In his long and eventful career, the Lebanese art critic Cesar Nammour has run three galleries, written four books and seen the Beirut art scene rise and fall and rise again. He has created a publishing house, a festival for art books, an association for art critics and a society for the development of contemporary art in his country. Still sprightly in his seventies, Nammour has a tendency to look back on his life and laugh - not ruefully or politely but in huge, boisterous gales. "I was avant-garde in the 1960s!" he said one day when I stopped by to see him. "Do you know what that means? That was 50 years ago! That means I am a dinosaur!" So hilarious were those passing decades that Nammour nearly split his sides with laughter.
At a time when many of his lifelong friends and colleagues have retired, Nammour spent much of the last year starting something new. In May, he opened a bookshop called Recto Verso, which doubles as a library and triples as a cafe. The place is tiny, just 17 square metres of street-level real estate, kitted out in vibrant colours, with a bench out front and an espresso machine sitting on a counter in the back. A compact spiral staircase leads to an even smaller mezzanine, with a reading room and worktables for research.
Despite its diminutive size, Recto Verso fills a huge gap in the local knowledge of modern and contemporary art in Lebanon and the region. There are more than 800 titles arranged alphabetically on the shelves, including artists' monographs, exhibition catalogues, magazines and reference books. Only 150 of them are for sale. The rest come from Nammour's personal collection, and most of them are rare, out of print or impossible to find anywhere else.
Nammour is a fount of what would be called institutional memory, if only there were such an institution to back him up or archive his knowledge. Since the late 1950s, when he first started writing about art and when Beirut was fast becoming a bustling hub for Arab modernity and the regional avant-garde, Nammour has worked on more plans for more museums than he cares to remember, in part because none of them have ever been built.
He and his peers have lobbied governments, universities and real-estate developers, trying to sell them on the idea of institution building for the arts. "We did architectural studies and financial feasibility studies," he says. "We have beautiful proposals, but nothing ever happened." Perhaps for that reason, Nammour calls Recto Verso a museum on shelves. It is a revenge fantasy brought to life in a space the size of an architectural afterthought.
"Lebanon is a country without an infrastructure for the arts," he says. "We don't have a contemporary art museum. We don't have an opera house. We don't have a national library." In Nammour's view, only actors outside of the state - whether from the private or the non-profit sectors - have the potential to construct that infrastructure, albeit piecemeal and over a long period of time. "We are building all of this," he says. "It's scattered, but this is what we are here for."
In a way, he is right. And perhaps his perseverance is infectious, for 2010 can be characterised as the year a generation of independent arts organizations in the region began to grow up and get serious about playing a part in Nammour's dream.
A chronically weak state that has several times fallen apart, Lebanon is one of the most problematic places in the Middle East to talk about institution building on any level, quite apart from art. In this regard only Palestine is worse. But here as elsewhere in the region, the past 12 months have witnessed promising developments in the institutionalisation of a once thin, precarious and highly improvisational art scene.
Both the Beirut Art Center and the 98 Weeks Project Space celebrated their one-year anniversaries, having established two very different destinations for engagements with contemporary artistic thought and practice. Both have developed approaches to programming that keep their spaces active and further the vision of their respective projects. The Beirut Art Center hosts regular, relatively regimented exhibitions, film screenings and performances. The 98 Weeks Projects Space throws together sporadic, occasionally shambolic workshops, experiments and events.
Other additions to the infrastructure of the local scene this year include Solidere's slick Beirut Exhibition Center, which is currently giving the storied Salon d'Automne a home as the Sursock Museum endures another year of renovations, and Karaj Beirut, a laboratory for experimental art and technology located in an old house in the rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael.
The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, also announced that it has secured a space for a new, independent art school, which is slated to open in April. The Home Works Academy, as Ashkal Alwan's educational initiative is called, is not necessarily the first of its kind in Lebanon - the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts was also a new, independent art school at the time of its inauguration in 1937 (it was folded into Balamand University some five decades later). But it throws down a fine challenge to other art faculties in the country that have foundered or stagnated for decades. Even the American University of Beirut's Department of Fine Art and Art History, which was relaunched a few years ago after closing shop at the start of Lebanon's civil war, has yet to generate the buzz or vitality (to say nothing of the artistic production or scholarship) that Ashkal Alwan's school has already created in the minds of future students, teachers and the public at large.
