Al Burda festival to celebrate Islamic art and culture launched in Abu Dhabi


Melissa Gronlund
  • English
  • Arabic

A festival to celebrate Islamic art and culture was launched  in Abu Dhabi.

The event is an offshoot of the Al Burda awards, which honour contributions to Islamic art and design and have been running for 15 years.

“The goal ... is to look at the future of Islamic art and culture internationally and to have a global conversation on what is the future of Islamic art and what are the priorities of Islamic culture,” said Sheikh Salem Al Qassimi, assistant undersecretary for the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, the festival organisers.

This year, Al Burda has expanded to include a full-day programme of talks and performances at Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi's Mina Zayed, culminating in an awards ceremony held in conjunction with NYU Abu Dhabi. The festival, yesterday inaugurated by Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, will become a regular event, held in Abu Dhabi every two years, while the awards will continue on an annual basis.

Discussions covered topics such as the development of audiences for Islamic art, the inculcation of skills, and the adaptation of digital technologies for new forms of Islamic expression.

The event set out to dislodge the perception that Islamic art is necessarily rooted in the past; it underlined instead its contemporary relevance and potential in the future.

This relevance was understood artistically and politically. As Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, noted in her opening remarks, culture is a bulwark against all forms of extremism, a message in line with the UAE's wider promotion of tolerance.

Islamic art and design is not a straightforward topic, as the conversations throughout the day revealed.

The day began with a panel discussion by Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, director-general of the Bahrain Authority for Culture; Ines Abdel Dayem, the minister of culture for Egypt; and Zaki Nusseibeh, a UAE minister of state, moderated by The National's Editor-in-Chief, Mina Al-Oraibi.

Ms Al-Oraibi led by asking participants about the definition of Islamic art today.

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Read more:

Here's what to expect from the first ever Fikra Design Biennial in Sharjah

Everything you need to know about what's on show at this year's Abu Dhabi Art

Looking at Arab and Islamic design in today's modern world

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Ms Abdel Dayem, who is the former head of the Cairo Opera House, made a plea for a greater inclusion of music in the field of Islamic art. Mr Nusseibeh, a towering figure in the UAE cultural scene, argued that Islamic art and design should be defined as art and design from Islamic cultures, in the way that Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Mozart's Mass in C Minor are not regarded as Christian works of art. "Art," he emphasised, "is global."

Sheikh Salem seemed pleased that the identity and future of Islamic art were being actively debated. "Defining it is always going to be discussed," he said. "There are going to be different opinions. I have a session on Islamic design and I had to ask myself: what is Islamic design? I look forward to what the panellists have to say as well as the audience."

“It’s not a very formal event,” he said. “It’s very interactive and we aimed to bring in the youth – students who study art and who are interested in Islamic art but who don’t understand the origins of it.”

The event also features speakers such as Saudi artist Ahmed Mater, the Kuwaiti musician Dr Ghazi Al Mulaifi, and the Aga Khan Museum director Dr Henry Kim, based in Toronto.

"The future of Islamic art has to be defined internationally," Sheikh Salem said. "It isn't just the Arab world, it isn't just the Islamic world, it's an international art form."

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff

The biog

Name: Abeer Al Bah

Born: 1972

Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992

Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old

Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school

 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Game Changer

Director: Shankar 

Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

Rating: 2/5

Results

United States beat UAE by three wickets

United States beat Scotland by 35 runs

UAE v Scotland – no result

United States beat UAE by 98 runs

Scotland beat United States by four wickets

Fixtures

Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland

Admission is free

PSG's line up

GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)

Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)

Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)

Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)

Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)

THE SPECS

Cadillac XT6 2020 Premium Luxury

Engine:  3.6L V-6

Transmission: nine-speed automatic

Power: 310hp

Torque: 367Nm

Price: Dh280,000

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

World Sevens Series standing after Dubai

1. South Africa
2. New Zealand
3. England
4. Fiji
5. Australia
6. Samoa
7. Kenya
8. Scotland
9. France
10. Spain
11. Argentina
12. Canada
13. Wales
14. Uganda
15. United States
16. Russia

MEFCC information

Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.

UAE Team Emirates

Valerio Conti (ITA)
Alessandro Covi (ITA)
Joe Dombrowski (USA)
Davide Formolo (ITA)
Fernando Gaviria (COL)
Sebastian Molano (COL)
Maximiliano Richeze (ARG)
Diego Ulissi (ITAS)

Various Artists 
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
​​​​​​​

Mobile phone packages comparison
MATCH INFO

Northern Warriors 92-1 (10 ovs)

Russell 37 no, Billings 35 no

Team Abu Dhabi 93-4 (8.3 ovs)

Wright 48, Moeen 30, Green 2-22

Team Abu Dhabi win by six wickets

MATCH INFO

Quarter-finals

Saturday (all times UAE)

England v Australia, 11.15am 
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm

Sunday

Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm

Last 10 winners of African Footballer of the Year

2006: Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
2007: Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla and Mali)
2008: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal and Togo)
2009: Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
2010: Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan and Cameroon)
2011: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2012: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2013: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2014: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund and Gabon)
2016: Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City and Algeria)

Factfile on Garbine Muguruza:

Name: Garbine Muguruza (ESP)

World ranking: 15 (will rise to 5 on Monday)

Date of birth: October 8, 1993

Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela

Place of residence: Geneva, Switzerland

Height: 6ft (1.82m)

Career singles titles: 4

Grand Slam titles: 2 (French Open 2016, Wimbledon 2017)

Career prize money: $13,928,719

Chelsea 2 Burnley 3
Chelsea
 Morata (69'), Luiz (88')
Burnley Vokes (24', 43'), Ward (39')
Red cards Cahill, Fabregas (Chelsea)

England World Cup squad

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

UAE tour of the Netherlands

UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures and results:
Monday, UAE won by three wickets
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match

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The 12 breakaway clubs

England

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur

Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus

Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid

How to get there

Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
 

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
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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WHY%20AAYAN%20IS%20'PERFECT%20EXAMPLE'
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