DUBAI // Works by international artists will adorn Dubai Metro trains to help bring art closer to the community.
As part of a collaboration between the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and the Road & Transport Authority, work by Syrian Safwan Dahoul, as well as Emirati Abdulqader Al Rais and Algerian Rachid Koraichi, will features on carriages.
The RTA celebrated the launch the Dubai Art season last month with a train decorated with photographs of Dubai’s skyline taken by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and chairman of the Dubai Executive Council.
The works and photographs can be viewed on videos released by the RTA on Youtube and Facebook.
Mr Dahoul's 'Dream' canvases, Dahoul, one of the highest-grossing Middle Eastern artists, is famous for its use of black, white and grey. He described how he has "forgotten" about all other colours in an interview with The National in February last year.
“There is an old proverb in Arabic that says, the fewer the words, the better. For me it is the same with colour. You can say a lot more with nuance,” he said.
Critics have described Dahoul’s work as filled with wide-eyed subjects and consumed with sadness and melancholy. Many tell the story of Syria, the homeland he was forced to leave and settle down in Dubai three years ago.
“This project aims to take art closer to the community and highlights the cultural soul of our city,” said Abdul Rahman Al Owais, UAE minister of health and chairman of Dubai Culture.
“We are thankful to Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for the generous patronage extended to this initiative and the kind consent to use his photograph, a real work of art, for the first Dubai Metro carriage wrap. We are also thankful to the Roads and Transport Authority for their support.”
Dubai Culture is the organiser of the Dubai Art season that runs until the end of this month.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
