What defines a city? Travel anywhere in the world, and what lingers in the mind in the weeks and years after is its culture – museums, public art installations and singular events. Through art, we discover a city’s true spirit.
And across the UAE capital this week, art is in the hearts and minds of both residents and visitors alike. At Manarat Al Saadiyat, the annual Abu Dhabi Art is running until Sunday, a bustling festival that showcases regional and international talent and treasures both old and new. And across the emirate, the first Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial has launched, featuring installations and events that will be on show until April.
Years ago, Abu Dhabi’s leaders listed art as a key pillar of the emirate’s future, and ever true to their word, their dream has become a reality. The Saadiyat Cultural District is nearing completion, with the Zayed National Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi each set to launch, joining Louvre Abu Dhabi.
But these institutions, each with a distinct mission, will only form part of the emirate’s artistic identity. Events such as Abu Dhabi Art and the biennial define the contemporary pulse of the regional art world – and continue an intricate conversation with the global scene.
And as platforms, they’re more vital than ever. At Abu Dhabi Art for instance, artists from Palestine and Lebanon are exhibiting their work at a time when their cultures are under direct threat from Israeli attacks. The UAE is a haven for both the artists and their works during time of strife, helping to nurture and amplify voices that might otherwise be silenced.
Maliha Tabari, founder of the Tabari Artspace, has curated an exhibition at the festival focused on artists from the Levant with that aim in mind.
“Routes to Roots is about storytelling and preservation,” she told The National. “It is an active effort to ensure that future generations can encounter and engage with the positive and abundant heritage of the Levant.”
Creativity cannot thrive without institutional support – galleries, museums, as well as public and private initiatives. And art is under threat not only in areas plagued by conflict – without benefactors, artists can’t afford to pursue art. Across the world, funding is drying up, and even established voices are struggling to continue their passions. Increasingly, those luminaries are turning to the UAE as a bastion of support.
But Abu Dhabi is not only a leading voice in the global and regional art scene for this reason. Increasingly, it is the UAE’s own artists that are catching the world’s attention. And each year, an increasing number of brilliant Emirati creatives emerge, in part because they are given the tools to develop their brilliance.
And the seeds for generations to come are now planted across the emirate. Public art, eminently accessible in both the city of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, could act as an inspiration for the many children who will discover it both actively and passively. Art workshops at Louvre Abu Dhabi may be their next step, letting their imaginations run wild. And in the years to come, they’ll come of age in a rich landscape, with myriad opportunities to both create, display and interact with the art world.
Art has come to define Abu Dhabi in both the global and local imaginations. And as the emirate’s events and institutions continue to rise in quality and significance, its spirit will soar ever higher.
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Khalid%20Fahad%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Shaima%20Al%20Tayeb%2C%20Wafa%20Muhamad%2C%20Hamss%20Bandar%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE%20SQUAD
%3Cp%3E%0DJemma%20Eley%2C%20Maria%20Michailidou%2C%20Molly%20Fuller%2C%20Chloe%20Andrews%20(of%20Dubai%20College)%2C%20Eliza%20Petricola%2C%20Holly%20Guerin%2C%20Yasmin%20Craig%2C%20Caitlin%20Gowdy%20(Dubai%20English%20Speaking%20College)%2C%20Claire%20Janssen%2C%20Cristiana%20Morall%20(Jumeirah%20English%20Speaking%20School)%2C%20Tessa%20Mies%20(Jebel%20Ali%20School)%2C%20Mila%20Morgan%20(Cranleigh%20Abu%20Dhabi).%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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.”
