My UAE: The television presenter Myriam Al Dhaheri’s artistic bent

A profile of the budding Emirati television presenter Myriam Al Dhaheri.

Myriam Al Dhaheri is the presenter and main researcher for Fnoon. Mona Al-Marzooqi / The National

When it comes to interviews, Myriam Al Dhaheri is normally asking the questions. The 21-year-old has spent the past few weeks researching and interviewing some of the region’s most established artists, including the Emirati Jalal Luqman, the Syrian sculptor Mustafa Ali and the Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin.

The results will be seen as a series of pilot programmes for Fnoon, a new online arts initiative that's being produced by The Media Company, an Emirati-owned, twofour54-based production house.

"Fnoon means 'arts' in Arabic," Al Dhaheri explains. "Why the plural? Because we don't want to focus on one type of art but on the arts in general, and eventually we want to look beyond the artist. We want to be a platform where galleries can promote themselves and where artists can make themselves known to a ­wider public."

Fnoon is the brainchild of The Media Company's founder Mohammed Fathi, but the work is all done by Al Dhaheri, who is Fnoon's main researcher, interviewer and presenter, and a team of fellow volunteers and Zayed University graduates.

“We came up with the name. We wanted something local with an international focus. At the moment, we’re filming in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, but we’re aiming to grow,” she explains.

"We're shooting the pilots, and once they are finished, Fnoon will go online and we'll continue by shooting in art galleries and at events such as Abu Dhabi Art, Art Dubai and Sikka – and eventually the plan is that Fnoon will be more than a YouTube show."

If the project is a success, there's also the possibility that Fnoon may make the face of its main presenter famous. "I hope not," Al Dhaheri says. "We are doing this for a good cause."

My favourite read

I read more magazines and journals than books – and my favourite is National Geographic. I love world history and world culture, and I like to read something where I will get some education from it directly.

My hobby

I like yoga, because I can do it before I go to sleep or I can do it at sunrise in my room or I can do it outside.

My favourite museum

The Musée du quai Branly in Paris. I love the fact that it’s a world museum. You enter each continent and you have archaeological pieces and art from that continent. It mixes world history, which I love, and the history of art.

My favourite destination

Well, because I am half-French and half-Emirati, I have two homes where I am obliged to live with my family, but then you also get to choose your real home – and for me, I feel that’s Spain, and the Costa del Sol in particular. Recently, we’ve been spending our summers there and the people are very easy-going, very friendly, and very polite. They’re a mix of East and West, and I was able to mingle with them very easily.

My favourite artwork

I’m always fascinated by the moai, the statues from Easter Island. Whichever museum or gallery has one, I always have to go.

My favourite film

I don't have a favourite genre or a director, but I really enjoyed The Blind Side.

My relaxation

I am very keen to learn. I like spending time just to enjoy myself, like having dinner with friends, but I would really enjoy just visiting an exhibition or a museum or attending a talk or seeing a cultural performance like ballet. That’s not an effort for me – it’s a pleasure.

My favourite artist

That would be Salvador Dalí. I am always slightly stuck with abstract painting, whereas there’s something so detailed and specific about how Dalí uses his imagination. My mum always talked about him and we visited his exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Before that, I only knew his picture with the moustache and the flowers.

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