A Beirut gallery that was damaged by the August 4 port blast has reopened its doors, amid the ongoing economic crisis in Lebanon.
Situated less than 600 metres from the Port of Beirut, Galerie Tanit sustained enormous damage to its space and artworks. Today, the walls have been repainted and the glass windows restored. But the builders haven’t left yet, and the sound of loud drilling reverberates from the back room.
“Reopening the gallery has been a miracle,” its owner, Naila Kettaneh-Kunigk, tells The National. The challenges were emotional and physical, she says. “For months I wasn’t ready to reopen. I had to find myself, think, and come to terms with the wounded and the dead.” The building’s architect, Jean-Marc Bonfils, who was at home in the apartments above the gallery, died from the impact of the blast.
Galerie Tanit’s opening exhibition, entitled Togetherness, features the work of 21 artists residing in Lebanon. “A lot of young artists lived in the area affected by the blast. I had to do something for them,” says Kettaneh-Kunigk.
After an open call for submissions, 17 projects were selected by a jury, which included Kettaneh-Kunigk. In the first room, artist Rayane Raidi’s painting of stretched, interlaced bodies echoes the exhibition’s theme, which aims to “describe, question, challenge and embrace the thought of being together again”.
Many young artists and recent graduates appear in the show. “It’s an opportunity to get to know the new generation of artists, follow their trajectories and organise overseas opportunities for them,” says Kettaneh-Kunigk. “They are Lebanon’s future.”
Artist Elias Nafaa, 24, developed a light installation on the changing nature of private and public spaces as a result of the pandemic. Nafaa says coronavirus-related restrictions gave him the “comfort of stepping away from the world to take a pause”. But, he says, “our intimate private spaces were invaded with work calls, and the voyeurism that came from working from home”.
The interactive installation consists of moveable white cubes with coloured lighting, and was made using textures and materials commonly found in the home. “It’s a playful piece that encourages viewers to participate and rethink how we live together,” says Nafaa.
Maysa Al Khoury, 24, produced a photo and video installation about the days spent in isolation with her bed-bound grandmother.
Amid the country’s financial crisis, many artists are struggling to purchase materials. “We’re forced to keep all our ideas on paper,” says Nafaa. The gallery, he says, supplied the resources needed for his installation.
For months I wasn’t ready to reopen. I had to find myself, think, and come to terms with the wounded and the dead
Naila Kettaneh-Kunigk,
owner of Galerie Tanit
Some works in the exhibition directly reference the crisis. Photographers Noel Nasr and Cliff Makhoul’s series DevaL.L.uation highlights the impact of the Lebanese lira’s depreciation on daily life. The artists show what can be purchased from Lebanese supermarkets with a 1,000 lira note, the currency’s smallest: a teaspoon of Nescafe, three quarters of a banana, 10 pine nuts or eight individual Lipton tea bags. Once pegged at about 66.6 cents to the dollar, today the 1,000 lira note is worth less than 5 cents. Meanwhile, artist Eliesh’s video installation shows footage of Lebanon’s October 2019 revolution, with a focus on the feet of the marching protesters.
Others chose to blend the poetic with the political. Laetitia Hakim and Tarek Haddad’s sculpture of blue jersey fabric stretched to the point of transparency evokes the horizon of Beirut’s seafront. But it also serves as an allegory for the crises that are pulling the country apart to the point of rupture.
References to the blast also appear through more personal works. Sarah Sehnaoui produced a series of ceramic objects representing the shattered fragments of a woman’s pelvis. Zeina Aboulhosn’s abstract terracotta sculptures use fragments of roof tiles sourced from a local manufacturer.
Many projects on view take the form of a sketch book or diary. Bettina Khoury Badr presents three watercolour mosaics, based on photographs of Beirut’s sky taken daily since the start of the pandemic. The largest among them, Sky Painting (2021), is composed of 450 square watercolours of building antennas, skylines, clouds and starlit skies, arranged in a grid and a blue gradient from light to dark. A smaller painting from the previous year depicts the changing sky on the night of the Beirut blast.
In the same vein of tracing a personal journey, Christian Sleiman documented Lebanese foraging traditions through sketches of plants and bunches of dried shrubs accumulated from travels across the country. Most of the plants were collected in urban areas, including Lebanon’s coastal highway or the archaeological ruins of Baalbek.
The rituals around wild plants also appear in three leporellos by Caroline Hayek and Clemence Cottard Hachem. The series, entitled Secrets-Soleils, is centred on three wild flowers that are indigenous to Lebanon: the mallow, the poppy and the cyclamen. Using photography, drawing, text and collage, the leporellos reveal a “real and imagined” cosmogony on those three plants.
Kettaneh-Kunigk hopes the exhibition will help to support Lebanon’s varied, but increasingly isolated, art scene. “It has become a bubble with few galleries or outlets for the artists,” she says. “Banks often bought the work of young Lebanese artists, but they are now in crisis, and local Lebanese collectors prefer more classical works.” Responding to this, artistic duo Jeanne et Moreau offer a critique of Lebanon’s art market by presenting a non-hierarchical list of Lebanese photographers.
Adjacent to the gallery, Lebanese artist Chafa Ghaddar, who lives in Dubai, unveiled a permanent fresco mural to mark the reopening. Entitled The 5th month, it depicts the clothed stomach of a pregnant woman, and is based on a photograph the artist took of herself mid-pregnancy. The woman’s fingertips gently touch the fabric of a black silk dress, with a colourful flower print and lace edges.
Ghaddar hopes the mural can contribute to the revival of her native city. “As I live abroad, I struggled to find a topic that could depict the violence that happened here. I didn’t want to parachute an idea,” she says. “This painting came from the idea of touch and transformation.”
