alia al senussi
TRANSCRIPT
040 brownbook magazine
COLLECTORStory by Tom Spender
Artwork by Susan Hefuna Hess
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041
Yet despite immersing herself in art, the
princess has never herself felt compelled to put
brush to canvas, sculpt heavenly bodies or wire
up a fiddly multimedia montage.
“I’m not an artist at all,” she says. “That’s
why I enjoy being in the art world so much. I
love to be around creative people. I think being
an artist is about feeling the urge that you must
create something and for me I have just never
had that urge.”
She worked in commercial art for more
than three years before quitting to focus on her
own collection and on her work with non-profit
organisations.
A summer internship at Goldman Sachs in
London was enough to persuade Princess Alia
al Senussi that banking was not for her - she
wanted something “more out of the box”.
But she could not have imagined that her
first foray into the art world - in which she had
become interested while visiting Switzerland’s
Basel Art Fair during her student days - would
see her dispatched within a week to a remote
Egyptian oasis many hours' drive from the
capital Cairo.
Yet the oasis town of Siwa, where the
princess was to work managing famous artists
exhibiting at an eco-resort as part of the Siwa
Patrons Project, would also be as close as she
has ever come to the country whose royal
family she is a member of - Libya. Marooned
amid endless desert sands, Siwa is Egypt’s
westernmost oasis and lies about 100km from
the Libyan border.
Princess Alia’s father is a member of the
royal al Senussi family, who were exiled from
Libya in 1969 when General Muammar Gaddafi
seized power in a coup and declared himself
leader of the Libyan Arab Republic. Princess
Alia’s grandfather, Prince Abdallah al Senussi,
was a political leader in the government under
King Idris. He was in Turkey during the coup.
Princess Alia herself was born in Washington
DC to her Libyan father and American mother,
spending part of her childhood in Cairo, going
to school in Switzerland and studying in the US
before moving to London. However, visiting
Libya has so far proved impossible.
“In exile, one tries to be the best possible
example of oneself and portray the family in the
best possible light,” says the 26-year-old.
A mixed background and her experience of
living in the West while also having a Middle
Eastern identity has shaped the princess’ taste
in art, drawing her to artists such as Susan
Hefuna, who is of mixed Egyptian and German
parentage, and Kader Attia, who grew up in a
family of Algerian migrants in the tough Paris
suburbs.
“I’m drawn to Middle Eastern art because
of the context of my own life,” she says. “Most
of the artists I admire are Middle Eastern but
rarely living there for political, educational or
family reasons. Through art, they forge their
identity of being Arab or Iranian but living in
the West.”
She has joined the newly-formed Tate
Committee for Middle Eastern and North
African Acquisitions, which was formed last
summer and whose members scour the world
for Middle Eastern art to exhibit at the London
gallery. Her other positions include working
with Art Dubai, an art fair now in its fourth
year and attracting participation from about 30
galleries, and Edge of Arabia, which works with
Saudi Arabian artists.
These two collaborations illustrate both
the challenges many artists in the Middle East
face and the rapid progress that the region's art
industry is making, she says.
Two of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent
artists are Abdulnasser Gharem, a major in the
Saudi army, and Ahmed Mater, a practising
doctor. Both have “day jobs” because, like many
Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia does not
yet have an “art infrastructure” of local galleries
and museums with fellowships that help to
support young artists, Princess Alia says.
“The primary concern now is to enable these
artists to immerse themselves in being artists
and foster their talent,” she says. “Censorship
and issues about what you can or cannot do are
something for the people there to discuss once
they’ve been able to create an art community.”
Further down the Arabian Peninsula in
Dubai, Art Dubai, along with the arrival of
Christie’s auctioneers in the emirate, the
Sharjah Biennale, Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island
project featuring the Louvre and Guggenheim
and Qatar’s “awe-inspiring” Museum of Islamic
Art are “forging the way” for art in the Middle
East, according to the princess.
“The success of Dubai will be pivotal in
the international side of the Middle Eastern
art market,” she says. “The Guggenheim
and Louvre will also define how artists and
non-governmental agencies participate in the
development of art and culture.”
These are exciting times to work in the
Gulf’s nascent art world, yet that’s not where
Princess Alia wants to be. Her aim is to involve
herself with non-profit groups helping develop
artists and art education across the Middle East
and, specifically, Libya.
