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ARTs / sTYLE / CULTURE fRom ThE ARAb woRLd And bEYond

issUE # 27 | AUTUmn 2014

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It saddens me to see

the region around us

turning to a darker

shade, so in this is-

sue we’ve gone out

of our way to bring

you a diverse palette

of people and places

from around the world,

including artist Laila

Shawa, originally from

Gaza, who tells us her

story; Maher Attar, Di-

rector of the Photo

Library of the office of

HH Sheikha Moza bint

Nasser, who shares

with us his experiences

and photography from

across Africa, Asia and

South America to visit

underprivileged chil-

dren; and an illustrated

reportage by Nick Rice

and George Butler from the Lebanese-Syrian border.

We’ve also hunted around the world to seek out a

wealth of hidden cultural treasures: art in nature, art in

hotels, restaurants, and even an airport. And for those

with wanderlust running through their veins, there’s a

very special pair of Louis Vuitton destination guides il-

lustrated by Italian comic book creator Lorenzo Mattotti

about Vietnam and Japanese Manga artist Jiro Tanigu-

chi about Venice. Continuing our love affair with Ven-

ice, we invited three of

our contributing critics

Hilary French, Maria

Christina Didero, and

Merlin Fulcher to share

their personal notes on

this year’s Architecture

Biennale, and later on

Maria Christina also

writes her review of

Design Miami/Basel.

Fabrice Bousteau,

Beaux Arts magazine

editor and curator of

the Indian Pavilion at

Beirut Art Fair joins the

issue with his inspira-

tions and thoughts

about art around the

globe. From Paris, Avril

Groom reveals the lat-

est helping of brilliance

from Boucheron, and

from Monaco, George Oliveira, a Brazilian lead for the

Monte-Carlo Ballet, shares his feelings about life as a

dancer. It’s a whirlwind of art, creativity and design that

we hope brings some colour and light to your world.

May you enjoy our multi-hued read for Autumn.

EDitoR’S LEttER

THE DISCOVERY ISSUE

10

contRiBUtoRS

Avril Groom is a highly-respected fashion and luxury journalist who writes for the FT How To Spend It maga-

zine among many other publications. Bringing her expertise from the world of watches and jewellery to this

issue, she reports from Paris Haute Couture Week on Boucheron’s new collection, where she interviewed

the house’s creative director at the Place Vendôme flagship store.

Sheyma Buali is an independent London-based writer and researcher. She is culture correspondent

for Asharq Al Awsat, editorial correspondent for Ibraaz and a regular contributor to numerous other publi-

cations. Her writing has also appeared in edited volumes and exhibition catalogues covering topics ranging

from historical archiving to cinema, political arts and Gulf urbanism. Previously, she worked for 10 years in TV,

film and documentary production in Boston, Los Angeles and her native Bahrain.

Nick Rice has lived and worked in nine countries and brings his broad life experience to his writing. With

more than 16 years’ experience as a journalist and editor, he has covered everything from A-list interviews

to humanitarian crises. Always eager to hit the road, in this issue Nick travels to Lebanon with charity Doc-

tors of The World to document the plight of Syrian refugees in the many camps along the Lebanese-Syrian

border and in the Bekaa Valley.

Merlin Fulcher is a writer, photographer and architectural journalist based in Battersea, London whose

work focuses on political interaction within changing built environments. He is competitions editor and inter-

national news writer on The Architects’ Journal and has contributed to The Architectural Review, New Civil

Engineer, Construction News and London Evening Standard. He is also programme director at Platform One

Gallery – a community art project within Wandsworth Common train station which hosts exhibitions on trans-

port and architecture. Several of his poems, including a collection on regeneration in the British Midlands

titled ‘Modern Air’ – have been published by the Different Skies experimental writing platform.

Hilary French studied architecture at the AA and history of architecture at the Bartlett. After many years in

architecture and design practice, in Paris and London, she started teaching and spent several years as Head

of the School of Architecture & Design at the Royal College of Art in London. She has published several

books on housing design and the architecture of the everyday and is a regular contributor to architecture

and design journals.

George Butler is an artist and illustrator specialising in travel and current affairs. His drawings, done in

situ around the world, are in pen, ink and watercolour. His work has appeared in The Times, the Guardian,

Der Spiegel, and NPR, and has been covered on the BBC World News, BBC World Service, CNN twice, Al

Arabiya and Monocle Radio. He has won the V&A Illustration Awards and an International Media Award.

This October he will have a solo show in London. Here we publish his drawings from refugee camps on

the Syrian border.

Maria Cristina Didero is an independent design curator and journalist contributing to Domus, Vogue Casa,

Flair, Loft, and Apartamento. She has been in charge of the Vitra Design Museum for Italy for more than 10

years and sits on the board of Veritas auction house in Lisbon, is a patron of Design Days Dubai, and curates

Design Talks for Miart Milan. Last year she presented Philippe Malouin during the Milan Design Week, Thick

As A Brick by kuehnmalvezzi at Gio Marconi Gallery, and The System Of Objects at DESTE Foundation. She

has been Director of Fondazione Bisazza since 2011. Maria Cristina reviews Design Miami/Basel for us and

shares her thoughts on six exhibits at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

12

contEntS

16 In COnVERSaTIOn wITH LaILa SHawa26 THE LIfE Of a baLLET DanCER

28 ILLUSTRaTIng SYRIan REfUgEE CampS In LEbanOn

36 a pHOTOgRapHER’S jOURnEY wITH maHER aTTaR

42 THE anaTOmY Of a SpEakER

44 TImELESS jEwELS: RIngS THROUgH HISTORY

46 THE LUxURY EDIT

48 bOUCHEROn’S nEw bIEnnaLE COLLECTIOn

52 THIS YEaR’S SERpEnTInE paVILIOn bY SmILjan RaDIC

56 pOp aRT RECOnSIDERED In maDRID

64 an InTERVIEw wITH fabRICE bOUSTEaU

56 16

EDITORIaL maSTHEaD

Editor-in-ChiefRima Nasser

EditorKasia Maciejowska

DesignerGenia Kodash

Pictures EditorRowina Bou Harb

In-house writerJohn Ovans

In-house illustratorYasmina Nysten

Contributing WritersIndia StoughtonAnya Stafford

Nour HarbLucy KnightDan Hilton

Roman Sit. clairAlberto Mucci

Editorial [email protected]

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67 SpECIaL SECTIOn CURaTED bY fabRICE bOUSTEaU84 a HISTORY Of mODERn aRab aRCHITECTURE

91 VEnICE aRCHITECTURE bIEnnaLE 2014

104 LOUIS VUITTOn gOES TRaVELLIng

110 wHaT’S nEw In mIamI

114 DESIgn mIamI baSEL In REVIEw

122 bRazIL’S fanTaSY aRT paRk InHOTIm

129 VOLCanO ExTRaVaganza: aRT fEST On STROmbOLI

134 HOTEL aRT COLLECTIOnS

142 pUbLIC aRT HamaD InTERnaTIOnaL aIRpORT

146 fInE DInIng wITH fInE aRT

154 a pEEk InTO THE DIaRY Of nICHOLaS CHRISOSTOmOU

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contEntS

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16

In COnVERSaTIOn wITHLaILa SHawa

Gaza-born artist and London resident since 1988, Laila shawa has become known for her directly political works spun with humour and delivered in disarmingly vivid colours. the power of her mixed media canvases, photographic screen prints and bricolage sculptures comes from their killer combination of strong critical

convictions communicated through deceptively sweet eye-candy. Shawa can be called Palestine’s first pop artist. She is a descendant of one of the oldest Palestinian landowning families and daughter of former-mayor of Gaza, Rashad al-Shawa. today, her work tragically reaches new levels of resonance amid the atrocities

committed by israel in 2014. in 2009 she produced a series in direct response to the killing of children in israel’s three-week airstrike called cast Lead, entitled the same, while her 2012 series the other Side of Paradise was based on female Palestinian

suicide bombers. Exhibited around the globe, her work is held in collections including the national Galleries of Jordan and Malaysia, the national Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.c., the Ashmolean Museum, oxford, and the British Museum. Here Bahraini writer in London sheyma buali visits her at home for Selections.

Laila Shawa by Inzajeano Latif

18

Meeting at her West London apartment, I find that

Laila Shawa’s salon resembles her pictures: bright-

ly coloured objects and art books fill up an elegant

room. In the centre, her television is tuned to Al-

Jazeera as it narrates the ongoing assault on Gaza

at high volume. Here in her home we spoke about

her experience, her artistic testimony, and the dual-

istically crippling and positive influence that politics

has had on her life and career.

Sheyma Buali: You have moved between Gaza,

Cairo, Beirut, Rome, London and so on. Yet you are

always being considered a Palestinian artist. How

do you take that?

Laila Shawa: Well I hope I am a well-rounded per-

son, having taken things from all of these places. My

sister is now in Gaza, my son is in Vermont, and I’m

here. I cannot claim to be just one thing; I can’t say I

am ‘a Palestinian’. I have lived more in other places

than in my own country. I was born in Gaza and my

notion of Palestine is based on a reality that I myself

have lived. But I know people who are born to par-

ents who left and relate strongly to Palestine; that’s

different from me. Being Palestinian is also different

from simply emigrating because you have lost your

home to someone else. Sometimes I think, ‘why the

hell am I bothered?’ But I can’t ignore it, I am from

there and we have too many connecting tentacles.Fashionista terrorista 150x200cm, 2010

“bEIng paLESTInIan IS aLSO DIffEREnT fROm SImpLY EmIgRaTIng bECaUSE YOU HaVE LOST YOUR HOmE TO SOmEOnE ELSE”

20

SB: As someone whose work consistently touches

on the social and the political, you have noted in the

past the difficulty of using art to address politics. Is

that something that is getting easier for you?

