In a small corner of the Tunisian Sahara desert, north-west of the city of Tozeur, lies the fictional home of Luke Skywalker, a planet named Tatooine. The old Star Wars set, built in 1976 by George Lucas, remains intact as per the direction of the Tunisian government and thousands of tourists visit each year.
What those fans probably don’t know is that Lucas took the name for his Jedi planet from another Tunisian town, Tataouine, in the south. It is an ancient Berber settlement filled with ksar, fortified castles, of which only a few are being protected by the government and the rest left to contend with the destructive forces of nature.
On a trip back to his homeland eL Seed, a French-Tunisian street artist, became indignant when he discovered this.
So he visited the film set and after taking permission from a sleepy security guard, took a black spray can and wrote on one of the walls in beautiful Arabic calligraphy “I will never be your son,” leaving the cultural reference as self-explanatory.
“I have nothing against George Lucas,” he explains. “But I don’t see how that can be a genuine part of our culture when they are neglecting our real heritage.”
Whether the graffiti remained or whether it was painted over is beside the point, eL Seed continues, because the documentation of it exists. The image and the story is just one of the compelling entries in eL Seed's book Lost Walls, set to be released later this year.
The book was made after a one-month trip to Tunisia that the artist made in August last year with a team of six videographers and photographers as a way of showing another side to the country.
“In Tunis we used to have mass tourism that revolved around sandy beaches, souqs and nightclubs. Then, after the revolution we had revolution tourists.
“I wanted to show the other stories. We have a history much deeper than you see in the media, so I wanted to bring back some of the cities that were totally forgotten and to focus on anonymous people who had something to say,” he says.
eL Seed, who was born and raised in Paris and later moved to Montreal, rose to prominence in 2012 when he painted the minaret tower of a mosque in his family town of Gabès. For the project, which was supported by Sharjah’s Barjeel Foundation, he chose a verse from the Quran and painted in his own style of distinctive calligraffiti.
People related to it because of its universal message, explains the artist, who is currently in the middle of a year-long residency at Dubai’s Tashkeel studio hub.
It is a message that he has tried to continue in the book.
“I carry my tradition and my own culture but I present it in a new way,” he says. “I am trying to use Arabic to bring a universal message that anyone can relate to.”
Although his messages are in Arabic, they are not supposed to connote any links to religion, something that people always associate with calligraphy.
One of his most common phrases that he writes is “love is the miracle of civilisation”, which aptly summarises what eL Seed is about.
He never signs his name, as is common with most graffiti artists, and he doesn’t want anything from it.
“I own the space while I am doing the wall but afterwards I leave it for the public. The focus is not on me, it is on the content of the message.”
In Lost Walls, he selects sites of dilapidated railway stations, dry salt lakes, mountains and an abandoned town called Djerrissa, which used to be one of Tunisia's richest towns due to its concentration of iron ore.
“There was a story in each town. We arrived, we didn’t know people but they so were happy that we came and were interested in what we were doing. Every single one was inspiring and every wall that I painted is a visual ode of one of these meetings.”
The book, filled with those images and stories, is also peppered with a series of essays from other artists, scholars or those in the tourist industry, addressing subjects like the democratisation of art and the responsibility of the artist in Tunisia.
Published by From Here to Fame and with a stunning foreword by Jeffrey Deitch, the former director of MOCA in Los Angeles and curator of one of the first calligraffiti shows in the 1980s, Lost Walls will be launched next month during Art Dubai, for which Deitch and the artist will give a public talk. The book will be released globally and on Amazon at the end of April.
“This is Tunisia seen from another angle,” concludes eL Seed, who finishes with a quote from Salah Souai Marzougui, an artist he met in the town of Douz: “Sometimes you need someone from outside to tell you how beautiful you are.”
• For more info on the artist and his projects, visit www.elseed-art.com.
� aseaman@thenational.ae
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
The specs: 2019 BMW X4
Price, base / as tested: Dh276,675 / Dh346,800
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line six-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 354hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,550rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.0L / 100km
Tips for SMEs to cope
- Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
- Make sure you have an online presence
- Open communication with suppliers, especially if they are international. Look for local suppliers to avoid delivery delays
- Open communication with customers to see how they are coping and be flexible about extending terms, etc
Courtesy: Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, which provides term finance and working capital finance to SMEs. Only SMEs that have been trading for two years are eligible for funding from Beehive.
RESULTS
Bantamweight:
Zia Mashwani (PAK) bt Chris Corton (PHI)
Super lightweight:
Flavio Serafin (BRA) bt Mohammad Al Khatib (JOR)
Super lightweight:
Dwight Brooks (USA) bt Alex Nacfur (BRA)
Bantamweight:
Tariq Ismail (CAN) bt Jalal Al Daaja (JOR)
Featherweight:
Abdullatip Magomedov (RUS) bt Sulaiman Al Modhyan (KUW)
Middleweight:
Mohammad Fakhreddine (LEB) bt Christofer Silva (BRA)
Middleweight:
Rustam Chsiev (RUS) bt Tarek Suleiman (SYR)
Welterweight:
Khamzat Chimaev (SWE) bt Mzwandile Hlongwa (RSA)
Lightweight:
Alex Martinez (CAN) bt Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Welterweight:
Jarrah Al Selawi (JOR) bt Abdoul Abdouraguimov (FRA)
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The years Ramadan fell in May
The five pillars of Islam
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Prophets of Rage
(Fantasy Records)
Thanksgiving meals to try
World Cut Steakhouse, Habtoor Palace Hotel, Dubai. On Thursday evening, head chef Diego Solis will be serving a high-end sounding four-course meal that features chestnut veloute with smoked duck breast, turkey roulade accompanied by winter vegetables and foie gras and pecan pie, cranberry compote and popcorn ice cream.
Jones the Grocer, various locations across the UAE. Jones’s take-home holiday menu delivers on the favourites: whole roast turkeys, an array of accompaniments (duck fat roast potatoes, sausages wrapped in beef bacon, honey-glazed parsnips and carrots) and more, as well as festive food platters, canapes and both apple and pumpkin pies.
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, The Address Hotel, Dubai. This New Orleans-style restaurant is keen to take the stress out of entertaining, so until December 25 you can order a full seasonal meal from its Takeaway Turkey Feast menu, which features turkey, homemade gravy and a selection of sides – think green beans with almond flakes, roasted Brussels sprouts, sweet potato casserole and bread stuffing – to pick up and eat at home.
The Mattar Farm Kitchen, Dubai. From now until Christmas, Hattem Mattar and his team will be producing game- changing smoked turkeys that you can enjoy at home over the festive period.
Nolu’s, The Galleria Mall, Maryah Island Abu Dhabi. With much of the menu focused on a California inspired “farm to table” approach (with Afghani influence), it only seems right that Nolu’s will be serving their take on the Thanksgiving spread, with a brunch at the Downtown location from 12pm to 4pm on Friday.