“Libya has not yet fully participated in this
Middle Eastern art boom,” she says. “I would
love to be able to be the one to build that bridge.
It’s my dream.”
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Tony Kitous is an energetic man. He arrived
in London from his native Kabylie region
in Algeria 23 years ago aged 18 and by 22
had opened his first restaurant. By 2008 he
had become a successful restaurateur with a
string of stereotypically opulent 1001 Nights-
style Arabic restaurants – but he wanted to do
something different.
The result was Le Comptoir Libanias, a
bright and airy “mini-souk” where customers
can pop in to pick up a coffee, sit down to some
fresh mezze, take a wrap back to the office or
buy a tagine for dinner at home. While in any
of Le Comptoir's four branches, they can also
learn about and buy the spices used in Levantine
cooking and browse books about the region.
“Our customers are from everywhere and
from all walks of life and more than half of them
have never had Middle Eastern food before
because it has never been presented to them,”
he says.
London has a high profile in the Arab world.
It is one of its intellectual capitals, home to Arab
newspapers and satellite TV stations. And it is a
preferred holiday destination for the 1.5 million
Arabs estimated to visit each year, many during
the summer months to escape the stifling heat of
the Arabian peninsula.
Yet Arabs themselves – about 500,000
living in the UK – do not have a similarly high
profile in London compared to other groups
such as those from the Indian subcontinent,
whose restaurants are an integral part of British
everyday life.
This began to change with a surge of
enthusiasm for shisha smoking, but the anti-
smoking law of 2007, banning smoking in any
place of work, dealt the shisha a heavy blow by
forcing smokers out onto the pavement and into
the teeth of London’s appalling weather.
Yet for Kitous, light, tasty, fresh and healthy
Lebanese cuisine is the perfect vehicle for him
to create something universal while also using
“shaabi”, or popular, design elements that
remind him of his childhood in north Africa.
“What I love is seeing art students, nurses,
people from everywhere and also perhaps an
Arabic couple where the woman is veiled and
you can see that they are taking pride in what
they see. It’s a place where everyone feels like
they belong,” he says.
While Arabic food culture is emerging from
its Edgware Road origins, it remains concentrated
in West London, with the newest cluster to
LONDON
Story by Tom Spender
Pictures courtesy of café owners
Historically, Arabic cafés have never played
much of a part in London’s mainstream café
culture. The Arab café culture in areas such
as Edgware Road was by Arabs for Arabs.
Now entrepreneurs say this is set to change
with an explosion in popularity of modern,
cheap and tasty Levantine and North African
establishments, which could eclipse Italian and
even Indian dining in years to come. Arabic food
in London, they say, is an idea whose time has
come.
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148 brownbook magazine
be found in Shepherd’s Bush, a multicultural
community near the BBC’s Television Centre,
where recent Syrian and Lebanese arrivals have
opened supermarkets and restaurants.
Just around a corner is the Adams Café. A
truly multicultural establishment, it is run by
Frances and Abdel Bekraa, a British-Tunisian
couple who met in Paris and ran a hotel together
in Tunis before moving to London, buying the
traditional “greasy spoon” English café and
creating a unique experiment.
By day, the couple serve up traditional
English fare such as hash browns and
steaming tea to a loyal clientele of builders and
municipality workers. During the afternoon
their staff transform the place into a Tunisian
restaurant, switching to much softer lighting
including oil lamp-style candles, removing the
ketchup bottles from the formica tables and
putting table cloths over them and pulling out
the blackboard where the menu is chalked up to
reveal rows of drinks.
“I and my husband are completely different
and we enjoy meeting people form different
walks of life,” says Frances. “The original plan
was to fully convert the café into a restaurant,
but after 20 years we are still doing English
breakfast in the morning because it’s what the
area needs.”
These bright new recession-busting cafes
popularising Arabic food and culture exist
alongside more aspirational venues, such as Mo
Café, one of three interlinked venues in the heart
of London’s West End but designed to evoke a
small souk housed in a Moroccan Riad. Momo
Restaurant Familial was set up by restaurateur
Mourad Mazouz, who also runs Almaz, housed
in Dubai’s Harvey Nichols store in Mall of the
Emirates. Mamounia Lounge, in London’s posh
Mayfair district, is another place to see and be
seen of an evening.