LS: Sometimes it is, but I have the fear that one’s work

can start getting pedantic and too simplistic. That wor-

ries me. You can get trapped and therefore your stan-

dards sort of go down. I don’t think art has to express

anything really, but it just so happens that at a certain

point in your growth you can’t avoid the situation you

are living in so it affects the work you do.

SB: How did you begin to become an artist?

LS: I saw a painting at school when I was seven that

mesmerized me. I later found out it was Van Gogh’s

Chair. It did something to me. Then when I was four-

teen, I saw a film about Goya that really affected me.

I drew well, but that was the extent of it. Eventually

I went to university in Cairo. I was studying Political

Science and I hated it. One day I was having lunch

with my father and a friend of his, an Italian archi-

tect based in Egypt. My father asked me how I liked

school, and I told him. My father’s friend turned to

me and said, ‘But you draw so well why don’t you

study art? I teach at the Leonardo Da Vinci College in

Cairo, I can get you in.’ My father agreed, so I went. A

year later I got a scholarship to the Academy of Fine

Art in Rome. I did summer courses in Austria with the

painter Oskar Kokoschka. And now here we are.

SB: By now you have also gone into digital and

video art as well as sculptures using found objects.

How did your style shift from one media to the next?

LS: I believe that you have to shift with the times. I

don’t think I have done as much as I should have.

My personal life has limited me from doing various

things. But I don’t believe we should be restricted

to one method of expressing ourselves. Picasso’s

work, for instance, there wasn’t anything he didn’t

use. We live in the 21st century, surrounded by tech-

nology and so much. We can use techniques used

500 years ago but it is important to also go with to-

day’s world and use it. You can’t get stuck.

SB: You have a lot of dichotomies in your work. You

use humour to address serious ideas, today this has

merged towards a Pop style. You also have the guns

you made for Peace One Day, which one can say

merge violence and beauty. How have these dichot-

omies helped in communicating your ideas?

LS: Yes, the Pop style is also meant to be humorous,

using a more graphic element. But the guns have had a

very weird dichotomy for me, as an artist. I recently had

around five pieces at the Beirut Exhibition Center for an

exhibition called Bridge to Palestine. This includes one

of the guns though the guns have nothing to do with

Palestine and it gives a completely wrong message.

Peace One Day is an anti-arms industry organization,

the guns are an anti-gun statement. We were given

Target wall of Gaza 1, 1992, Silk Screen on canvas, 100 x 150 cm, Edition of 3, Jordan national gallery, Shoman Foundation and private collection.

40 Degrees Celcius Walls of Gaza 1, 1992, Silk Screen on Canvas, 100 x 150 cm, Edition of 3, Jordan national gallery, Shoman Foundation and private collection.

22

“wE wERE gIVEn REaL kaLaSHnIkOVS. THEY aRE THE mOST COmmOn gUnS In THE wORLD anD YOU fInD pEOpLE CaRRYIng THEm wHEREVER THERE IS COnfLICT”

23

“I HaD THE IDEa TO COVER THEm In bUTTERfLIES wHEn I REaD THaT In mYTHOLOgY bUTTERfLIES REpRESEnT THE SOULS Of THE DEaD. THIS pIECE HaS nOTHIng TO DO wITH paLESTInE”

top: Where Souls Dwell V, 35 x 87 x 14cm, 2013, Steel, wood, Swarovski crystals, rhinestones and feathers. Photo Jonathan Greet

above: Where Souls Dwell IV, 2013, Steel, wood, Swarovski crystals, rhinestones and feathers. Photo Jonathan Greet

24

Caravan Serai (from the series Desert Cities), 120x120cm, printing inks, oils, gold and silver leaf on canvas, 1972/3. Collection: HE Khalil Al Khalil, Beirut, Lebanon

Trapped III, 2011, photography and mixed media on

canvas, 100 x 110cm

25

real Kalashnikovs. They are the most common guns

in the world, they are produced very cheaply. You find

people carrying them wherever there is conflict. I had

the idea to cover them in butterflies when I read that in

mythology butterflies represent the souls of the dead.

And usually the souls return to the location where they

were killed. In this instance it is the gun. It ended up

being a beautiful piece, at the exhibition it became the

centerpiece of the show but it does not represent what

I think of what is happening in Palestine. Many people

misunderstood it. One collector asked me how I, as a

Palestinian, could take a symbol of resistance and turn

it into this. He called me a defeatist, but this piece has

nothing to do with Palestine. This is my fear, when con-

text is being created for an exhibition, it is the worst

thing to be taken out of context and have your piece

give the wrong message.

SB: What would you say to the current generation

of documentary political artists?

LS: They have to be very accurate in relaying, re-

counting and representing history. You have to know

what you are doing and not just give haphazard facts.

But then again all experiences are different, and any-

one’s interpretation is acceptable.

SB: What do you have coming up next?

LS: I have an exhibition coming up in February in

Kuwait, at Contemporary Art Platform. We’ve been

talking about it for a few months. But now the situ-

ation that has been going on all over the place has

changed things. This upheaval affects productiv-

ity and it affects me in a big way. Not always in a

positive way. I tend to freeze and absorb things,

and then something happens, something comes

up. The problem actually is that one is expected to

produce a certain type of work and that limits your

imagination and your head. It shouldn’t but it does

happen sometimes.

Laila Shawa, 2012. By Malcolm Crowthers

26

Talking with George Oliveira, it strikes me that ballet

is something of a paradox: the grace, elegance, and

weightlessness is a conceit achieved by months of

brutal training and years of excruciating pain. “In the

profession you know you will have to deal with a lot

of pain,” the Brazilian dancer admits. “And sometimes

you wake up, and you just feel like… crap.”

Bruised, battered and with thighs that could crush your

head, ballet dancers, infamously, know how to take it

on the chin. Oliveira’s own path to his current career

with the Monte-Carlo Ballet began at the age of seven

in Brazil, where after taking an interest in gymnas-

tics, his mother suggested he might like ballet. Now,

he travels all over the world performing everywhere

from Tokyo, China and Colombia, to Dubai, Istanbul

and Spain. “It’s hardcore,” he says. “You live just for the

company. It’s really hard to have a real life when you

travel that much.”

‘Stress’ is a word that Oliveira continually returns to

throughout our conversation. When I make the quint-

essential lowbrow ballet reference to psychological

thriller Black Swan, he says that it’s not so far off real-

ity – apart from that whole wings-sprouting bit – so

you’d be forgiven for wondering why he does it to

himself. That is, until, he starts talking about the actual

dancing, when his face cracks into a dreamy smile.

“I think we are very lucky to do what we love to,” he

professes. “To have the opportunity to have a real

career as a dancer is beautiful.” Since joining the

Monte-Carlo Ballet in 2004, Oliveira has danced in

traditionalist productions such as Romeo and Juliet,

and Cinderella (a Prince’s Friend), but explains that

he enjoys working with young, progressive choreog-

raphers, as much as he does the inspirational direc-

tor, Jean-Christophe Maillot.

The physicality of ballet is matched, apparently, by its

regularity: Oliveira trains six days a week, and on his

day off, he heads to one place: the beach, where sou-

bresauts can be replaced with a sun lounger, if only for

a day. One gets the impression that Oliveira could only

rest up for so long though, and he counts himself lucky

to thrive in an intensely pressurized environment, un-

like many of his friends who gave up ballet. As with

any job, it’s about the trade-off: “You’re doing what you

love to do,” he says simply. “It’s a sacrifice, but at the

same time, it’s not”.

THE LIfE Of a baLLET DanCER

George oliveira, the Brazilian dancer with the Monte-carlo Ballet, explains that life at the barre is high-stress, high-reward

b y J o h n O v a n s

“TO HaVE THE OppORTUnITY TO HaVE a REaL CaREER aS a DanCER IS bEaUTIfUL”

28

bETwEEn TwO LakES Of fIRE

More than 25 per cent of Lebanon’s population are syrians who have fled the civil war. the initial wave of refugees found rented accommodation and many Lebanese families took people in, but as numbers soared sprawling camps emerged. now more than a million Syrian refugees struggle for subsistence while the country buckles. Hosted by humanitarian health organisation Doctors of the World, journalist nick Rice travels with reportage illustrator George butler to meet refugees in the camps of the Bekaa Valley,

a region with divided allegiances.

b y N i c k R i c e

Ahmed Muhammad decided to leave his home in Syria

when a bomb exploded on his land, killing two cows

and narrowly missing his mother and children. “I can

never forget this day – 2nd May 2013 – it was a Thurs-

day, it was the day my whole life changed,” said Muham-

mad, 52, a former apricot farmer from Josiyeh, Syria.

“I was cultivating what was left of the apricots and a

bomb fell right behind me” Muhammad’s elderly moth-

er interjected, “I didn’t know what was happening, I

only saw dust and then my first thought was about the

children. I saw one of my granddaughters ahead of

me… she was traumatised but not hurt. I yelled at her

‘Where are your sisters?’ Then another bomb landed

and the cows died.” Muhammad and the six members

of his family were fortunate to escape to Lebanon and

now live on scrubland in a low-framed tent made of

empty burlap sacks.

