Sharjah Art Foundation has created its first performance department, selecting Tarek Abou El Fetouh as director of performance and senior curator across the visual arts.
The organisation has a long history of commissioning and hosting performance, but has never had a medium-specific department dedicated to it. This new focus will enable the foundation to better highlight the importance of performance, whether through commissions, co-productions, touring projects and residencies, or hosted events.
"Performance has always been integral to the foundation's programming," says Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president and founder of Sharjah Art Foundation.
"Over the years, our use of unconventional and public performance spaces has demonstrated how this medium can create memorable experiences that engage the communities of Sharjah and the UAE. We are delighted to welcome Tarek Abou El Fetouh as the director of this new dedicated department that formalises and expands our commitment to the dynamic medium."
Abou El Fetouh, who has already started at the foundation, says he wants to curate performance events across the high season, roughly from October to March, and host performances to accompany his curated exhibitions.
His plans are still under wraps, but his long-standing interest in multidisciplinary forms of performance in the public space suggests how he will approach his brief: working with artists who draw on several styles and engaging new audiences across a range of platforms.
“I'm always fascinated by the magic the stage can create,” Abou El Fetouh tells The National. “And how artists are moving from the stage to experiment with music, or how a choreographer can deconstruct hip-hop music and make it so precise and intense. Especially here in Sharjah, you can also think of practices in India or Pakistan and the Arab world, so it’s a good position from which to investigate the medium.”
Abou El Fetouh found his way into theatre via architecture, which he studied in Egypt. In the 1990s he worked as a scenographer for theatrical productions, creating tents in public spaces, which were used to host performances in Egypt and abroad.
He also helped to create some key commissioning bodies for theatre, such as the Young Arab Theatre Fund in Brussels, which supported artists and actors from the Middle East — and has since expanded its activities and scope, morphing into the organisation Mophradat — and the multidisciplinary touring festival Meeting Points, from which the Dream City festival in Tunis developed.
He is also already a familiar face at the Sharjah Art Foundation — he was a curator on Sharjah Biennial 9 in 2009, and he has participated in numerous March Meeting events. Currently, he is on the working committee that is supporting Al Qasimi on her curation of next year's Sharjah Biennial 15.
As the foundation's director of performance, he says he plans to think of the new department’s commissions as site-specific first of all, whether in the city’s public squares, its heritage houses, or the theatre venues with which the foundation collaborates, such as the Sharjah Performing Arts Academy.
One of the main benefits of having a dedicated focus on performance, Abou El Fetouh says, is being able to move beyond the exhibition space and to potentially garner new audiences for the foundation.
“Sharjah has the theatre crowds, as well as is the new Performing Arts Academy that opened three years ago,” he explains. “The audience of Sharjah Art Foundation expects a visual language or exhibition-making, and I feel the performances can be in between all these factors as well as more into the public space.”
Abou El Fetouh's work draws on his prodigious reading of the European and Arab intellectual traditions, and he is particularly fascinated by the idea of cosmopolitanism — or how we sit as global citizens in a connected world.
That idea, developed via the Arab philosopher Ibn Al Haytham, animated his programme for the public art commissions at Expo 2020 Dubai, for which he worked with artists including Monira Al Qadiri, Abdullah Al Saadi, and Yinka Shonibare to consider ideas of representing the world.
For his long-running performance art programme Durub Al Tawaya for Abu Dhabi Art, he imagined the city as a theatre in itself, with artists using it as a backdrop and even participant in their works.
For the foundation programme, he says he will be looking at artists who, like himself, use art and performance as tools of investigation.
For example, Abou El Fetouh is interested in the work of the Moroccan dancer and choreographer Radouan Mriziga, who has recently been looking into the depiction of movement in cave paintings to explore what has been lost in the Amazigh indigenous North African culture. His choreographies, he hopes, can bring these forms back to life, in the shared moment between audience and dancer.
“Performance is a live thing,” says Abou El Fetouh. “Every single moment of performance is a unique moment, because it depends on the attention of the audience.
"It’s a moment that we cannot see any other place."
Scroll through images below of Sharjah Art Foundation's Pop South Asia exhibition
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
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UNSC Elections 2022-23
Seats open:
- Two for Africa Group
- One for Asia-Pacific Group (traditionally Arab state or Tunisia)
- One for Latin America and Caribbean Group
- One for Eastern Europe Group
Countries so far running:
Bangladesh tour of Pakistan
January 24 – First T20, Lahore
January 25 – Second T20, Lahore
January 27 – Third T20, Lahore
February 7-11 – First Test, Rawalpindi
April 3 – One-off ODI, Karachi
April 5-9 – Second Test, Karachi
Keane on …
Liverpool’s Uefa Champions League bid: “They’re great. With the attacking force they have, for me, they’re certainly one of the favourites. You look at the teams left in it - they’re capable of scoring against anybody at any given time. Defensively they’ve been good, so I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t go on and win it.”
Mohamed Salah’s debut campaign at Anfield: “Unbelievable. He’s been phenomenal. You can name the front three, but for him on a personal level, he’s been unreal. He’s been great to watch and hopefully he can continue now until the end of the season - which I’m sure he will, because he’s been in fine form. He’s been incredible this season.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s instant impact at former club LA Galaxy: “Brilliant. It’s been a great start for him and for the club. They were crying out for another big name there. They were lacking that, for the prestige of LA Galaxy. And now they have one of the finest stars. I hope they can go win something this year.”
RACE CARD
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7.05pm Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Turf) 2,410m
7.40pm Meydan Trophy – Conditions (TB) $50,000 (T) 1,900m
8.15pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 - Group 2 (TB) $293,000 (D) 1,900m
8.50pm Al Rashidiya – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m
9.25pm Handicap (TB) $65,000 (T) 1,000m
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Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
Monster
Directed by: Anthony Mandler
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., John David Washington
3/5
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Scores
Wales 74-24 Tonga
England 35-15 Japan
Italy 7-26 Australia
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Roll%20of%20Honour%2C%20men%E2%80%99s%20domestic%20rugby%20season
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EWest%20Asia%20Premiership%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Tigers%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Bahrain%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20Premiership%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Jebel%20Ali%20Dragons%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20Division%201%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Sharks%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%20Harlequins%20II%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20Division%202%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Tigers%20III%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Dubai%20Sharks%20II%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDubai%20Sevens%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EChampions%3A%20Dubai%20Tigers%0D%3Cbr%3ERunners%20up%3A%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Top%2010%20most%20competitive%20economies
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Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
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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
ICC Intercontinental Cup
UAE squad Rohan Mustafa (captain), Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Saqlain Haider, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Naveed, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Boota, Amir Hayat, Ashfaq Ahmed
Fixtures Nov 29-Dec 2
UAE v Afghanistan, Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Hong Kong v Papua New Guinea, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Ireland v Scotland, Dubai International Stadium
Namibia v Netherlands, ICC Academy, Dubai
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