Back in Edgware Road, traditional Arab
cafés such as Al Shishaw continue to dish out
strong Arabic coffee in exuberantly-decorated
suroundings to a loyal Arab clientele that packs
it to the rafters when Cairo’s notorious football
derby between Zamalek and Al Ahly is on.
But if Edgware Road is the heart of London’s
Arabic café scene, everywhere else in the city
represents opportunity for an idea whose time
has come.
There are now about
10,000 words in the
English language derived
from Arabic, including admiral
and lemon. The word café derives from
coffee, which itself has Arabic (qahwah)
and Turkish (kahvah) origins.
The first Arabs arrived in London in
the year 30AD with the Roman army.
Trading links between London and
the Middle East were established
around the 16th century and from
the early 20th century populations
of Arabs began to arrive in the city,
with a few Yemeni seamen settling
in the East End and Iraqis setting in
West London in the 1930s. In 1948,
large numbers of Palestinians
arrived in the wake of the “Nakba”
and the 1970s saw Lebanese fleeing
their country's civil war also come to
London. The 1970s also saw greater
numbers of newly wealthy Gulf
Arabs visiting London in the wake of
the oil crisis, when rising oil prices
began filling the coffers of once poor
states.
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Adams Café: 77 Askew Road
Run by Frances, an Englishwoman, and her husband Abdel Bekraa, the
Adams Café found fame in the 1990s economic slump as a place offering
tasty fare at recession-busting prices. Twenty years on and they are still as
popular as ever, offering three set menus ranging from £11.50 to £16.50
in price. Named in Time Out London's Top 100 eating and dining list for
2009.
Le Comptoir Libanais: The Balcony, Westfield Shopping Centre, 65
Wigmore Street, O2 Centre, 255 Finchley Road,
26 London Street,
New series of bright cafes offering healthy Middle Eastern food and drink,
delicatessen and a host of other funky Middle Eastern products in a mini-
souk, including books, hand-embroidered bags from Marrakech and mezze
plates and tea glasses. Named London’s Best £10 Meal and awarded the
runner-up prize for Best New Design by Time Out in 2009.
Mo Café: 25 Heddon Street
Mo Café describes itself as a Marrakesh-souk-meets-Parisian-troquet style
cafe and bazaar. All the furniture in the café is on offer for sale and there
are also books, CDs and antique jewels to be had. The cafe is attached to a
restaurant and a bar with live music and gets consistently good reviews.
Mamounia Lounge: 37a Curzon Street
Reviewers rave about Mamounia Lounge’s opulent décor, featuring raw
silk cushions, low-level seating as well as dimmed lighting, candles
and incense for chic lunches and exotic evenings. Attracts a well-heeled
clientele.
Al Shishaw: 51-53 Edgware Road
Huge Egyptian-style coffee shop on Edgware Road, the heart of London’s
Arabic community, with old-school decoration and a big screen for big
Arab football matches.
If you want an authentic shisha-smoking experience on the pavement of
London’s most Arabic street, this is where you’ll find it.
What’s the concept behind Le Comptoir Libanais?
I could breathe this idea in the air. The Chinese, Japanese
and Indians have all made their foods a fixture so why
not the Arabs? Now I'm feeding something like 20,000
people a week in my cafes. People are saying: Oh my
God, how come I've never had this kind of food before?
It's about making Arabic food and culture accessible to
the British High Street. We were actually late with this
idea. But I don’t consider myself to be a trendsetter. I
simply put something together that I thought I would
be proud of.
You’re from Algeria. Why choose Lebanese rather
than North African food for Le Comptoir?
Certain foods are meant to be eaten at home while others
are for eating out. Lebanese food is both. With Lebanese
food, you don't need to be familiar with it to understand
it and you can fall in love with it the first time you eat it.
It's also healthy and light and has a huge repertoire. In
the next 10-20 years I'm confident that Lebanese food
will become more popular than Indian food here.
What’s your next project?
I want to take the macho out of the shawarma, so I’m
launching Shawa, a shawarma place in the Westfield
Shopping Centre with an all-female team dressed in
pink. In the UK, the kebab has a bad reputation. It is
considered unhealthy and as something that men eat
after a night out. But I will offering organic chicken, fish
and duck shawarmas along with salads and pomegranate
seeds. It will be the kind of thing you can eat and then
go back to an important meeting. When I see that the
majority of the customers are female I will know I have
succeeded.
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