Barrel-chested and surprisingly quick to smile, Mu-

hammad gazed at the beige mountain range just a

couple of kilometres away. He explained that his old

life was just over the other side from where we sat in

El Qaa, minutes from the Syrian border. But the large

farmhouse, 35 cows, fruit orchard, Fiat tractor and

Mazda truck that he proudly shows on his phone, are

all gone.

“I waS CULTIVaTIng wHaT waS LEfT Of THE apRICOTS anD a bOmb fELL RIgHT bEHInD mE.

THEn anOTHER bOmb fELL anD THE COwS DIED”

Old Lady, George Butler

29

30

DESpITE THE wRETCHED ORDEaL faCIng THE REfUgEES EaCH wakIng DaY, wE wERE wELCOmED wITH DIgnITY anD waRmTH

Clinic 1, George Butler

31

Not all of Muhammad’s family are with him in Leba-

non. His only son, 23, is a member of the Syrian Army.

Bashar al-Assad’s forces have decimated Josiyeh and

scores of other cities with barrels full of TNT and metal

shards. Responding to the notion that his own son

could have been part of the indiscriminate offensive

that forced his family to flee, a pall of despair is cast

over Muhammad’s face. “My son – and the sons of

others – are the ones who made us leave. They have

to do this soldier thing… we can’t do anything about it.

I’m angry and unhappy but what can I do?”

As he heaves out the words the light in his eyes vis-

ibly dulls. “My son believes in what he is doing and he

doesn’t feel guilty or bad that he might hurt his family.

When I asked him ‘What if you hit us?’ he replied, ‘You,

the people living in the region, are responsible for the

spread of the rebels… so you have to take the conse-

quences. You are guilty for the rebels invading. I am

the one saving the country.’ He paused and looked

at us with incredulity, then added, “I am between two

lakes of fire: I don’t want to lose my son but he is

against us.”

The myriad complexities of this war are found in these

survivors’ stories. Muhammad’s family are a drop in a

deluge of refugees that have escaped the murderous

civil war in Syria, now into its fourth year. The UN has

registered more than a million refugees in Lebanon

and Syrians now account for more than a quarter of

the population. The influx is putting the host nation’s

infrastructure and resources under immense pressure

and social tensions are high. In a country with high un-

employment and a long history of instability, the refu-

gee crisis is an added strain.

The initial wave of refugees found rented accommo-

dation and many Lebanese families took people in,

but as numbers soared sprawling camps emerged

around the Bekaa Valley. Many refugees now com-

plain of discrimination and a desperate situation of no

work, no funds, and little hope. In turn, Lebanese com-

munities feel swamped and with the sense of unease,

the potential for violence lurks.

Take into account Syria occupied Lebanon for 29

years, only fully withdrawing on April 30, 2005, follow-

ing allegations of Syrian involvement in the assassi-

nation of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,

and it’s not hard to appreciate why some Lebanese

struggle with magnanimity. But refugees are unargu-

ably blameless – they have fled for their lives, but the

social fabric is fraying.

The Bekaa Valley region has been severely destabi-

lised and many towns are suffering frequent casualties

over conflicting Syrian allegiances. The towns of Arsal

and Labweh are a case in point. Arsal is a small Sunni

town known to be staunchly anti-Assad, with rebel fight-

ers occupying the surrounding hills. Nearby Labweh is

a predominantly Shi’ite town and a Hezbollah strong-

hold. In protest to the material and military support giv-

en to Assad’s regime by Hezbollah, rebel factions have

launched rockets and suicide attacks against Labweh.

“I am bETwEEn TwO LakES Of fIRE: I DOn’T wanT TO LOSE mY SOn bUT HE IS agaInST US”

32

THERE mUST bE HOpE THaT THE COmpLEx TapESTRY Of EVEnTS YET TO pLaY OUT wILL nOT bE aS bLOOD-SOakED aS pROpHECY

anD CIRCUmSTanCE pORTEnDS

33

By contrast, informal Hezbollah checkpoints in Labweh

have deliberately prevented sick or wounded patients

from leaving Arsal to seek medical attention in other

areas. Reports state that armed men, sometimes with

Hezbollah armbands, delayed ambulances and in

some cases subjected the patients inside to beatings.

For a town with limited medical facilities that hosts tens

of thousands of Syrian refugees, such incidents are

intensely unnerving.

In an attempt to regain some control throughout the

Bekaa Valley the Lebanese government launched a

military security plan in the region on 1st April this year.

Amidst all the increased armaments and volatility, hun-

dreds of thousands of families are fighting just to get by.

I spent eight days visiting refugee camps and settle-

ments with the renowned reportage illustrator George

Butler. His emotive paintings offer an alternative to the

shocking images captured by photographers; a dif-

ferent window onto this epic catastrophe. We were

hosted by the international humanitarian health organ-

isation Doctors of the World (Médecins du Monde).

Located in Lebanon since May 2012, Doctors of the

World work with local partner organisations to provide

comprehensive healthcare services to Syrian refu-

gees and vulnerable Lebanese.

All the individuals and families we met complained of

similar problems: a desperate need for food, clean

water and basic hygiene. Access to medical treatment

was also a huge issue, as was the desire to improve

their situation by any possible increment. The harsh

Mobile Clinic, George Butler

34

Box of Belongings, George Butler

35

winter caused a blight of respiratory infections and as

the season changes a surge in gastrointestinal prob-

lems are expected alongside reproductive health is-

sues and hygiene concerns.

As we toured the countryside around El Qaa we were

greeted by an elderly woman sitting outside a home-

made tent. Muharra Bazar had been living on the edge

of a small field with her adult son and two daughters

since February 2012. She left the family home in Al-

Qusayr, Syria, “when the bullets were falling like rain”.

The day a bullet passed right in front of her daughters

nose was when the family

packed up and embarked

on the dangerous journey

over the mountains and

into El Qaa, Lebanon.

They now work in the small

field to cover rent and the

landowner provides food

and mattresses. Bazar ex-

plained how she couldn’t

walk and needed medica-

tion she could only get in

Syria. Doctors of the World were able to start proceed-

ings to secure her the correct equivalent medicine and

look into the provision of a wheelchair. Her son lingered

close by as we talked, he was friendly but seemed dis-

tinctly forlorn. His mother explained he had been en-

gaged when they arrived in Lebanon but they had no-

where to stay and his fiancé left him to marry someone

who had a tent. Gesturing around their basic campsite

Mrs Bazar said, “It’s alright to live like this for two years,

but we want to feel some progress. Each day we wake

up and hope that in 10 years we’ll be able to go back.

This is the hope that sustains us.”

Despite the wretched ordeal facing the refugees

each waking day, we were welcomed with dignity and

warmth wherever we went. Everyone shared heart-

breaking stories and a profound yearning to return to

Syria. But who can say when that might be possible

and is 10 years a realistic timeframe?

Reality in today’s Syria comprises a remorseless and

obdurate dictatorship, a tangled web of combatants

driven by religious sectarianism, pro-democracy prin-

ciples or even the fulfilment of 7th Century apocalyptic

prophecy, and a grieving population of everyday civil-

ians struggling to survive.

Nobody can predict how

long this war will go on but

sustained international hu-

manitarian aid is vital. There

must be hope that the com-

plex tapestry of events yet to

play out will not be as blood-

soaked as prophecy and cir-

cumstance portends.

“IT’S aLRIgHT TO LIVE LIkE THIS fOR TwO YEaRS, bUT wE wanT TO fEEL SOmE pROgRESS. EaCH DaY wE wakE Up anD HOpE THaT In 10 YEaRS wE’LL bE abLE TO gO baCk. THIS IS THE HOpE THaT SUSTaInS US”

Clock 1, George Butler

CHaLLEngES anD REaLITY

A new book of photography by maher Attar highlights the struggle for education across four continents


37

39

Here are some facts about global education: approxi-

mately 57 million children at primary school-level are

currently not being formally educated. Around 54%

of these children are girls, and 24 million have a dis-

ability. Such enormous, distressing statistics are diffi-

cult to grasp, but a new series of photographs by the

renowned photo-reporter Maher Attar, documenting

education across four continents, ascribes faces to

the figures.

Attar is currently the Director of the Photo Library in the

office of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in Qatar, the

founder and driving force behind Educate A Child, the

global initiative supporting more than 25 educational

projects across Africa, Asia, South America and the

Middle East. EAC is aiming to reduce the number of

children not in school by 2015, seeking to provide them

with a fundamental right: the opportunity to learn. The

work of the foundation resonated deeply with Attar, and

he subsequently spent four months travelling across In-

dia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Haiti, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Sudan

and Lebanon to capture on film the plight of children in

poverty-stricken, and often very remote, regions.

“mY STYLE Of pHOTOgRapHY, THEY CaLL mE a SpY. bUT wHaT I LIkE TO DO IS mORE [TO DO wITH] TESTImOnY. I LIkE TO bE a wITnESS, nOT aS a pHOTOgRapHER. I

LET pEOpLE fORgET mE, anD THIS IS HOw I CaTCH THE ImagE”

“In each country you have thousands of stories and

mentalities,” Attar says, attesting to the scale of the

problems and obstacles being faced, whether in the

cactus forests of Haiti, the slums of India or refugee

camps in Lebanon. With this in mind came the name of

the exhibition and forthcoming book, Challenges and

Reality. The images themselves are inevitably arrest-

ing, with the ‘Challenges’ delineated sometimes quite

literally by subjects such as a young Indian girl with no

arms, writing with her feet - an individual who Attar was

particularly moved by - or children in Kenya who trav-

elled more than 30 kilometres to school. The ‘Reality’,

depressingly, is that nothing appears to be shifting,

although the work of the EAC hopes to change that.

opposite page bottom: KENYA – TANA RIVER COUNTYThe school day comes to a close in the late afternoon. Using plastic bags as satchels, the pupils of the Hululu school, some of them barefoot, make their way home. Every day they walk for miles for the right to learn.

opposite page top: CÓTE D’IVOIRE - DUÉKOUÉ CAMPAGNE116 students are squeezed into the classroom in Duékoué village, 460km from Abdjan.

