The third art book fair by the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), Focal Point, will take place from December 16 to 19.
The annual event is a platform for printed matter by artists, writers, scholars, and independent and established publishers from the Middle East, as well as Africa and South Asia.
The highlight of the fair will be the announcement of the winners for the Focal Point publishing grant, which will reward $30,000 to art historical research projects that centre on the Middle East, Africa and South Asia regions. The 2020 edition focuses on projects that look at global modernism movements in the region during the post-war period, follow the First World War.
Launched last year, the grant aims to bolster scholarly research. The 2019 recipient was Ma3azef, an online music magazine dedicated to the critique and analysis of contemporary Arabic music. Through the grant, Ma3azef, which was launched in 2012, will produce a series of publications in collaboration with Beirut design studio SHFRA.
Focal Point will also feature an SAF Publications section, dedicated to the books produced by the foundation over the years. This includes the newly released Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist, edited by foundation president Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi. The book is a major volume of new research into the practice of the pioneering Emirati artist, for which SAF exhibited a retrospective that has travelled to Germany and Sweden.
Other publications will include Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara, a monograph on the Palestinian artist; and Look For Me All Around You, the final volume of the Sharjah Biennial 14 three-volume set, edited by curator Claire Tancons.
Focal Point’s public programme will include music performances and themed educational workshops that are free and open to the public, though visitors must register online. Details of the full schedule will be made available on SAF’s website in the coming days.
More details on Focal Point can be found at sharjahart.org
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The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
