On Monday night, the Paris-based designer India Mahdavi will give a lecture about her work and career as part of Design Days Dubai’s public lecture programme.
Born in Tehran in 1962 to an Iranian father and a Scottish-Egyptian mother, Mahdavi grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Heidelberg, Germany; and Vence, in the South of France.
Despite early dreams of becoming a filmmaker, Mahdavi studied architecture at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before heading to New York, where she studied graphic design at the School of Visual Arts, furniture design at Parsons The New School for Design and industrial design at The Cooper Union in the East Village.
On returning to Paris in the early 1990s, Mahdavi worked with the interior designer Christian Liaigre, eventually becoming his in-house art director, just as Liaigre’s high-contrast, wenge-heavy minimalism was on the rise thanks to his work at the Mercer Hotel in New York City and the Hôtel Montalembert in Paris.
Despite spending seven years in Liaigre’s studio, Mahdavi’s aesthetics could not be more different from those of the grand minimalist. Her work is characterised by a tendency to play with colours, patterns and humour in ways that often challenge conventional notions of “good taste”.
“My work often has an edge to it,” Mahdavi admits. “I take risks sometimes and I fool around in ways that can veer very close to bad taste, but I manage to get away with things in the end because everything I do is always very controlled.”
Mahdavi says that it has taken her a long time to understand all of the influences in her life but now believes that each of the cultures that have helped define her have given her something very different.
“My Persian background and visits to Iran have allowed me to see how people mix so many patterns and colours together but it always manages to work somehow in a very fantastic way.
“Then there is a European influence,” Mahdavi explains. “I live in France which is the world capital of a certain art de vivre and that has added a feeling for luxury and sophistication to my work.”
If her tendency for mixing and matching and the desire for sophistication come from the old world, Mahdavi believes her love of colour stems from the New World and the land of her youth.
“My first memories are from the United States and they are in technicolor,” she explains. “My use of colour comes from that. I need colour and I’m not afraid of it.”
Madhavi is having her work exhibited in two different spaces during Design Days, in Beirut’s Carwan Gallery and Comptoir 102 in Jumeirah. The exhibit at Carwan Gallery will feature a series of specially commissioned planters and vases, Landscape Series 2, that combine two of Mahdavi’s passions, colour and ceramics.
“I wanted to investigate how you can bring vegetation into the home by creating oversize containers that can either be planted or used as flower pots. They create their own architecture,” Mahdavi explains.
Despite having an illustrious list of projects and clients that includes Claridges in London, the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel in Monaco, and the Barclay Prime in Philadelphia, Mahdavi’s work displays humour and openness that is refreshing in the often poe-faced world of contemporary design. She is no snob – and that makes her forthcoming lecture all the more interesting.
“Whoever takes the risk to do certain things – I think that’s great. I try to fight against uniformity and ‘total looks’; I actually think that’s slightly vulgar. I enjoy anything as long as it’s personal. It doesn’t have to be to my taste, just so long as it represents a person’s personality and their vision.”
• India Mahdavi: My Life in Design, 8-9pm, Monday at The Studio during Design Days Dubai
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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
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.”
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
THURSDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY
Centre Court
Starting at 10am:
Lucrezia Stefanini v Elena Rybakina (6)
Aryna Sabalenka (4) v Polona Hercog
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Court 1
Starting at 10am:
Sara Sorribes Tormo v Nadia Podoroska
Marketa Vondrousova v Su-Wei Hsieh
Elise Mertens (7) v Alize Cornet
Tamara Zidansek v Jennifer Brady (11)
Heather Watson v Jodie Burrage
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Court 2
Starting at 10am:
Arantxa Rus v Xiyu Wang
Maria Kostyuk v Lucie Hradecka
Karolina Muchova v Danka Kovinic
Cori Gauff v Ulrikke Eikeri
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Court 3
Starting at 10am:
Kateryna Bondarenko v Yafan Wang
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The biog
Name: Timothy Husband
Nationality: New Zealand
Education: Degree in zoology at The University of Sydney
Favourite book: Lemurs of Madagascar by Russell A Mittermeier
Favourite music: Billy Joel
Weekends and holidays: Talking about animals or visiting his farm in Australia
The specs
Engine: 2x201bhp AC Permanent-magnetic electric
Transmission: n/a
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 659Nm
Price estimate: Dh200,000
On sale: Q3 2022
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
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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
Company%20profile
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