40

“I fEEL THaT wE SHOULD aLL paRTICIpaTE In pRObLEmS LIkE THIS SOmEHOw anD mY paRTICIpaTIOn IS TO SHOw In a bOOk, TO THE wORLD, THE nEEDS Of THESE CHILDREn”

In parallel with the concrete objectives of the EAC – en-

abling millions to complete a full course of primary educa-

tion through cost-effective and sustainable solutions – At-

tar is able to offer the direct and powerful support of visual

impact to raise awareness, citing the work of Brazilian pho-

tographer Sebastião Salgado, most famous for his social

documentary photographs in Third World nations, as par-

ticular inspiration. He says himself that conclusions are diffi-

cult to draw about how to tackle an issue so entrenched in

crippling poverty, but believes that in such countries where

education is being denied, “the important thing is to edu-

cate more people who believe in such a process.”

As a former war photographer, Attar was well-positioned to

deal with an issue as emotionally galling as this one. “When

I work with a Leica camera, it’s a very silent camera – you

don’t hear it,” he says. “My style of photography, they call

me a spy. But what I like to do is more [to do with] testimony.

I like to be a witness, not as a photographer. I let people

forget me, and this is how I catch the image.” Emotional

disengagement is something strongly associated with suc-

cessful reportage, but Attar feels strongly aware of his abil-

ity both as a photoreporter and individual, to effect change.

“I feel that we should all participate in problems like this

somehow,” he says. “And my participation is to show in a

book, to the world, the needs of these children.”

The book, ‘Challenges and Reality’, published by Art & Privilège Editions,

will be out in September 2015, the same month the ECA hopes to hit its

target of 10 million more children back in primary school education. The

book will be followed by an international photo exhibition.

opposite page: KENYA – KAJIADO COUNTYA classroom at the Onirie School run by the Masaï tribe.

42

anaTOmY Of a SpEakERcult Danish home tech brand bang & olufsen shares the original sketches for its signature column speaker with Selections. the beolab 18, designed in 2013, takes its heritage from the studio’s ground-breaking 1992 design the Beolab 6000, created for the brand by

David Lewis, and now held in the permanent collection at the MoMA new York.

18.21SEPT

UNSEENAMSTERDAM

PARISPHOTO

13.16NOV

FOR FUTUREREFERENCE

YANN MINGARDROBERT ZHAO RENHUIJULES SPINATSCHREGINE PETERSENLINA HASHIMEMINE GOZDE SEVIM FARDIN WAHEZI

© Robert Zhao Renhuicriticalzoologists.org

Square Apple, 2013, from the series: A Guide

to the Flora and Fauna of the World.

121cm x 84 cm, Ed. 5

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East Wing . Limestone House, DIFC, Dubai / info@east-wing,org / +971505533879

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121cm x 84 cm, Ed. 5



18.21SEPT

UNSEENAMSTERDAM

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13.16NOV

FOR FUTUREREFERENCE





121cm x 84 cm, Ed. 5



RIngS THROUgH TImE

the Cycles of Life exhibition celebrates the symbolism and ceremony of rings throughout history. the benjamin Zucker family Collection is presenting for sale 40 beautiful pieces of great beauty and craftsmanship at Enluminures new York this Autumn. Zucker bought his first ring in 1969; only four decades later his collection was described by jewellery historian Diana Scarisbrick as, “unrivalled anywhere, even by de beers.” Finger rings are the only type of jewellery that has been worn continuously throughout the ages and by all civilisations. organised thematically, the exhibition includes signet rings ranging from the 3rd-17th centuries; Ancient Roman friendship and engagement rings; medieval Posy rings; Renaissance and baroque wedding rings; Jewish marriage rings from the 17th-19th centuries, and memorial and death’s head memento mori rings from the same period. the show details how, like fine art, these rings illuminate the culture of their time. According to Zucker, “if you follow the rings, they act like compasses leading you to lots of intellectual discoveries.” Here we look at a handful of highlights from this stunning collection.

b y N o u r H a r b

1

2

3

4

5

6

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45

7. Gold ring with two snakes from the 3rd-century Roman Empire

8. Ring with cabochon garnets and jade from the 3rd or 4th-century Roman Empire

9. Gold signet ring with merchant’s mark and German initials from the 16th century

10. Ruby and enameled gold ring from c.1650

11. Gold ring with hand holding a heart signed Castellani from Italy c.1860-1870

12. Mourning ring of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas from England 1815

1. De Clerq diamond ring from the 3rd or 4th-century Roman Empire

2. Jewish wedding ring with miniature building from 19th-century Central or Western Europe

3. Medieval sapphire gold ring from 14th-century Italy

4. Memento Mori ring with enamel and diamonds from 17th or 18th-century England

5. Perpetual calendar ring from c.1830 England

6. Rothschild diamond, ruby and enamel gimmel ring from 16th or 17th-century Germany

7

8

9

10

11

12

46

tHE LUXURY EDitSelections goes shopping...

Annie Liebovitz, art book of portrait photography with four

available covers featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Patti Smith,

David Byrne, Kieth Haring; shown here on custom-

made tripod display stand designed by Marc Newson.

Published by Taschen

Ankle boot by Chanel, Pre-fall 2014

Cheval d’Orient watch by Hermès

Marrakech Intense, the new fragrance by Aesop

Ultra-light aluminium gentleman’s bicycle with

inbuilt solar-powered lights by Vanmoof

47

Dior VIII ceramic and metallic blue strap, 33mm, front

Evening gloves by Dior, Autumn/Winter 2014

Monarch Fire hand-knotted silk rug by

Alexander McQueen for The Rug Company

Dangerous Liaison handbag by Charlotte Olympia, Pre-fall 2014

Figurines by Paul Smith for LLadro

48

boucheron brings its illustrious past into the light with its new biennale collection as creative director Claire Choisne leads

a new phase in the house’s work that merges its grand history of bejewelling the Russian tsars and indian

Maharajahs with oriental inspiration from Persia, china and Japan through her

subtle eye for the present

REfLECTIOnS Of THE ORIEnT

b y A v r i l G r o o m

49

When Boucheron last year launched a piece made

from rock crystal with diamonds floating magically in-

side it could not have known what an avalanche it was

starting. In this Biennale year, with so many jewellery

houses at the top of their game, rock crystal is a re-

curring and novel theme. Yet for Boucheron it comes,

like so much of the house’s inspiration, direct from its

archives. Rock crystal was a favourite material in the

Art Deco era, to give light-looking volume to larger

pieces such as cuffs, and today’s technology allows it

to be used in breathtaking ways.

No one knows this better than Claire Choisne, Bouch-

eron’s talented creative director, presenting her

second Biennale collection. She worked with highly

respected creative jewellery Lorenz Bäumer, who

launched Louis Vuitton’s high jewellery collection

clearly based on the brand’s DNA, and she knows

how to connect the new with a historic brand’s past.

And in Boucheron’s case, what a past. It already had

links with Imperial Russia in the late nineteenth cen-

tury, setting up in Moscow in 1897, was heavily inspired

by the Orientalisme movement at the turn of the twen-

tieth century, was a favoured jeweller of the Mahara-

jahs, who brought caskets of gems to Paris to be reset

in the 1920s, and in 1930 Louis Boucheron spent a

year assessing the royal treasures of Persia.

Such a heritage has led Choisne to create Rêves

d’Ailleurs (dreams of faraway places), a collec-

tion in homage to five exotic lands but packed with

Boucheron symbols and including feats of the jewel-

ler’s art in rock crystal, sapphires, diamonds and some

prized coloured stones. It represents, she says, “a

new phase of our work on Boucheron’s iconic motifs

and ethos. It reflects the soul of the maison - emotion-

filled creations, gems beyond compare, and the bold

creativity and workmanship that I believe characterise

the house.” The unique pieces to be unveiled at the

opposite page: Ispahan necklace, 2014, by Boucheron

above:Tiara in platinum setwith diamonds, 1904, by Boucheron

50 Nymphea braceletTresor de Perse ring

Ispahan earringsIndian Palace ring

51

LOUIS bOUCHEROn bECamE ObSESSED wITH THE bLUE Of pERSIan TILES DURIng HIS 1930 VISIT, anD ISpaHan REfLECTS THIS wITH SUpERLaTIVE wORkmanSHIp

Grand Palais from 11th September, are indeed astonish-

ing, none more so than Ricochet, a necklace inspired

by the diminishing circles left by a skimmed pebble,

on the calm water of a classic Japanese drawing. Skil-

fully curved plates of rock crystal are set and edged

with diamonds, while the main necklace is set with

peerless sapphires and one extraordinary cabochon

pendant. Its companion necklace, Rivage, is equally

amazing, modelled on the Vague (wave) tiara of 1910

that was inspired by Hokusai’s famous wave drawings

- a wave of deep blue, round sapphires crowned with

diamond spray - a total of 533 stones.

