The Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood will come alive during the 11-day Sikka Art Fair, which starts this weekend. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National.
The Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood will come alive during the 11-day Sikka Art Fair, which starts this weekend. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National.

Sikka Art Fair: explore a cultural mosaic amid Dubai’s historical past



Al Fahidi neighbourhood, in Deira, is a warren of old Dubai residences where pearl divers and market traders used to bed for the night.

Next week, you’ll find the houses full of paintings, skateboards and unrolled yoga mats: Sikka Art Fair, 11 days of various cultural and lifestyle activities, is setting up shop.

Now in its seventh year, Sikka is dedicated to supporting culture in the UAE and GCC, looking at both high art and popular culture. Meander from Street Art House – with its skateboards, stickers and urban streetwear on display – to exhibitions of installations, sculpture, painting and photography.

The fair is open to artists from across the GCC and has a full live events schedule, which it has become renowned for. “The music stage is where people gather at the end of the night, after they’ve checked out the exhibitions,” says Rosan Reodica from Room-Five, the agency which organises the event on behalf of Dubai Culture and Art Authority.

“This year we’ll have mini-talks in addition to the acts of last year, such as spoken word poetry and music.”

The fair is also bringing the city into Deira, with an array of cultural organisations hosting workshops and screenings in Al Fahidi. The residency agency Tashkeel will host design, illustration and Zine publishing workshops, as well as a printmaking exhibition, while Loco’motion Community Cinema and The Animation Chamber will screen films every night in the courtyards. Alserkal Avenue will also occupy one of the houses, with a series of events in which the public can meet different UAE-based authors.

In addition, Sikka is working with the UAE Ministry of Happiness to explore what it means to be content. Yoga mats spread out in the Fahidi courtyards and a meditation walk winding through the site will perhaps be one answer; others might find their joy in juice bars and letting other people entertain their children for a while – there are kids’ activities too.

The notion of happiness is also explored from an intercultural perspective in a collaboration between the Emirati artist Rashid Al Mulla and the Brazilian collective Connexus. The three artists will explore the city and produce a site-specific commission using the national colours of the two countries, that tries to understand whether happiness differs from culture to culture: does “happy” mean the same thing in Brazil as it does in the UAE?

Dubai will also be the focus of street artist Tarsila Schubert, who was born in Brazil but is now based in the UAE. Schubert is creating a maze for visitors to follow and lose themselves in, with historical images of locals drinking tea, bargaining and smoking shisha.

Members of the public will be able to take Polaroids of themselves on this journey, and towards the end of the maze will be a gradual accumulation of images on the wall – the Sikka visitors literally overtaking the old-timers who used to live in the area. As the UAE grows in age, one of the key preoccupations of artists has been identity, either for those non-Emirati nationals who have grown up in the UAE, or for Arabs who have watched their lives change dramatically over the past 45 years.

This will be the subject of the exhibition The Confused Arab, which aims to look at the "future of nostalgia" or the idea that the rate of change in our lives is so rapid that nostalgia – like everything else in the future – won't be what it used to be. Works will utilise traditional symbols, dialects and music to uncover what identity means now, in House 33.

Sikka’s appeal also lies in its live events: among these is the organisation Rock Camp for Girls, which encourages young women to enter the male-dominated rock music scene; they’ll be playing in the main Al Fahidi courtyard at 7.30pm on Wednesday. The panoply of events shows Dubai’s substantial investment in arts and culture.

Next week is “Art Week” in the Emirates, when most of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah’s institutions and galleries host exhibitions and events. International museum curators and dealers descend upon the UAE for Art Dubai, the modern and contemporary art fair held in Madinat Jumeirah, from Wednesday to Saturday. Known colloquially as “March Madness”, the week is an extraordinary opportunity to find out more about contemporary art forms.

Sikka is unique in that it focuses primarily on GCC artists and has a hands-on attitude to exploring how culture is made and understood within the UAE. Design, for example, has become an extremely important part of the art scene here and is well-represented in the different exhibitions and workshops.

Sikka Art Fair runs from Saturday until March 21 in Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, Dubai, from 5pm to 11pm weekdays and 5pm to midnight weekends. Opening night is 6pm to 11pm. Visit www.dubaiculture.gov.ae/en/Our-Initiative

artslife@thenational.ae

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
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Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

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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.”

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
  • Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
  • Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
  • Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
  • Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
  • Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

German intelligence warnings
  • 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
  • 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
  • 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250 

Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

The specs: 2018 Renault Megane

Price, base / as tested Dh52,900 / Dh59,200

Engine 1.6L in-line four-cylinder

Transmission Continuously variable transmission

Power 115hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque 156Nm @ 4,000rpm

Fuel economy, combined 6.6L / 100km

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If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
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Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine 

Power: 420kW

Torque: 780Nm

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Price: From Dh1,350,000

On sale: Available for preorder now

Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

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Planes grounded by coronavirus

British Airways: Cancels all direct flights to and from mainland China 

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific: Cutting capacity to/from mainland China by 50 per cent from Jan. 30

Chicago-based United Airlines: Reducing flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong

Ai Seoul:  Suspended all flights to China

Finnair: Suspending flights to Nanjing and Beijing Daxing until the end of March

Indonesia's Lion Air: Suspending all flights to China from February

South Korea's Asiana Airlines,  Jeju Air  and Jin Air: Suspend all flights

Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants