Last year, I asked the renowned German art dealer and gallery owner Rafael Jablonka why he was closing his Berlin showroom and returning to his Cologne base. "Because Berlin is an economically retarded place. The collector's market is nonexistent," he replied.
None, none at all? I asked. "There are some collectors in Berlin, but I don't think they are buying in Berlin. Why do artists go to Berlin? Because the rents are low. But there is no other business there, there is no reason to be in Berlin."
Jablonka was right in a business sense, but perhaps missing a wider point. Berlin has become a haven for artists across the world, drawn by the low cost of living, the pleasantly ramshackle ambience and plenty of studio and exhibition spaces.
As the disgruntled head of Galerie Jablonka pointed out, there is very little money in the city's art market to sustain any serious collecting culture, but under the radar thrives an underground music, art and literature scene that has evolved over decades of decadence, war, repression and finally a sustained, not prosperity exactly, but economic calm that fuels a booming cultural life for thousands of young artists, writers, directors, dancers and others "resting".
Three thousand miles away in Dubai, things are, predictably, rather different. Here, there are significantly fewer full-time practising artists, facilities are far less available and the complex nature of the city's society presents a contrasting set of circumstances for contemporary artists. Yet the city thrives as a collectors' hub, attracting hundreds of eager art-lovers of all stripes from around the world, with events such as Art Dubai, regular auctions by Bonhams and Christie's, as well as a profusion of galleries showing work by artists from across the Middle East and beyond.
Attempting to draw contrasts and find common ground between these two distinct cityscapes is a new event taking place this weekend at The Jam Jar gallery in Al Quoz, Dubai. The Goethe Institute's Berlin-Dubai Festival sees a group of Berlin-based cultural mavens - including filmmakers, writers and critics - in town to debate and discuss with their UAE counterparts how their city supports and nurtures its fertile grassroots art and literature scenes.
The festival kicks off at 8pm tonight with a screening of Frank Kuenster's underground documentary Let It Rock, which is a fascinating insight into Berlin's creatives.
After the screening Kuenster will speak about his film and join a panel discussion, which is intended to be the intellectual core of the programme. The panel includes the German-Croatian journalist and author Jasna Zajcek, Alexander Smoltczyk, who is the regional correspondent for the German news magazine Der Speigel, and the Berlin author Norman Ohler. Representing Dubai will be The Jam Jar's founder Hetal Pawani, the Emirati artist Ebtisam Abdulaziz and the Emirati cultural commentator Mishaal al Gergawi.
Ohler and Zajcek will also be holding a reading on Saturday at 2pm, followed by a further discussion with the object of trying to make sense of the very different directions the two cities take in pursuing an arts agenda.
The director of the Goethe Institute in the UAE, Friederike Möschel, describes the aim as showing Berlin's cultural scene and diversity. "Rightly, Berlin is one of the most attractive metropolitan centres in the western world and it is about time to present it here in the UAE," she says. "Personally, I think it is always very fascinating and also rewarding to see similarities among all the differences. As the latest discussions in Europe have shown, there are still a lot of prejudices concerning the Arab and Muslim world. I guess a lot of people there have no clue that in this part of the world there are people who are really interested not just in finance and business, but also in arts and culture. Dubai is such a melting pot with so many influences from different countries that it might be an interesting place for Berlin artists to become inspired."
The idea for the festival grew out of a meeting between Zajcek and Möschel in Dubai earlier this year. "My first impression of Dubai was that it was so much of a shopping-and-dining-out culture," says Zajcek. "But I wondered, how do the souls of these people get fed, how are their ideas inspired?
The UAE event will seek to address this and other questions on creativity as well as highlighting a number of key issues, not least the contrast between Dubai's high-velocity, high-spending growth and Berlin's more cash-strapped situation.
"What could we learn from Dubai?" says Zajcek. "How to accept new architecture! And how to sell what you have to offer, this is a thing we could learn from Dubai."
Möschel believes ultimately that in their disparities and unrecognised connections there is much synergy between the two cities, which she hopes the weekend's events will help elucidate.
For those in the vanguard of art and culture in the Middle East, discovering the inner world of the German capital will be a fascinating insight into how art is made in an environment that has supported creativity for decades. Similarly, Dubai has much to offer its German guests in terms of learning how best to capitalise on and promote their cultural assets.
"On one hand," she points out, "in Berlin, artists are more independent and don't have to care so much about sensitivities connected to traditions, culture and religion. On the other hand, in Dubai, it is much more challenging for artists' creativity, to express changes in their life and their society.
"In this respect, they need sometimes a certain subtlety in their art, which is really interesting. It is also a big challenge to create a unique style for this region and not just copy western art. It is always fascinating, when a region is in the process of bearing something new."
The Berlin-Dubai Festival is on from tonight until Saturday. For more information, visit www.goethe.de/dubai.
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus
To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.
The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.
SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.
But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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
BELGIUM%20SQUAD
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League last-16, second leg:
Real Madrid 1 (Asensio 70'), Ajax 4 (Ziyech 7', Neres 18', Tadic 62', Schone 72')
Ajax win 5-3 on aggregate
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Company%20profile
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MATCH INFO
South Africa 66 (Tries: De Allende, Nkosi, Reinach (3), Gelant, Steyn, Brits, Willemse; Cons: Jantjies 8)
Canada 7 (Tries: Heaton; Cons: Nelson)
The%20Beekeeper
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ASSASSIN'S%20CREED%20MIRAGE
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