Louis Boucheron became obsessed with the blue

of Persian tiles during his 1930 visit, and Ispahan re-

flects this with superlative workmanship - a necklace

of rock crystal faceted like diamonds, diamonds cut

as baguettes, two enormous sapphire cabochons and

delicate chalcedonies - over 1000 hours of work in

all. Equally wondrous is the Calligraphique necklace,

inspired by the pear-shaped brushstrokes of Chinese

calligraphy, and divided exactly between faceted,

pear-shaped rock crystal and pavé diamonds (reflect-

ing Boucheron’s classic serpent bohème motif ), or

the beautifully flattering Splendeur de Russie, based

on an archive tiara, with two diamond sprays, total-

ling forty carats, gently caressing the head or neck,

as it can sensibly be worn as a necklace too. And

nothing shows Boucheron’s history better than the

seventeenth century, 188.79 carat Colombian emer-

ald, carved by the Indian Moghuls and now set in a

restrained, tasselled, diamond necklace that comple-

ments its beauty. Inspiration indeed, and beautifully

interpreted by Choisne’s talent.

above:8 shaped sweet box, decorated with Persian style enamels, with top made in pierced silver, 1884, by Boucheron

top:Brooch in rock crystal and grey gold set with an engraved jade and diamonds, 1934, by Boucheron

53

aLIEn On THE Lawn

smiljan Radić’s summer Pavilion for the Serpentine Galleries brings an organic-looking shell to London’s Hyde Park that appears simultaneously primitive and like

something has landed from outer space

b y S h e y m a B u a l i

53

54

Chilean architect Smiljan Radić’s work has been re-

ferred to as ‘fragile constructions’ because of its use

of leftover material, and trees and rocks. His design

for the Serpentine Galleries’ 2014 summer pavilion

fits this description perfectly. The fragility of this struc-

ture appears in the plastic, fibreglass, papier-mâché

and timber, which are held up by structural steel. “The

‘fragile constructions’ use things and objects that can

be found nearby: plastic, stone, tin, whatever else is

available,” Radić explains.

Julia Peyton-Jones, the Serpentine’s co-director,

amusedly noted, “The pavilion has been described

as an egg, a donut, and something that fell from the

sky - and that has only been in the first three days of

it being open.” And indeed, everyone who has com-

mented on it has used similarly opposing adjectives to

describe it. Sitting in the main, raised level of the do-

nut-shaped cocoon, one can look out of the openings

carved into the walls to the freshly laid grass and huge

flat boulders beneath the structure. Vertically placed

giant rocks also serve as the stands upon which the

cylinder is placed. On one hand, it feels and looks like

we’re sitting in an age-old, cracked egg. On the other

hand, like a round organic space ship has crash-land-

ed on this earthy plain.

In Radić’s pavilion, the interior of the walls is like a skin.

Pieces of mâché fabric look like they are stitched to-

gether. The grey timber floors are earthy while giving

55

it a futuristic tint. These floorboards are a wonderful

contrast to the 1930’s Alvo Aalto designed minimal,

petit light wood furniture scattered around.

The 2014 pavilion is a great follow up to Sou Fuji-

moto’s digital cloud of last year. A structure made of

white steel rods, it resembled a matrix jungle gym that

evoked the digital memory systems so common in our

everyday life within the airiness of the park. Both 2013

and 2014 have pushed how the Pavilions series’ chal-

lenges space and time.

As an annual program, the Serpentine’s summer pavil-

ion has become more experimental in the architecture

it offers. “Each year it is getting stronger. It’s becoming

an historical thing,” Radić explains, joking about the

stress he bore while designing his contribution for the

annual spotlight on the 541 sq-meter lawn. “It’s a really

public and anticipated event: the choice of the archi-

tect, the architecture itself and what it means to the

park. We had about six months to do the entire thing

so it’s a good thing we had a good team. It was all pos-

sible in the end.”

“THE paVILIOn HaS bEEn DESCRIbED aS an Egg, a DOnUT, anD SOmETHIng THaT fELL fROm THE SkY - anD THaT HaS OnLY bEEn In THE fIRST THREE DaYS Of IT bEIng OpEn” - JULiA PEYton-JonES, co-DiREctoR oF tHE SERPEntinE

56

pOw! pOp aRT RELOaDED

Since the rainbow-bright images of Pop Art emerged in the 1950s in Britain and the US, the genre has been equated with those two countries, representing their ultra-commercial take on neoliberal values, both criticising and participating in it. today the cartoons of Roy Lichtenstein and screen prints of Andy warhol have surpassed themselves as icons disappearing into the ubiquitous mainstream. As art after the millenium moves away from the mediums and messages of the 20th-century moderns, is 2014 the time to reconsider what they were on about? Madrid’s museo Thyssen believes it is, as curator

of the institution’s recent exhibition Pop Art Myths Paloma Alarcó explains.

b y K a s i a M a c i e j o w s k a

Andy Warhol, Details of Renaissance Paintings (Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482), 1984, acrylic screen print, 121 x 182 cm. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Courtesy The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

57

A quarter of a century has passed since an exhibi-

tion had been devoted to Pop Art in Madrid, so the

curatorial team at Museo Thyssen felt it was high

time to revisit the much-loved movement. As recent

exhibitions had focused on how works by seminal

artists from the 1950s and 1960s have come to in-

fluence contemporary art, Paloma Alarcó, Head of

Modern Painting at the museum, and the curatorial

team behind Pop Art Myths wanted to take it back

to its pure form and consider it in its historic con-

text, debunking popular misconceptions. As well

as classic works by star artists from America and

Britain, the show made a point of exhibiting art by

their Spanish, Italian, German and French contem-

poraries who shared a similar attitude.

Allen Jones, Kleenex Box, 1975,oil on canvas, 91 x 91 cm, British Council Collection

59

At the mention of Pop Art one’s head is filled with

Warholian imagery – soup cans in grids, neon Marili-

yns and that persistent white hair-do that give Andy

Warhol’s self-portraits their instant recognition. There

are also Roy Lichtenstein’s dotted cartoons and the

disjointed collages of Robert Rauschenberg and Rich-

ard Hamilton. All these image-styles wield a double-

edged sword. Although nostalgic and ultra-accessible

because they contain familiar imagery from popular

culture (brand names, celebrities, comic-books, news

photography), they also undermine those same icons

that they re-present. By changing the way they were

shown – in different colours or jumbled up sequences,

they undermine the credibility of that icon, because

they rupture the existing image-language of the system

that gave them power and fame. By applying very ob-

vious techniques to these icons, they present image-

making itself as a technique and a business employed

by brands, media and politics, and reveal it as lack-

ing depth. This removes the sense of authentic value

placed in the subject being shown – whether Marylin

Monroe or Campbell’s soup brand – and replaces it

with feelings of instant impact, play and novelty.

For Alarcó, this is down to the paradox at the heart of

Pop Art that was also the key to its allure. As she puts

it, “While it is self-evident that Pop Art was a move-

ment that transformed our gaze and paved the way to

postmodernism, at the same time it also manifested a

clear orientation towards the past.” She explains that

Pop Art’s eagerness to connect with tradition came

through in its re-evaluation of artistic styles and genres

like portraiture, landscape, history painting, still life,

and made them relevant again. According to Alarcó,

this re-integrates these artistic traditions into the con-

temporary urban landscape, “paying homage to them

or subjecting them to irreverent parodies.” This is per-

haps foregrounded most clearly in The Living Room,

an adaptation by Equipo Crónica of Velázquez’s clas-

sic painting Las Meninas.

right: Ray Johnson, James

Dean (Lucky Strike), 1957, Collage with

card. 26 x 19 cmLegado Ray Johnson.

Courtesy RichardL. Feigen & Co

opposite page: Ed Ruscha, Ionic, 1996, acrylic on

canvas. 137 x 102 cm. Private collection

60

opposite page: Joe Tilson, Pool Mantra,

1975, Mixed media on wood. 155 x 158 cm.

Private collection. Courtesy Fondazione

Marconi, Milan

below: Richard Hamilton,

Release, 1972, collage screen print. 70 x 95 cm.

IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern,

Generalitat, Valencia

62

“wITH ITS InCESSanT ExCHangE bETwEEn aRT anD EVERY SORT Of ObjECT fROm VISUaL anD pOpULaR CULTURE, pOp aRT abOLISHED THE SEpaRaTIOn bETwEEn ‘HIgH’ anD ‘LOw’ CULTURE, OpEnIng Up a nEw DEbaTE OVER THE RELaTIOnSHIp bETwEEn THE aESTHETIC anD THE anTI-aESTHETIC wHICH

REmaInS In CERTaIn aSpECTS Of COnTEmpORaRY aRT TODaY”

Despite being sited in Pop Art’s mid-century roots,

the show did pay homage to the way the move-

ment’s ironic and innovative codes for re-framing

how reality is perceived remain one of contempo-

rary art’s persistent tropes. Alarcó expands on this,

saying, “With its incessant exchange between art

and every sort of object from visual and popular

culture, Pop Art abolished the separation between

‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, opening up a new debate

over the relationship between the aesthetic and the

anti-aesthetic which remains in certain aspects of

contemporary art today.”