Togetherness runs at Galerie Tanit in Beirut until Saturday, August 7
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
FA%20Cup%20semi-final%20draw
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%3Cp%3EMATA%0D%3Cbr%3EArtist%3A%20M.I.A%0D%3Cbr%3ELabel%3A%20Island%0D%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
England World Cup squad
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Fixtures
Friday Leganes v Alaves, 10.15pm; Valencia v Las Palmas, 12.15am
Saturday Celta Vigo v Real Sociedad, 8.15pm; Girona v Atletico Madrid, 10.15pm; Sevilla v Espanyol, 12.15am
Sunday Athletic Bilbao v Getafe, 8.15am; Barcelona v Real Betis, 10.15pm; Deportivo v Real Madrid, 12.15am
Monday Levante v Villarreal, 10.15pm; Malaga v Eibar, midnight
Left Bank: Art, Passion and Rebirth of Paris 1940-1950
Agnes Poirer, Bloomsbury
Book%20Details
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE SPECS
Cadillac XT6 2020 Premium Luxury
Engine: 3.6L V-6
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 310hp
Torque: 367Nm
Price: Dh280,000
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The years Ramadan fell in May
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Full list of Emmy 2020 nominations
LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Don Cheadle, Black Monday
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method
Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek
Ramy Youssef, Ramy
LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me
Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek
Issa Rae, Insecure
Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish
OUTSTANDING VARIETY/TALK SERIES
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Steve Carell, The Morning Show
Brian Cox, Succession
Billy Porter, Pose
Jeremy Strong, Succession
LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show
Olivia Colman, The Crown
Jodie Comer, Killing Eve
Laura Linney, Ozark
Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
Zendaya, Euphoria
OUTSTANDING REALITY/COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Masked Singer
Nailed It!
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Top Chef
The Voice
LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE
Jeremy Irons, Watchmen
Hugh Jackman, Bad Education
Paul Mescal, Normal People
Jeremy Pope, Hollywood
Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True
LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE
Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America
Shira Haas, Unorthodox
Regina King, Watchmen
Octavia Spencer, Self Made
Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere
OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
Little Fires Everywhere
Mrs. America
Unbelievable
Unorthodox
Watchmen
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dead to Me
The Good Place
Insecure
The Kominsky Method
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Schitt’s Creek
What We Do In The Shadows
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Better Call Saul
The Crown
The Handmaid’s Tale
Killing Eve
The Mandalorian
Ozark
Stranger Things
Succession
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
In numbers
- Number of children under five will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401m in 2100
- Over-80s will rise from 141m in 2017 to 866m in 2100
- Nigeria will become the world’s second most populous country with 791m by 2100, behind India
- China will fall dramatically from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2024 to 732 million by 2100
- an average of 2.1 children per woman is required to sustain population growth
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
RESULTS
Women:
55kg brown-black belt: Amal Amjahid (BEL) bt Amanda Monteiro (BRA) via choke
62kg brown-black belt: Bianca Basilio (BRA) bt Ffion Davies (GBR) via referee’s decision (0-0, 2-2 adv)
70kg brown-black belt: Ana Carolina Vieira (BRA) bt Jessica Swanson (USA), 9-0
90kg brown-black belt: Angelica Galvao (USA) bt Marta Szarecka (POL) 8-2
Men:
62kg black belt: Joao Miyao (BRA) bt Wan Ki-chae (KOR), 7-2
69kg black belt: Paulo Miyao (BRA) bt Gianni Grippo (USA), 2-2 (1-0 adv)
77kg black belt: Espen Mathiesen (NOR) bt Jake Mackenzie (CAN)
85kg black belt: Isaque Braz (BRA) bt Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE), 2-0
94kg black belt: Felipe Pena (BRA) bt Adam Wardzinski (POL), 4-0
110kg black belt final: Erberth Santos (BRA) bt Lucio Rodrigues (GBR) via rear naked choke
The biog
Fatima Al Darmaki is an Emirati widow with three children
She has received 46 certificates of appreciation and excellence throughout her career
She won the 'ideal mother' category at the Minister of Interior Awards for Excellence
Her favourite food is Harees, a slow-cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled wheat berries mixed with chicken
A Dog's Journey
Directed by: Gail Mancuso
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Josh Gad, Marg Helgenberger, Betty Gilpin, Kathryn Prescott
3 out of 5 stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Dubai World Cup Carnival Thursday race card
6.30pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes Group Three US$200,000 (Turf) 2,000m
7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m
7.40pm: UAE Oaks Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
8.15pm: Zabeel Mile Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,600m
8.50pm: Meydan Sprint Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,000m
9.25pm: Handicap $135,000 (D) 1,400m
10pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m
Sri Lanka's T20I squad
Thisara Perera (captain), Dilshan Munaweera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ashan Priyanjan, Mahela Udawatte, Dasun Shanaka, Sachith Pathirana, Vikum Sanjaya, Lahiru Gamage, Seekkuge Prasanna, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay and Chathuranga de Silva.
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The bio:
Favourite film:
Declan: It was The Commitments but now it’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
Heidi: The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Favourite holiday destination:
Declan: Las Vegas but I also love getting home to Ireland and seeing everyone back home.
Heidi: Australia but my dream destination would be to go to Cuba.
Favourite pastime:
Declan: I love brunching and socializing. Just basically having the craic.
Heidi: Paddleboarding and swimming.
Personal motto:
Declan: Take chances.
Heidi: Live, love, laugh and have no regrets.
Ukraine%20exports
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