Elsewhere in the region, Cairo's venerable Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art has transformed itself from a ragtag community centre with a little bit of commercial activity to a fully functional and totally non-profit foundation. Istanbul's Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center has merged with the Garanti Gallery and the Ottoman Bank Archives to form a new institution called SALT, scheduled to open in two beautifully restored buildings in the spring. The Modern Art Museum of Algiers (MAMA) is now three years old and going strong. According to the critic Nadira Laggoune, it has become "a flagship for the city's development and for its future." And it will soon be joined by a new, experimental space organised by the artists Kader Attia and Zineb Sedira.
In Casablanca, around a dozen arts organisations have joined the collective CasaMemoire to inhabit and activate a series of crumbling buildings that were once used as the city's slaughterhouse. Conceived as a kind of cultural factory, the project, known as Les Abattoirs de Casablanca, is still precarious in that neither the city nor the state has agreed to reserve the site for artistic use. But with more than 50 events organised there over the past year and a half, it seems to be gathering plenty of its own momentum.
Such home-grown projects may seem worlds away from the museums being planned and built in the Gulf. But Mathaf, the new museum of modern art in Doha, which was scheduled to open yesterday, is in many ways a modest proposal, run primarily by a core group of young people who are bound to mess around, make mistakes, deal with a critical backlash, and try again. Falling under the umbrella of the Qatar Museums Authority and enjoying the patronage of the state, they may not have to scramble and hustle for funding like their counterparts in other cities in the Arab world, but they do have to build their institution from the ground up with the same toil as everyone else. Not for nothing did the museum's acting director, Wassan al Khudairi, thank her colleagues and co-conspirators for their "hard work, long hours and no sleeping" during the preview of Mathaf's three inaugural exhibitions this month.
Cesar Nammour and his friends may never see the museums they imagined in their youth. But they are witnessing the rise of new and very different institutions - museums, art centres and cross-disciplinary projects that are true to their times - which are making links across the region and creating a novel kind of infrastructure. The value of that network beyond the region lies in the alternatives being posed, almost accidentally, to the broader international art world.
The Cairo, Istanbul and Sharjah biennials are at this point institutions in their own right. But the artistic ecosystem in the Arab world consists equally of other, more experimental platforms such as the Home Works Forum, Video Works, Meeting Points, Photo Cairo and the Jerusalem Show. There is a palpable desire in the art world at large to declare the biennial dead. These initiatives, and the institutions responsible for their continuity and maturity, may very well be at the vanguard of what comes next.
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie reports for The National from Beirut.
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 109-3 (10ovs)
Salt 30, Malan 24, Trego 23, Jayasuriya 2-14
Bangla Tigers (9.4ovs)
Fletcher 52, Rossouw 31
Bangla Tigers win by six wickets
MATCH INFO
Championship play-offs, second legs:
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(Aston Villa advance 1-0 on aggregate)
Fulham 2
Sessegnon (47'), Odoi (66')
Derby County 0
(Fulham advance 2-1 on aggregate)
Final
Saturday, May 26, Wembley. Kick off 8pm (UAE)
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Dubai World Cup Carnival card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 Group 1 (PA) US$75,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
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9.25pm: Al Shindagha Sprint Group 3 (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,200m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 2,000m
The National selections:
6.30pm - Ziyadd; 7.05pm - Barney Roy; 7.40pm - Dee Ex Bee; 8.15pm - Dubai Legacy; 8.50pm - Good Fortune; 9.25pm - Drafted; 10pm - Simsir
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 4 (Gundogan 8' (P), Bernardo Silva 19', Jesus 72', 75')
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Man of the Match: Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:
Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Game is on BeIN Sports
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
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What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
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
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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"
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