Andy Warhol, À La Recherche du Shoe Perdu, 1955, photolithography and watercolour on paper, cover folder. 50 x 66 cm. Mugrabi Collection

63

Deputy Director of the Georges Pompidou Museum in Paris (France)

C

M

J

CM

MJ

CJ

CMJ

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Selections_SAF.pdf 1 13/08/14 16:23

The Black Meanders exhibition at Art, Talks, Sensations at Abu Dhabi Art 2012. Photo: © Eftychia Kazouka

The Heart of the Island exhibit at Art, Talks, Sensations at Abu Dhabi Art 2012. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: © Eftychia Kazouka

65

gLObaL aTTITUDE

Enamoured by india since his first visit in 1996, french curator fabrice bousteau spends many months there every year. Back home in Paris his expertise in indian art and international perspective have been put to good use by the greats of French culture, from the Palais de Tokyo to the Centre Pompidou and Chanel, and in his role as editor-in-chief of beaux Arts magazine. Having kindly contributed our curated pages for this issue, he talks us through his love for indian mindsets and their influence on his world view as he

prepares his pavilion for this year’s Beirut Art Fair.


Remembering that fateful first meeting with his par-

amour the Indian subcontinent, just before the mil-

lennium, Fabrice Bousteau recalls, “I was in love after

just one day.” Pushing past the usual vagaries on India

about colour, fragrance, and energy, he goes on to

explain how local attitudes were

what really did it for him: “The

way you are obliged to think in

India just completely matched

with how I think all the time. In-

dia obliges you to take a kind of

cool-schizophrenic approach to

the world.” By this he means to

juggle multiple moods, incom-

ing messages, incongruous

experiences all at once. “India

is the country that stands out

to me in the world because of

how the senses are overstimulated – the smells, the

visuals, the sounds – it obliges you to think of several

things at the same time.”

Bousteau draws a parallel between the all-encom-

passing multi-sensory stimulation of India and the

demands of contemporary culture, with its hyper-con-

nectivity and multiple screens. “Our society all over

the world is now the way it was already there.” When

you consider that this critic and curator possesses

synaesthesic capabilities – synaesthesia is a neuro-

logical phenomenon that translates one sensory per-

ception into a different sensory

perception at the same time, for

example converting music into

colour – it is easy to imagine

why the place made such an

impact, one that would last for

years and shape his career.

For his 2011 exhibition at Cen-

tre Pompidou, titled Paris-Del-

hi-Bombay: India Through the

Eyes of Indian and French Art-

ists, Bousteau brought Indian art

to his homeland, although through a different lens to

his exhibition for Beirut Art Fair 2014. Speaking at Le

Gray hotel, Beirut this summer, he draws a comparison

between India and Lebanon, citing that both have a

mix of religions, also finding similarities in recent art

history as artists move away from painting and begin

to embrace contemporary media.

66

A more pertinent observation, perhaps on the like-

ness between the two countries, is the importance of

jugaad – the Indian attitude of constant creativity that

allows everyday people to make something good out

of difficult situations. The term was invented among

agricultural people in the 1970s in India and was taken

up by young entrepreneurs there during the 1990s.

Bousteau believes that this concept is the reason why

India will rise to be a global power; because even the

poor and uneducated use ad hoc creativity to bet-

ter their situation. This DIY approach and the positive

transformations it enables, feature in everyday life

here in Lebanon and in India – and in the art worlds of

both. “Jugaad thinking

is really about creating

your own happiness”,

he says.

As we discuss what

people in the Occi-

dential countries might

learn from this way of

thinking, Bousteau ex-

plains that for him one

valuable aspect of the

jugaad attitude – as

well as of understand-

ing the world through another concept central to India

thinking, dharma – is the accepted knowledge and in-

trinsic expectation that dark and light are two sides of

the same coin. “In the West we are taught that life can

take two routes – good or bad. A much better approach

is to realise that good and bad often come rolled into

one, because they are in truth both part of the same

thing. This is a very longstanding way of thinking – a

key spiritual concept.” When asked whether Indian art

can communicate such concepts between cultures,

the curator ventures, “Art is the definition of humanity.

When you see some of these Indian art works you learn

something you already know in your DNA – you learn

about yourself.” In his view, art is part of daily life, just as

his pranayama practice is. As he says, “India is always

mixing the real and the spiritual.”

Because of their longstanding history and important

place in pan-Oriental culture, Bousteau believes that

Indian films will play a crucial role in disseminating In-

dian attitudes around the world. Bollywood is already

more popular than Hollywood throughout the Middle

East. In 2008, Bousteau released a book about Arab

art (called In the Arab World…Now, 2008, published

by Navarra) in which he surveys the regional scene.

He knows the Middle East well, acting as a patron for

Abu Dhabi Art, even

designing a sensory

maze for the fair in

2010. His work this

September is his first

project in Beirut, as he

continues to expand

his curatorial portfo-

lio around the world.

“The curatorial pro-

cess is always differ-

ent according to each

country, each exhibi-

tion. There are new

constraints every time. It’s heuristic. But I always have

the same spirit.”

In the coming months Bousteau’s work will appear

again in Paris, however, in a new form for him that he

dubs ‘critic fiction’, a text called Propolis, being shown

in Landscapes of Contemporary Creation at Espace

Culturel Louis Vuitton. Considering whether he has a

curatorial style, he settles on a related fluidity between

media and disciplines that informs his approach. “I am

obsessed with synaesthetic environments because of

my own experience, so I always use music, use phi-

losophy, use the senses, as well as visual art.”

The White Meanders exhibit at Art, Talks, Sensations at Abu Dhabi Art 2012. First plan: Alexis Laurent, Dandelions, 2010, Courtesy the artist. First plan left: Camille Henrot, Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and kamel mennour, Paris

67

cURAtED BY fabRICE bOUSTEaU

68

Fabric Bousteau

69

In our modern societies progress remains the

rule; progress that aims to exceed itself in a

solely forward motion focused on continuous

increase. It follows what the Greeks called

pleonexia - the wish to have more; too much;

to excess; beyond limit, leading to irrationality

and greed. Sometimes art takes the opposite

course in order to follow the path of develop-

ment on a more human scale.

Our globalised era must be considered a

challenge rather than a constraint. Creativ-

ity can be stimulated and motivated by this

world of possibilities. The art scene today is

a land where global references coexist with

local heritage and traditional rituals in a com-

posite, cosmopolitan, youthful, dynamic art.

As a curator, the key is to stay curious, young-

at-heart, and open to everything and every-

one; to dare to follow transversal paths and,

most importantly, never to consider oneself

an expert or specialist but rather a selector.

To maintain humility and humanity one must

always question oneself and take risks, dar-

ing to make interdisciplinary links between

art, music, dance, design, architecture.

In any exhibition people should benefit from

a rich and multidisciplinary offer; this might in-

volve works from contemporary masters be-

ing re-discovered alongside pieces by new

emerging artists. It can incorporate many

senses – sound as well as vision, and pos-

sibly even taste; it should welcome visitors

from all backgrounds – from amateurs to en-

thusiasts and experienced collectors.

Every artist in a show (in the art scene today)

should be considered an autonomous entity,

while simultaneously being a fragment of a

whole with each artwork independently influ-

encing the entire scene. With this in mind, the

works I have chosen here propose a sort of

unity through diversity. Those I have picked

all share the same spirit in life and take on

new challenges every day through their per-

petual questioning. I view this selection as a

platform for authentic sharing and exchange,

revealing the dynamism of artists today.

Composed from excerpts from discussions with Fabrice

Bousteau, Paris, August 2014

cURAtED BY FABRicE BoUStEAU

SIx mOnTHS TRaVELLIng THE aRT wORLD

70

Daniel Buren

Défini, Fini, Infini, 30th June - 30th September

MaMo, Cité Radieuse Le Corbusier, Marseille, France

Photo © Sébastien Veronese


73

Babak Alebrahim Dekordi Peiman Barabadi

Paintings, May 2014Tehran, Iran

Photos © Fabrice Bousteau


74

JRInside Out: Au Pantheon!, 2014

Pantheon, Paris France



77

Nikhil ChopraThe Indian artist presents a solo exhibition, La Perle Noire (The Black Pearl)

Performance, 6th - 8th March, 2014 Exhibition, 6th March - 12th April, 2014

gb agency, Paris



78

Petrit Halilaj

Art Basel

19th-22nd June

Photo © Fabrice Seixas


80

Subodh Gupta

Everything Is Inside, 17th January - 16th March, 2014,

National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi, India.

Photo © Fabrice Bousteau


82


Jeff KoonsA Retrospective

27th June - 19th October, 2014, organised by Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Associate Director of Programs. Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

The exhibition travels to the Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris ( in November 26, 2014–April 27, 2015) and to the Guggenheim Bilbao (in June 5–September 27, 2015)

Photo © Fabrice Bousteau

SAVE THE DATE.MODERN.CONTEMPORARY.ABU DHABI ART.5 - 8 November 2014

Manarat Al SaadiyatSaadiyat Cultural District

abudhabiart.ae

#AbuDhabiArt #InAbuDhabi

84

a mODERnIST aRabIa

the Arab Center for Architecture (AcA) presents the story of pan-Arab modernism for the Kingdom of Bahrain pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, curated by George Arbid and Bernard Khoury. the Lebanon-based archive chose 100 buildings from across the region to represent 20th-century architectural progress. conceived of as a counterpoint to the polarised perception of Arab architecture as either romantically traditional or the flashy showpiece of 21st-century capitalism, the pavilion and its take-away book aims to rehabilitate popular attitudes to modernist design at a time when many of its finest local examples are being torn down. Here we look at highlights from this long-overdue project,

kindly shared with Selections by the AcA.


