Abu Dhabi and Al Ain are transforming into sprawling, open-air galleries for the next few months.
The first Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, which opened on Friday and will run until April 30, features performances and site-specific installations. More than 70 local and international artists are taking part.
While several works are being presented during the biennial’s launch, many more will be unveiled as the event progresses.
The sheer number of works and locations that make up the biennial mean it can be difficult to know where to go and what to see.
Here is a guide to eight routes that are part of Public Art Abu Dhabi, as well as the visitor hubs:
Abu Dhabi Corniche
One of the most popular public spaces in the UAE capital, the Corniche is an important location. Artworks will be spread along the waterfront and its views of the Abu Dhabi skyline.
Eight artists and collectives will be displaying works. These include Wael Al Awar, Oscar Murillo, Farah Al Qasimi, Bik Van der Pol, Tania Candiani, Sammy Baloji, UT-R Studio and Nicholas Galanin.
Abu Dhabi Public Parks
The lush, interconnected spaces facing the Corniche will also showcase several artworks. The park network is a public favourite because of its maze, pond, outdoor gym equipment, as well as its cycling paths and barbecue areas.
Eleven artists and groups will be shown across the parks and along an hour-long walking tour. The artists include Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Kader Attia, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Hashel Al Lamki, Seema Nusrat, Abdullah Al Saadi, Rami Kashou x Emirati Artisans, Paweł Althamer, Nathan Coley, Athar Jaber, as well as Allora & Calzadilla.
Abu Dhabi Bus Terminal
Abu Dhabi’s main bus terminal is one of the most unique structures in the city. Designed by architect Georgi Kolarov and built in 1989, it features angular shapes with a clean, modernist aesthetic that stands out among the surrounding buildings.
Six artists and collectives will be featured at the venue, including Henrique Oliveira, Hussein Sharif, Zeinab Alhashemi, Atelier Aziz Al Qatami, Daniel Buren and Eko Nugroho.
Downtown Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi’s urban core embodies the capital’s concord between the traditional and the modern. The area is replete with souqs, commercial and retail spaces, as well as restaurants, all of which reflect the city’s cosmopolitan nature.
The biennial has curated a one-hour walking tour across the downtown area. Artworks by six artists and groups will be featured, including Superflex, Lucia Koch, Coley, Azza Al Qubaisi, Mohammed Al Hawajri, and Radhika Khimji.
Cultural Foundation
Unsurprisingly, the country’s first cultural and arts centre will be a major setting. The Cultural Foundation opened in 1981, functioning as a library, a performance auditorium and an exhibition centre. Several cross-cultural activities took place at the venue in the decades that followed.
The building underwent a major renovation between 2008 and 2018. It is now, once again, a key cultural location in the capital, featuring a year-round programme of exhibitions and events.
Seven artists and collectives will be featured in the area, including Mohamed Al Astad, Wael Shawky, Mircea Cantor, Ayesha Hadhir, Nnenna Okore, Arquitectura Expandida, and Load na Dito.
Carpet Souq
Located on Al Mina Road, the Carpet Souq features more than 100 shops selling carpets from across the world, both hand-woven and machine made.
The larger area is also significant in the urban fabric of the capital, featuring Heritage Park, as well as the familiar Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel, which looms as an example of modern heritage.
Five artists will be featured in the area that is along a 40-minute driving route. These include Christopher Joshua Benton, Khalil Rabah, Eddie Clemens, Yeesookyung and guBuyoBand.
National Theatre
Another important cultural landmark, the National Theatre was inaugurated in 1981 and has a 2,250-seat auditorium, a 150-capacity conference hall and art galleries.
The nearby Umm Al Emarat Park, meanwhile, is also a significant public space. It is one of the oldest in the emirate, and is renowned for its family-friendly attractions, including Children’s Garden, Animal Barn, and Amphitheatre.
Works by Afra Al Dhaheri and Kabir Mohanty will be featured in the area, with a 30-minute drive between them.
Al Ain Oasis
A Unesco World Heritage site, Al Ain Oasis is a key historical location for the country, alluding to a history that dates back thousands of years.
The oasis covers 1,200 hectares and has more than 147,000 date palms. The oasis is irrigated by the ancient al falaj system, which serves hundreds of farms. The area also showcases tombs from the Bronze Age. The nearby Al Jahili Fort, meanwhile, embodies a more recent past. It was built in the 19th century to defend Al Ain from enemy forces.
Seven artists will be showcasing works across a 45-minute Al Ain driving route which will also highlight the oasis city’s history. The artists include Latifa Saeed, Alex Ayed, Coley, Rawdha Al Ketbi, Shaikha Al Ketbi, and Yeesookyung.
Visitor Hubs
Visitor hubs have also been set up across several routes, including at the Corniche, the Carpet Souq, the public parks, as well as in Al Ain.
The hubs will feature artwork, as well as dining options, unique merchandise, and information points.
Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial will run until April 30. Public operating hours are from 10am to 10pm from Monday to Thursday; and 10am to midnight from Friday to Sunday
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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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.”
