In 2005, RoseLee Goldberg made an impression on the avant-garde arts scene by presenting Performa 05, billed as New York's first biennial of "visual art performance" She had little staff, little money and no institutional support. Now, just four years and two biennials later, Performa has become something of an institution itself, with a full-time staff of five and a budget of $1.5 million (Dh5.5m).
Its founder is not surprised. "For me it happened from day one," says Goldberg, an independent art historian and curator. "Performa was ambitious from the moment I decided I was going to do a performance biennial. What we're seeing at the moment is expanding on that initial idea. Nothing has really changed."
Performa 09, which runs until November 22, has a roster of more than 100 artists. According to its mission statement, it is "dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of 20th-century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the 21st century". It commissions new projects, presents the biennial, collaborates with artists around the world and educates the public about "this critical area of visual art and cultural history".
This month, that translates into a three-week festival of performance art, films, dance, exhibitions, installations, panel discussions and street parades. Many events are free and operate on a walk-in basis; others charge admission fees that are modest for New York: most are $15 or less, and few are more than $25.
The Performa Hub occupies the lobby of the sleek, futuristic new academic building of Cooper Union, the venerable college of art, architecture and engineering in the East Village. From there the festival spreads out to established experimental art venues in the Village, Chelsea and the Lower East Side, major uptown museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Asia Society, and highly visible spots in midtown Manhattan.
On opening day, Somewhere I Read, masterminded by the composer and musician Arto Lindsay, drew more than 50 dancers to the Times Square area, performing to music played through their mobile phones. Even the Port Authority bus terminal has a Performa outpost: a storefront office where the performance duo Dexter Sinister is producing The First/Last Newspaper, a twice-weekly broadsheet focusing on themes of media and conceptual art.
So far, Performa 09 seems to be a dizzying, potentially exhausting array of cultural possibilities, many of them quick hits. Audience members may be spotted on the streets of the East Village wrestling with an enormous fold-out guide or stopping by the Hub for advice. And this year, there are several festivals within the festival.
"When I started this," Goldberg says in a telephone interview from the Hub, "I had been teaching and talking about performance and art for the last 35 years, and I was banging this drum that people don't understand the history."
In a nod towards history, Performa 09 celebrates Italian Futurism, an art movement that valued speed, streamlining and technology above concepts such nature. Goldberg calls the movement, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, a starting point for the event. Programming includes exhibitions, films and discussions on Futurism and its influence.
"We decided to use the Futurist template to look at all the arts," she says. "The expansion this year includes everything from poetry to fashion to architecture."
Art Must Move, a collaboration with the Amsterdam-based Khatt Foundation, is dedicated to design research in the Arab world. Jumping off from Futurist graphic design, artists from Europe and the Middle East - including Hisham Yousef, who is half Emirati - produced a series of 22 black-and-white posters in highly stylised typography, half in English, half in Arabic. The characters "play on the mosaic-based monumental Kufic Arabic lettering found integrated into architecture in many places around the Arab world", according to the project notes, and although the work itself does not move, its "repeated lines of alternating English and Arabic haiku-like poetry ... imply a certain movement in sound and visual arrangement".
Last weekend was designated The Lust Weekend. A loose collection of performances included a poetry reading by the British visual artist Tracey Emin, known for installations recreating her much-used bed. For the coming weekend, the Los Angeles-based visual artist Mike Kelley has organised two evenings of noise music entitled A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality.
Performa 09's strong component of Middle Eastern and Asian artists was curated by Defne Ayas, an Istanbul native who now divides her time between New York and Shanghai, where she is a director of Arthub Asia.
"At Performa we try to go across the spectrum globally," she says. "Who are the greatest thinkers, the greatest artists thinking about art and performance? We use the same criteria we apply to artists from London or Brussels but in some instances in Asia, political activism is very much entrenched in the visual arts. You see political activists turning into visual artists" in order to circulate their ideas.
"There are global thinkers from every region we're looking at," she says, citing Rabih Mroué, a Lebanese actor, director and playwright who leads workshops in Brussels. In Rabih Mroué's Gift to New York, an hour-long presentation seen last weekend, an actor reads a letter from Mroué, describing his excitement at his first visit to the United States - a visit he opted not to make, instead taking a virtual tour of New York to imagine his reactions. Mroué discusses his qualms about obtaining a visa, his phobia about airport security (men who fit his profile tend to be targeted for "random security checks", he notes) and the identity issues they raise. It was Ayas who asked him to write the letter as a prologue to the five short films that follow: "I told him: 'Your voice is needed,'" she says.
Mroué sometimes appears in front of the camera, and sometimes serves as narrator. One film incorporates audio tapes he made as a child to send to a brother abroad after their family fled Beirut during the civil war; another slowly zooms in and out on blurred black-and-white film of a street demonstration, with voice-overs from participants recording their memories of the day.