85

opposite page:General plan of the Kaédi Regional Hospital, by Fabrizio Carola, Kaédi, Mauritania, 1992.Courtesy Aga Khan Trust for Culture

above: Ground floor plan for Azzahra Ambassador Hotel, by Raïs, Canaan and Erdekian, Jerusalem, Palestine, 1953. © Arab Center for Architecture, George Raïs Collection

below: Électricité du Liban Headquarters, by J. Aractingi, J. Nasser, P. Neema and J.N. Conan (CETA), Beirut, Lebanon, 1965-1972. © Arab Center for Architecture, Pierre Neema Collection

86

Approaching from the outside, the Bahrain pavilion, at the Arsenale in

Venice, appears to be a round, temporary library. Once inside, one might

be at a political conference. Faced with a vast circular table comprising a

map of the Arab world circumnavigated by a timeline and dotted with invit-

ing headphones, the gaze is drawn upwards by the sound of prayer-like

voices emanating from a ring of talking heads projected onto the ceiling.

These voices – in fact one voice recorded many times – recite the nation-

al anthems of the 22 Arab states. The books on the surrounding shelves

are pavilion catalogues, to be taken away by visitors, each containing an

illustrated history of architecture in the Arab world from 1914 to 2014.

Reign of Fundamentalists and Other Arab Modernisms,by George Arbid and Bernard Khoury,

Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion,14th International Architecture Exhibition,

Fundamentals, la Biennale di VeneziaPhoto: Andrea Avezzù

Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia

THE gazE IS DRawn UpwaRDS bY THE SOUnD Of pRaYER-LIkE VOICES EmanaTIng fROm a RIng

Of TaLkIng HEaDS

Under the title Fundamentalists and Other Arab Modernisms, the book

and corresponding table-top timeline, travel from a university in Moroc-

co, to a hospital in Mauritania, via innovative collective housing projects,

rational factories, and the occasional stand-out icons. Such star pieces

include Sune Lindström’s 1960s water towers in Kuwait and Oscar Nie-

meyer’s 1962 International Fair of Tripoli, which continues to be threatened

with redevelopment despite being admired by design enthusiasts the

world over. Names like these, from Sweden, Brazil and elsewhere, appear

throughout this narrative as the Arab states – often born from the designs

of international politics – have been inscribed by the interests of colonial-

ism and post-colonial neoliberalism, although many local architects also

adhered to the modernist project.

89

A better fit couldn’t have been curated for the theme Absorbing Moder-

nity: 1914-2014, chosen by this year’s architect curating the Biennale Rem

Koolhaas. And no curators more suited to the task of telling Arab modern-

ism’s architectural story than Arbid and Khoury, whose project at the ACA

is to do just that. Between them, this academic and practitioner – both

Lebanese, both Harvard-educated – have crafted a detailed narrative that

every visitor can take home in book form, while constructing an installation

that plays on international perceptions of Arabism.

The ACA was set up in 2008 by Arbid and Khoury along with Jad Tabet,

Fouad El Koury, Amira El Solh, Hashem Sarkis, and Nada Assi. It has

NGO status, receiving funding from bodies like the EU and projects like

this commission for Bahrain. Seen in a regional context it forms part of

the current pan-Arab mission across the arts to record, understand and

validate local modern history and how it informs the present day. This

year the United Arab Emirates makes its debut at Venice Architecture

Biennale, as do Morocco, Turkey, and eight other nations. The UAE pa-

vilion historicises its own urban development in a literal manner under

the title Lest We Forget: Structures of Memory. By comparison, Bahrain’s

choice to present an inclusively Arabist multi-national story lent it far wid-

er global relevance, and as sectarian violence soars across the region,

is commendable to say the least.

opposite page: Sketch by Oscar Niemeyer for the Rachid Karameh International Fair, 1962. © Oscar Niemeyer Foundation

above:Rachid Karameh International Fair by Oscar Niemeyer, Tripoli, Lebanon, 2006, Photo by Grace Rihan Hanna

VIENNA INtErNAtIoNAl Art FAIr2 – 5 octobEr 2014

MEssE WIEN, HAll A

Preview & VernissageWednesday, 1 October 2014www.viennafair.at

91

THE STaRS Of VEnICE

As eyes turn to the Venice Architecture biennale once again, three critics share their views on Selections’ favourite installations this year. curated by Rem Koolhaas, this 14th edition aimed to emphasise the role of research in architecture, hinging

around the central statement Absorbing modernity 1914–2014.

92

ElEMENtS

[CENTRAL ExHIBITION]

by Rem Koolhaas

93

Merlin Fulcher (Reporter at the

Architects’ Journal): Despite all

it could have achieved Elements

failed to deliver its purpose in my

view. Rather than promoting think-

ing outside the box, Koolhaas cre-

ated a confined, ugly arena where

the weapons of homogeny are

magnified to a daunting scale.

Without passing direct judgment

on these objects he fails to frame

a debate. The result is to atomise

architects and architecture when

both need to work together most.

Maria Cristina Didero (Design

curator and director of Fondazi-

one Bisazza): Rem Koolhaas has

always been fond of accumulation:

for his it is a state of mind that is su-

perbly reflected in this Biennale in

Venice. Proceeding with the addi-

tion of layers, here he has tried to

mirror the history of architecture.

Hilary French (Architectural

writer and academic): Elements

puts the ingredients of construc-

tion under the microscope for a

much closer look - a refreshing

change from the current fashion

for urbanism and master plan-

ning where context, often his-

torical rather than physical or

geographical, is considered to

be more important and buildings

are reduced to mere objects in a

landscape. Some elements here

are familiar to all, like windows or

ironmongery, whereas some - like

false ceilings – are only for the

initiated, but we can all enjoy the

all-important experiential qualities

of architecture.

“ELEmEnTS pUTS THE IngREDIEnTS Of COnSTRUCTIOn UnDER THE mICROSCOpE fOR a mUCH CLOSER LOOk”

94

towNSHip oF DoMEStiC

pARtS: MADE iN tAiwAN

[TAIWANESE PAVILION]

by Jimenez Lai

MF: This colourful and thought-

provoking installation is an

eye-catching although flawed

interpretation of the biennale’s

deconstructivist theme. Despite

offering an unusual insight into do-

mestic traditions, Lai has avoided

discussing the impact of modern-

ism on Taiwanese manufacturing.

Considering the critical role Tai-

wan plays in our global economy,

an evaluation of its high-tech elec-

tronics factories and workplace la-

bour relations might have offered

more meaning.

MCD: The extravagant and joyful

Taiwanese approach to architec-

ture is reflected here: Jimenez

Lai goes further and overcomes

the basic sections of the typical

house with an anthropological

excursion that gives an interest-

ing and fresh point of view to

look at domestic life.

HF: John Hejduk, whose teach-

ings considered everything from

a holistic perspective, would turn

in his grave at this attempt to re-

duce everyday domestic activi-

ties to simple forms. We can all

agree that architectural form is

not just abstract shapes or func-

tions but here the social and psy-

chological dimensions of space

seem to be ignored in favour of a

jokey approach to reminiscences

about past details and the well-

known canon.

“THE ExTRaVaganT anD jOYfUL TaIwanESE appROaCH TO aRCHITECTURE IS REfLECTED HERE”

96

towARDS BioloGy: tiME

SpACE ExiStENCE

[COLLATERAL ExHIBITION]

by Ricardo Bofill

HF: Using La Fabrica, a 150-year-

old cement factory converted

to their architectural studio as a

case study, this exhibition deals

with the fundamental aim of archi-

tectural design - the creation of a

new space that makes evident a

relationship between built form

and the activities it houses. Mas-

ters of narrative, RBTA don’t dwell

on the past or attempt to predict

the future but speculate about the

potential to arrive at a new reality

MF: This immersive and pan-

oramic video contains a stirring

manifesto for an alternative ar-

chitectural profession elevated

above standard modernist valua-

tions of space and time. Bofill de-

scribes a disused cement works

transformed into a venue for the

accumulation, experimentation

and distribution of architectural

knowledge. Such a vision recog-

nises that the true fundamentals of

human experience and architec-

ture stand outside of time and that

our biggest challenges will remain

meaningful now and forever.

MCD: This satellite project was

superbly curated by Rene Riet-

meyer and the Global Art Affairs

Foundation resulting in an emo-

tional installation that managed to

immerse visitors and show how ar-

chitecture is closely related to our

everyday life

“OUR bIggEST CHaLLEngES wILL REmaIn mEanIngfUL nOw anD fOREVER”

98

tHE Sky ovER

NiNE ColuMNS

[ART INSTALLATION]

by Heinz Mack

MF: Mack’s bold and visually

arresting sculpture reminds us

how contextual beauty can be

realised using generic architec-

tural elements. Such ubiquitous

shapes made resonant through

local decorative crafts provide

a morale-boosting alternative to

the future catalogued so fatalis-

tically inside the main exhibition.

Their unifying power is however

blunted by their physical isola-

tion and the feeling that when

amongst the columns one is so

terribly alone.

MCD: As the director of one of

Giorgio Cinni Foundation’s com-

petitors, the Bisazza Foundation,

I would rather not comment on

this piece.

HF: From Trajan’s column on-

wards, monuments and victory

columns embellished with bas

relief and statuary are a common

sight. There is no need to read this

art piece of decorated columns as

architectural. They may have a

powerful sculptural presence en-

hanced by light reflected on the

shimmering golden mosaic sur-

faces, but so close together with-

out anything to support some must

surely be superfluous?

