The palm-sized sculpture of a boat will highlight the movement of people throughout history at London’s British Museum at the opening of Refugee Week.
The boat made of reclaimed metals and wood symbolises the journey to Europe made by migrants across the Mediterranean as they flee wars in the Middle East, Central Asia and West Africa.
A piece of bicycle mudflap has been folded and welded to look like a fishing boat. Inside, matchsticks burnt at the tip appear like migrants, huddled together as they make their cold and dangerous sea crossing.
Syrian-born, Cambridge-based artist Issam Kourbaj, donated the work to the museum and described it as a “humble gesture” reflecting on global migration. “It's not only about Syrian refugees. It is about many refugees of ecological, economic political causes,” he told The National.
More than 82.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes, more than ever before. One in 95 people – over one per cent of the world’s population – is displaced.
Yet migration and refugees will be an issue for humankind, said Kourbaj. “I don't think that at any time historically the idea of refugees ever stopped, because its [part of] life. The word refugee can have many different meanings.”
He points to the world’s oldest known refugee, King Idrimi, who fled Aleppo around 3,500 years ago, with his statue housed at the British Museum. The limestone statue of the King, which he commissioned of himself, includes cuneiform carvings of his own life.
His new work, Precarious Passage (2016-2023), is part of a continuing series which he began in 2016 and saw the creation of a flotilla of over a thousand small boats, which he has presented alongside installations, performance and text.
The original series was dedicated to the millions of Syrians fleeing brutal attacks on civilians after the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
It soon came to encompass the global migration to Europe. “European colonisers interfered with the world, and the world became poorer. The only resources now are in Europe,” he said, “When Europeans travel abroad, they are called explorers, but when it's the other way round, it is labelled in a negative way.”
In this new iteration, the boat appears through a large hole that was drilled into the copy of the British Museum’s A History of the World in 100 Objects. It is a nod to former museum director Neil McGregor’s naming of Kourbaj's boats as the 101st object to encapsulate our modern age, in 2020.
Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, said the work would be presented for the first time to mark refugee week, “Issam Kourbaj’s Precarious Passage highlights the challenges people are facing who seek refuge from violence and poverty throughout history.
“I am grateful to him for the gift of this artwork,” said Fischer.
“The Museum continues to support Refugee Week and its aim to promote awareness around the hardship of being displaced today as well as the creativity and resilience of refugees,” said Fischer.
Boats are an important metaphor for migration, said Kourbaj: “Metaphor means to cross over. Just like a boat is transporting you from one place to another.”
The artist came to the UK in the 1990s, to study theatre in design. As an art student in Damascus in the 1980s, Kourbaj was fascinated by the boat makers of Syria’s island of Arwad, whose ageless woodcarving craft is said to have existed since the Phoenicians. “I used to go there and draw them,” he said.
Decades later, he came across a 2,300-year-old miniature lead model of a boat carrying three goddesses, housed in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum. The ancient sculpture that was excavated in Tartus is an important reminder that anyone can be displaced. “This is how Syria sent goddesses across the Mediterranean in the past,” he said.
While researching his series, Kourbaj visited refugee camps on the Isle of Lesbos in Greece in 2016 and met Syrian refugees in the UK on the Isle of Bute in Scotland in 2019.
The artist questions the government’s handling of migration, where asylum seekers are threatened with deportation to Rwanda. “In our culture, somebody knocks at your door, you open the door. You don't close the door in their face or lock them in the basement.”
Refugees to the UK had real reasons to be here, he added. “I doubt that anybody would leave their own country just for the sake of leaving if we don’t have a reason to leave.”
He hopes the work will highlight the need to treat refugees with more dignity. “People who were forced to migrate forced to migrate [need] an ear to listen to, to respect their human rights,” he said.
“They need to be respected, regardless of where they are coming from.”
Kat Wightman's tips on how to create zones in large spaces
- Area carpets or rugs are the easiest way to segregate spaces while also unifying them.
- Lighting can help define areas. Try pendant lighting over dining tables, and side and floor lamps in living areas.
- Keep the colour palette the same in a room, but combine different tones and textures in different zone. A common accent colour dotted throughout the space brings it together.
- Don’t be afraid to use furniture to break up the space. For example, if you have a sofa placed in the middle of the room, a console unit behind it will give good punctuation.
- Use a considered collection of prints and artworks that work together to form a cohesive journey.
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Company%20Profile
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Brief scores:
Huesca 0
Real Madrid 1
Bale 8'
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
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
Sweet%20Tooth
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Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Barbie
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The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 204hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 300Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
Results
2.30pm: Park Avenue – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 2,000m; Winner: Rb Seqondtonone, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
3.05pm: Al Furjan – Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,200m; Winner: Bosphorus, Dane O’Neill, Bhupat Seemar
3.40pm: Mina – Rated Condition (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Royal Mews, Tadhg O’Shea, Bhupat Seemar
4.15pm: Aliyah – Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,900m; Winner: Ursa Minor, Ray Dawson, Ahmad bin Harmash
4.50pm: Riviera Beach – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Woodditton, Saif Al Balushi, Ahmad bin Harmash
5.25pm: Riviera – Handicap (TB) Dh2,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Al Madhar, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
6pm: Creek Views – Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Al Salt, Dane O’Neill, Erwan Charpy
THE DETAILS
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Dir: Ron Howard
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson
3/5
match details
Wales v Hungary
Cardiff City Stadium, kick-off 11.45pm
The Year Earth Changed
Directed by:Tom Beard
Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough
Stars: 4
RACE RESULTS
1. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1hr 21min 48.527sec
2. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) at 0.658sec
3. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 6.012
4. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 7.430
5. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN/Ferrari) 20.370
6. Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas) 1:13.160
7. Sergio Pérez (MEX/Force India) 1 lap
8. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Force India) 1 lap
9. Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams) 1 lap
10. Lance Stroll (CAN/Williams) 1 lap
11. Jolyon Palmer (GBR/Renault) 1 lap
12. Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL/McLaren) 1 lap
13. Nico Hülkenberg (GER/Renault) 1 lap
14. Pascal Wehrlein (GER/Sauber) 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson (SWE/Sauber) 2 laps
16. Daniil Kvyat (RUS/Toro Rosso) 3 laps
MATCH INFO
League Cup, last 16
Manchester City v Southampton, Tuesday, 11.45pm (UAE)
More on Quran memorisation:
THE DETAILS
Deadpool 2
Dir: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz
Four stars
WIDE%20VIEW
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