Anna Kurkova's 'Dunescape' was the winner of the 2017 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award. Delores Johnson / The National
Anna Kurkova's 'Dunescape' was the winner of the 2017 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award. Delores Johnson / The National

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award winners say inspiration came from ‘the culture of the UAE’



Two seniors at Abu Dhabi University have won the annual Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award, which supports public artworks. Maram Kassab and Mariam Ayoub received the honour for the structure Qasa'ed, which, Kassab says, "celebrates the existence and importance of creative literature in Emirati culture".

While renderings of the work have yet to be released, the artists spoke to us about their piece: "We thought of designing Qasa'ed as an interactive pavilion that represents the joy the Bedouin had spending nights recounting stories and poetry from the tops of the sand dunes," architecture student Kassab says.

Seen from the outside, the wooden curve will evoke Arabic calligraphy, while inside, Kassab says, “it was designed so that you feel as if you’re sitting on top of the sand dunes”. For the Bedouin, she says, the desert wasn’t “a void of nature, but rather a place for community, for interaction, for telling stories”.

Indeed, the plan is to use Qasa'ed to host poetry readings. The work will be unveiled in November at New York University Abu Dhabi, whose Art Gallery has partnered with the artist pair Christo and Jean-Claude and the Abu Dhabi Music and Art Foundation to support the award. The award carries with it US$10,000 (Dh36,725) towards production and $5,000 towards future projects. Later, it will travel to New York University, as an ambassador for the UAE's cultural tradition.

Kassab and Ayoub, both Palestinians, met in their first year of college and have been collaborating since. “We tend to get motivated by being together,” Kassab says. “When we work together, we try to focus on our strengths to balance creativity with good planning. One of us is more creative while the other is a better planner.”

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Read more:

Artist Christo on his special relationship with the UAE

Christo faces the sands of time after 38 years of work on UAE desert sculpture

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The pair praised the support of their professor, Basem Eid Mohamed, who mentored them through this work, as well as when they won a Undergraduate Student Research Competition in architecture. Both credit their Palestinian nationality as helping them in their practice.

"Due to our unstable situation back home, we have had to increase our level of adaptability," Ayoub says. "As Palestinians we had to be brought up and raised in countries different from our home country. This has affected our view of life and our design journey as it has widened our acceptability of different design visions and it has increased our persistence to participate in international platforms and allow people to hear our voices and see our talents."

After the two graduate this year they plan to stay and further their careers in the region. "We are interested in creating innovative ideas that are inspired by the culture of the UAE and which are looked at from different design visions," Kassab says. They hope to explore ways of introducing diversity while raising the standards of affordable housing, and by thinking of how to work with the culture of the UAE – for example, in designing multi-family housing units that consider diversity, culture and budget, as well as provide privacy in their outdoor spaces.

Both see winning the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award as a way to boost their profile and help them tackle these challenges. “This competition, with people from so many other backgrounds, has been such a great opportunity and a great platform to showcase our ideas and designs,” Kassab says. “We are so grateful for the chance.”

The award is in its sixth year. Christo has a long-planned artistic project, The Mastaba, for Abu Dhabi that will be the largest sculpture in the world: an enormous pyramid of multicoloured oil barrels. It has been "in process" since 1977, but Christo is said to maintain his commitment to it and his desire to see it through. He has also maintained a strong connection with the region, not least through this award.

NYUAD alumna Anna Kurkova won the award last year with Dunescape, an artwork inspired by the desert environment.

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UK's plans to cut net migration

Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.

Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.

But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.

Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.

Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.

The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.

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.”

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