In I, the Undersigned, Mroué apologises for crimes he thinks he committed during the civil war: using words without really knowing what they meant; taking excessive pride in his "Lebaneseness" while seeking asylum elsewhere; not having been kidnapped; plagiarism. On Three Posters, the longest of the films at 18 minutes, looks back at a performance piece Mroué based on video made by a suicide bomber preparing to strike against Israel. The two-minute What I Know of Beginnings shows a collapsed building putting itself back together, then wavering back and forth, up and down - Mroué's metaphor for "oscillating between remembering and forgetting".
Untitled, a seven-minute film by the Israeli artist Guy Ben-Ner, runs on a continuous loop throughout the festival in a small walled-off screening area at the Hub. The filmmaker, who commutes between Tel Aviv and Berlin, conducts a phone conversation between the two parts of his divided self - a concept that will resonate with anyone who has led a migratory life. Wearing a T-shirt that says "I wish I were somewhere else", Ben-Ner in Tel Aviv speaks with Ben-Ner in Berlin, about work and love. He speaks in Hebrew, subtitled in English couplets: "A dialogue by phone upon which my film will feast/The first location Europe, the second Middle East." The film stays in his camera for a full year - "I plan to shoot a movie with no editing involved" - while he travels back and forth, constantly filming snippets of his dialogue with himself to produce "a parallel montage".
As part of The Lust Weekend, Einat Amir, a Jerusalem-born artist living in New York, contributed Ideal Viewer, a performance piece exploring themes of loss and conflicting authorship. A crying woman sits in the middle of the white-walled gallery floor; in front of her is a smashed flat-screen TV on which rests a portable DVD player that shows her sitting on the floor, crying. Two men greet visitors, who mill around the periphery of the room. One introduces himself as the ex-boyfriend, the other as an opera singer and actor, who shows video clips of himself in Mozart's The Magic Flute while berating the ex-boyfriend for his treatment of the woman. He also speculates on the reason for her weeping in front of the TV: perhaps she was watching it when the boyfriend phoned to break up with her and, in her anger, smashed it; perhaps she was moving and dropped it.
This week's performances include an evening-length dance, video and music production by the visual artist Keren Cytter examining the confines of social roles through a pair of inadvertent sex changes. Talk Show, by Omer Fast, applies the children's game "broken telephone" to a talk show format and, on another level, to the concepts of power and freedom in context of current global events. The Turkish conceptual artist Ahmet Ögüt pays homage to Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist murdered in 2007. Ögüt's piece will be presented at the Lower East Side space of Bidoun magazine.
You don't have to travel to New York to sample Performa 09. The festival's website, www.performa-arts.org, offers extensive blogs as well as Performa TV, a selection of videos, conversations with artists and Goldberg's daily commentary.
"We're talking about a new kind of urbanism: culture as urban activism," Goldberg says. "We're an ideas place, a think tank of the highest order. The biennial is about ideas - not costs, not the marketplace, but what we as human beings need to intellectually challenge ourselves."
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
'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness'
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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RESULT
Esperance de Tunis 1 Guadalajara 1
(Esperance won 6-5 on penalties)
Esperance: Belaili 38’
Guadalajara: Sandoval 5’
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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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.”
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
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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 quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
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States of Passion by Nihad Sirees,
Pushkin Press
Pathaan
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UAE’s revised Cricket World Cup League Two schedule
August, 2021: Host - United States; Teams - UAE, United States and Scotland
Between September and November, 2021 (dates TBC): Host - Namibia; Teams - Namibia, Oman, UAE
December, 2021: Host - UAE; Teams - UAE, Namibia, Oman
February, 2022: Hosts - Nepal; Teams - UAE, Nepal, PNG
June, 2022: Hosts - Scotland; Teams - UAE, United States, Scotland
September, 2022: Hosts - PNG; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
February, 2023: Hosts - UAE; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
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6026 – Dh 200
THE SPECS
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Power: 110 horsepower
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How to become a Boglehead
Bogleheads follow simple investing philosophies to build their wealth and live better lives. Just follow these steps.
• Spend less than you earn and save the rest. You can do this by earning more, or being frugal. Better still, do both.
• Invest early, invest often. It takes time to grow your wealth on the stock market. The sooner you begin, the better.
• Choose the right level of risk. Don't gamble by investing in get-rich-quick schemes or high-risk plays. Don't play it too safe, either, by leaving long-term savings in cash.
• Diversify. Do not keep all your eggs in one basket. Spread your money between different companies, sectors, markets and asset classes such as bonds and property.
• Keep charges low. The biggest drag on investment performance is all the charges you pay to advisers and active fund managers.
• Keep it simple. Complexity is your enemy. You can build a balanced, diversified portfolio with just a handful of ETFs.
• Forget timing the market. Nobody knows where share prices will go next, so don't try to second-guess them.
• Stick with it. Do not sell up in a market crash. Use the opportunity to invest more at the lower price.
