. The carpet was created by Slavs and Tatars and hangs by another work from the collective, titled PrayWay.

The installation merges the form of the rahle reading stand and the takht, a carpeted sitting arrangement found in traditional teahouses. The work also alludes to the magic carpets found in Middle Eastern fairy tales, such as Aladdin.

Works featured in ARS22 explore the everyday lives and dreams of individuals and communities,” the museum’s website reads. “They raise questions about our relationship with the world, with nature and history, spirituality and technology.

“The exhibition offers places for encounters and interaction. It also reminds us that individuality is ultimately always founded on the common conditions of life. The stories told by the artworks are entertaining while creating their own realities. They offer us an opportunity to think and see differently but also point out a way forward.”

heading

Iran has sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, which is suffering shortages amid a regional blockade.

A number of nations, including Iran's major rival Saudi Arabia, last week cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding terrorism, charges it denies.

The land border with Saudi Arabia, through which 40% of Qatar's food comes, has been closed.

Meanwhile, mediators Kuwait said that Qatar was ready to listen to the "qualms" of its neighbours.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

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Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
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  • Mental well-being assistance
  • Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
  • Financial well-being incentives 
War and the virus

Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff
By Sean Penn
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Huddersfield Town permanent signings:

  • Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
  • Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
  • Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
  • Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
  • Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
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  • Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by. 

Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

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Labour dispute

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Running time: 81 minutes

Director: David Blue Garcia

Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham

Series info

Test series schedule 1st Test, Abu Dhabi: Sri Lanka won by 21 runs; 2nd Test, Dubai: Play starts at 2pm, Friday-Tuesday

ODI series schedule 1st ODI, Dubai: October 13; 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 16; 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 18; 4th ODI, Sharjah: October 20; 5th ODI, Sharjah: October 23

T20 series schedule 1st T20, Abu Dhabi: October 26; 2nd T20, Abu Dhabi: October 27; 3rd T20, Lahore: October 29

Tickets Available at www.q-tickets.com

Stat Fourteen Fourteen of the past 15 Test matches in the UAE have been decided on the final day. Both of the previous two Tests at Dubai International Stadium have been settled in the last session. Pakistan won with less than an hour to go against West Indies last year. Against England in 2015, there were just three balls left.

Key battle - Azhar Ali v Rangana Herath Herath may not quite be as flash as Muttiah Muralitharan, his former spin-twin who ended his career by taking his 800th wicket with his final delivery in Tests. He still has a decent sense of an ending, though. He won the Abu Dhabi match for his side with 11 wickets, the last of which was his 400th in Tests. It was not the first time he has owned Pakistan, either. A quarter of all his Test victims have been Pakistani. If Pakistan are going to avoid a first ever series defeat in the UAE, Azhar, their senior batsman, needs to stand up and show the way to blunt Herath.

RESULT

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Kevin Gameiro 21', 51'

Ferran Torres 67'

Atlanta 4

Josip Llicic 3' (P), 43' (P), 71', 82'

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Defined benefit and defined contribution schemes explained

Defined Benefit Plan (DB)

A defined benefit plan is where the benefit is defined by a formula, typically length of service to and salary at date of leaving.

Defined Contribution Plan (DC) 

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If you go

The flights

Fly direct to London from the UAE with Etihad, Emirates, British Airways or Virgin Atlantic from about Dh2,500 return including taxes. 

The hotel

Rooms at the convenient and art-conscious Andaz London Liverpool Street cost from £167 (Dh800) per night including taxes.

The tour

The Shoreditch Street Art Tour costs from £15 (Dh73) per person for approximately three hours. 

 

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Updated: April 22, 2022, 2:31 PM`