Some of you out there will definitely be interested in some of this here which all kicks off this week...
Bastakiya Art Fair (opens tonight (15th) - on until March 22nd) Bastakiya's Funky Fringe Fair
Art Dubai (18th - 21st) Madinat Jumeirah - International galleries/talks/films and more.
Sharjah Biennial (officially opens 19th but really starts tmrw - some v. interesting plays and performance projects in the first week as well as loads of visuals / installations - mostly in and around the Arts and Heritage area in Sharjah)
Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival (from March 21st - April 4th) various places around AD
Enjoy...
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5 comments:
Ok, I'll start, and with something negative. Why oh why is it that "art" gets so much attention in the UAE, but something like local music (music made here) doesnt?
Or Poetry. We have international poetry week (blah blah) but why are there no poetry readings, or gatherings...
Why is it that a few pictures of a tall building, or some mismatched blobs of paint on a canvas is "art" and damn golly gosh we need to do this! when the written word is marginalized?
Is it because people are so lazy they would rather LOOk at stuff, even if that stuff is crap, than say, read something, that might just be more beautiful than that "art?"
I dont get it. I really dont. I want to say yay! Art is being acknowledged in the UAE! But I cant. Only visual art is. And it all looks like crap to me.
ABiT: At least there is something going on. It might not be to your taste - I know it's not really to mine in that case - but you have to admit that it's better than nothing.
And just because you apparently forgot to go I'd like to remind you that not so long ago was a festival of literature which even had, amongst other, a event called "An Evening of Arabic Poetry" .
There's a guy who spend the last few month doing rock pile stuff and one who built a horse figure from old tire on "the walk" in front of that neo-classic piece which is the JBR goulag. Granted they were not Emiratis if that matters.. At least it's not paintings.
There was a "Spirit of Islam" calligraphy exposition in AD in Feb I think. Painting words is ok with you?
A great Islamic art expo in AD Palace last year. Still only "picture" to look at but in a book and since it's mostly about the Coran you can't complain it's not a good reading... ;)
Ok that was just of the top of my head. I'm sure there are more stuff and probably some hidden gems.
Jumana is a nice work. Maybe too visual for you. I'd also put Cirque du Soleil in the art section, it also seems to have been quite popular. They both had some nice music so you would have enjoyed it eyes closed.
There was quite a few local band of cane&pipe (name please.) going around during DSF. I admit I'm clueless about what other *local* music you're referring to since most popular arabic music seems to be either from Egypt or Lebanon. I'd be interested to hear some.
I've heard there was a local band in desert rock festival but I don't know if it's true.
Local band in desert rock was Nervecell... there are a few other local bands that have got some expo lately too like Desert Heat but yeah not enough. As for poetry there was a lot about last week but what gets exposure in general are always the big officially sponsored events. So I dunno ... start a local bilingual poetry blog and arrange meetings whydontcha? There is a bi-lingual book club that reads Arabic literture and runs out of the Thirdline gallery in Dubai... but they don't do poetry as far as I know....
AS fot the art being crap ... some def. is :) but in the case of Dubai in particular it's a) a money spinner (though maybe not so much this year!) and b)international anti-stereotypical PR - i.e. look world... it's not all oil/sand/camels/dates/mega-projects and foreigmers shagging on beaches :)
Gotta go to Sharjah Biennale now ... Bye!
An Evening of Arabic Poetry"
Ah, and were would I fit into that? An Emarati who writes in English (see my poetry blog)
As for nervecell, thats one band, and they are a classic death metal band. I dislike that. I write more punk infused melodic death metal.
But my issue isnt with the music, its with visual art being everywhere while everything else is maginalized.
And for the record, I have tried to start poetry gatherings, and everytime the other people involved bailed.
sorry that you coudln't get poetry readers off the ground. Funnily emough I saw the person who does the book group at Thirdline gallery yesterday and asked her about it. She said they can't do poetry cos it's hard to get both eng. and arabic, versions of the same books (bi-lingual was misleading - not everyone there speaks arabic!) I take yr point about writing in English tho ..... and the fact that you are writing yr own stuff. Maybe Dubai Lime has people who would be interested??? But maybe U tried that. will check out blog at leisure when this nuts week of visuals is over. U R right about it but I guess visual art is easier to do. It takes less committment to just to look and provides more of a spectacle for the press!
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