“Every day is different. One day, I’m happy. One day, I’m sad. One day, I’m anxious. The next, I’m OK. The next, I’m hysterical. The next, I’m scared. But what comforts me is knowing that I and everyone on the planet are going through the same thing.”
These are the opening lines of Carol Mansour's A Covid-eo Diary, produced during Beirut's lockdown following the outbreak of Covid-19. The documentary filmmaker is one of 39 Middle Eastern artists featured in the Middle East Institute (MEI) Art Gallery's exhibition Art in Isolation: Creativity in the Time of Covid-19, which opens in Washington, DC, on Thursday, October 1.
In her five-minute slice-of-life video, Mansour blends scenes of the Lebanese capital’s desolate streets with voice notes from friends talking about their anxieties and fears in the wake of the coronavirus. “My fear is that everything will go back to the way it was before corona, and we have not learnt anything,” she says. Particularly wrenching is the fact these concerns were voiced before the devastating blast in Beirut on August 4, which has led to more uncertainty in Lebanon.
Her work, alongside those in the rest of the exhibition, was selected by MEI after it issued an open call for artwork submissions related to Covid-19 in June. The institute received more than 200 entries, which MEI’s curator Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah narrowed down to 53 works.
Artists from Morocco to Yemen are included in the show, which consists of painting, sculpture, photography and video. Thematically tied together by the pandemic, the works explore isolation, as evidenced in portraits by Rania Matar.
Lebanese-American Matar, who received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018, captures a couple and family in quarantine, gazing into the photographer’s lens from behind a barrier, a door or window.
Yemeni artist Asim Ahmed, who lives in Aden, presents two women looking out from the windows of a decrepit building. The pensive image – with slivers of crumbling infrastructure revealed in the background – tie together the realities of living in war while facing a deadly health crisis.
More abstract pieces include Sina Ata's #796, a canvas filled with varying blue hues, and Emirati artist Ebtisam Abdulaziz's paintings that combine geometry, mathematics and colour.
There is also the material-based work of Athar Jaber who created the marble sculptures A Mask for Life. These masks were donated to the UNHCR for a Covid-19 fundraising initiative.
Among the more whimsical works are Mous Lambrat's photographs and Ilyes Messaoudi's collage-like work Help, which depicts a surreal world with subjects floating away on coronavirus balloons or burrowing underground with them.
The exhibition is both physical, with visitors needing to book an appointment beforehand, and virtual, on MEI Art Gallery’s website. The show is on view until Wednesday, January 13. All the works are for sale, with majority of proceeds given to the artists.
More information is available at mei.edu
FIXTURES (all times UAE)
Sunday
Brescia v Lazio (3.30pm)
SPAL v Verona (6pm)
Genoa v Sassuolo (9pm)
AS Roma v Torino (11.45pm)
Monday
Bologna v Fiorentina (3.30pm)
AC Milan v Sampdoria (6pm)
Juventus v Cagliari (6pm)
Atalanta v Parma (6pm)
Lecce v Udinese (9pm)
Napoli v Inter Milan (11.45pm)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Ms Al Ameri likes the variety of her job, and the daily environmental challenges she is presented with.
Regular contact with wildlife is the most appealing part of her role at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
She loves to explore new destinations and lives by her motto of being a voice in the world, and not an echo.
She is the youngest of three children, and has a brother and sister.
Her favourite book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville helped inspire her towards a career exploring the natural world.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Match info
Liverpool 3
Hoedt (10' og), Matip (21'), Salah (45 3')
Southampton 0
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
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Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
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