“maCk’S bOLD SCULpTURE REmInDS US HOw COnTExTUaL bEaUTY Can bE REaLISED USIng gEnERIC aRCHITECTURaL ELEmEnTS”

100

A CloCkwoRk JERuSAlEM

[BRITISH PAVILION]

by Sam Jacob of FAT

and Wouter Vantisphout of Crimson

101

MF: This counter-reading of Brit-

ish modernism celebrates a brief

period of romantic optimism

which ultimately failed. Sam Ja-

cob’s and Wouter Vantisphout’s

selective narrative is heart-warm-

ing and well-timed but overlooks

the hard reality of an architecture

which started and remained un-

ashamedly elitist and commer-

cially driven. The story behind

London’s financial towers is more

bleak but would have at least ex-

posed modernism’s greatest con-

ceit for all to see.

MCD: FAT’s curatorial approach

to the subject is really summed up

in the title: this project covers Brit-

ish modernity, from William Blake’s

poem Jerusalem from the 18th

century to how it has been devel-

oped to country’s post-war period.

HF: As this exhibit suggests, no-

body would disagree that there

is a need to engage in some new

thinking about the current British

housing situation, and moreover

that this could result in new forms

of housing that would prove to be

more sustainable than either Gar-

den Cities or modernism’s British

version of high-rise estates. But

maybe architects and planners

have been looking backwards for

too long and focusing too much on

town planning. Perhaps it is time

to look closer – to consider the el-

ements - at the individual houses

then we might be able to achieve

Howard’s “real reform”.

“THIS pROjECT COVERS bRITISH mODERnITY, fROm wILLIam bLakE’S pOEm jERUSaLEm fROm THE 18TH CEnTURY TO HOw IT HaS bEEn DEVELOpED TO COUnTRY’S pOST-waR pERIOD”

102

ARCtiC poppy oRANGERy

[ANTARCTICA PAVILION]

by Alex Kozyr

HF: Along with ten new participat-

ing countries, is the debut of the

Antarctica pavilion, initiated by Al-

exander Ponomarev and curated

by Nadim Samman. An ambitious

transnational project, it brings

together a series of proposals

for the sixth continent (and chal-

lenges the perhaps overly nation-

alistic structure of the Biennale’s

Giardini). Beyond the necessities

of the scientific explorations and

institutional missions, Antarctopia,

planned for 2015-16, offers the

potential of a new cultural field.

The Orangery (Alexey Kozy and

Ilya Babak) a botanical and medi-

cal research centre and recre-

ation zone marries the ambition of

functional technology with poetic

optimism using powerful solar col-

lectors that mimic the arctic poppy,

relentlessly tracking the sunlight

by rotating on delicate stems

MF: This fanciful greenhouse for

arctic poppies documented in-

side the transnational Antarctopia

pavilion provides a unique step-

ping stone towards greater public

understanding of the earth’s most

inhospitable continent. Kozyr’s

crystalline shelter for cultivating

the South Pole’s most beautiful

flower reminds us of the region’s

delicate ecology currently safe-

guarded by international agree-

ments prohibiting nuclear dump-

ing and mineral extraction. The

value of such intangible but in-

fluential power systems must be

more widely recognised as we

approach the first Antarctic Bien-

nale and before competing na-

tions tear this treasure apart.

MCD: As per the Moroccan pavil-

ion that dealt with the problem of

building in the desert, this project

digs in to the possibilities of ar-

chitecture in extreme conditions;

Kozyr’s studio investigated this

range with a stellar touch.

103

www.beirut-art-fair.com

BIEL, Hall 2Beirut, Lebanon

18-21September 2014

BEIRUTARTFAIRME.NA.SA.ART

C

M

J

CM

MJ

CJ

CMJ

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Selections.pdf 1 13/08/14 16:22

104

TakE mE awaY

those leaders of luxury luggage at Louis Vuitton are focusing their creative efforts on travel this season, with sweetly illustrated destination guides to Venice and Vietnam and an exciting collaboration series with some of today’s leading lights from the worlds of art and design, from Cindy sherman to frank Gehry,

via Rei Kawakubo and marc newson.

b y A v r i l G r o o m

However far Louis Vuitton’s excursions into the realms of

high fashion or unique jewellery pieces take it, and who-

ever is at the design helm, the world’s biggest luxury

brand never forgets one thing - that it started life as a

trunk maker and creating items for travel are at its heart.

That detail has become more important than ever since

Nicolas Ghesquière has taken on the designer’s mantle.

As well as continuing with the instantly recognisable LV

and four-point flower symbols, there are more subtle ref-

erences to the brand’s origins - jewellery based on the

distinctive brass corners of a Vuitton trunk, a new bag

quilted in the lozenge shapes of the stitching inside a

trunk lid, even a precious evening minaudière shaped

like a tiny trunk.

Integral to Vuitton’s travel plans is the universally-rec-

ognised monogram canvas, about to be given some

very special treatment that, generously, involves equally

iconic design names from other fashion houses and ar-

tistic areas. It is not the first time that Vuitton has shared

its most precious symbol - to celebrate the monogram’s

centenary in 1996 collaborations resulted in object such

as a handbag by Azzedine Aliaia adfn a DJ’s box for vi-

nyl records by Helmut Lang. But for the exciting Icon and

the Iconoclasts project Ghesquière has his own agenda

and friends, plus the confidence to give carte blanche

(within the genre of bags and luggage) to names who

could almost be considered rivals such as Karl Lager-

feld, and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. The

designs are under wraps until mid-October but it’s fun

to surmise whether Lagerfeld will be able to resist a nod

to Chanel style and whether Kawakubo’s design will in-

clude other-worldly excrescences.

above left to right: Rei Kawakubo, Frank Gehry, Cindy Sherman, Marc Newson

105

The other designers are Christian Louboutin (a travelling

shoe trunk, perhaps? - it wouldn’t be Vuitton’s first), archi-

tect Frank Gehry, known for his fluid modern style, Marc

Newsan, who turns his hand to anything from clocks

and furniture to aerospace design, and portrait photog-

rapher and film maker Cindy Sherman. The highly lim-

ited edition results of the project will arrive in selected

Louis Vuitton flagship stores in October; for now the only

evidence is a set of each designers’ initials handpainted

in Vuitton style and carefully-chosen colours, as if each

had ordered their own trunk. Vuitton’s vice-president

Delphine Arnault, who conceived the idea with Ghes-

quière, says, “we wanted the best in their fields, to see

their different perspectives on Monogram. It’s fun - they

are a group of geniuses.”

Louis Vuitton’s original monogram

107

Lorenzo Mattiotti’s illustrations of Vietnam for Louis Vuitton

109

Rather more accessibly, Vuitton have another travel

related project about to launch. This is the latest in

their series of Travel Books, which link well-known

artists to a place they know well, and see it through

their very distinctive illustrative viewpoint. Crucially

each artist is foreign to the place chosen. After four

were launched last year - Paris by a Congolese,

New York by a Frenchman, London by a Japanese

and Easter Island by an American, this year’s addi-

tions are Venice by Japanese manga artist and writ-

er Jiro Taniguchi and Vietnam by Italian illustrator

and comic book artist Lorenzo Mattotti. We follow

the lone figure of Taniguchi through extraordinarily

delicate drawings of his chosen city; Mattotti’s style

is more robust and impressionistic. Both are totally

individual and a true traveller’s viewpoint.

The Books are €45; 50 special artists’ editions, numbered and signed,

are €2000, all arriving in Lebanon in September.

Jiro Tanigushi’s illustrations of Venice for Louis Vuitton

110

mIamI’S nEw HaT

With its calendar of art fairs and newfound credibility in the world of museums, Florida’s party paradise has become one of America’s most surprising cultural capitals that merges highbrow highlights

with a good-time attitude

b y N i c h o l a s C h r i s o s t o m o u

Miami has done some serious growing-up. The Miami

of 2014 is artistic, cutting edge and original, and its cre-

ative energy is infectious. Nowhere is Miami’s cultural

renaissance more evident than in Wynwood, the Mi-

ami Design District and at the Pérez Art Museum.

Wynwood is one the most art-rich neighborhoods in

America, and has been transformed in just five years

from a desolate area of derelict warehouses into a

thriving arts community, commonly referred to as Mi-

ami’s art and soul. Wynwood was the brainchild of

Wynwood Walls, Miami

112

Tony Goldman who in 2009 saw the potential in the

area to become a hub for creativity, up-and-coming

talent and a haven for anyone with an artistic lean.

Goldman was the driving force behind Wynwood until

he passed away two years ago. His daughter, Jessica,

has taken over her father’s legacy and continues to

follow his vision for Wynwood’s development.

The epicentre of Wynwood’s street art scene is Wyn-

wood Walls, a showcase of work by internationally

renowned graffiti artists including murals by Sheph-

ard Fairey, Kenny Scharf, Invader and more. No visit

to the area is complete without a walk around the

Walls, a meal in Wynwood Kitchen & Bar, a Latté at

Panther Coffee, and a nose around the galleries. And

on the second Saturday of every month Wynwood

is flooded for it’s famed Art Walk, often attracting a

crowd of thousands.

Dacra was instrumental in bringing Art Basel to Mi-

ami and making the annual event internationally fa-

mous. Craig Robins of Dacra is now masterminding

the development of the Miami Design District, a fast-

growing neighbourhood north of Midtown which is

home to over 100 art galleries, showrooms, antique

stores, restaurants and bars. The area is also a high-

end shopping mecca, and construction is underway

to further transform the District into a destination for

cutting-edge fashion, design and culture. Louis Vuit-

ton, Hermès, Emilio Pucci, Prada and many other top

designers have already defected from Bal Harbour to

the Miami Design District, and come early 2015 other

luxury fashion brands including Givenchy, Tom Ford,

Marc Jacobs and Dolce & Gabbana will join them.

The new look District will also include buildings by

prominent architects Sou Fujimoto, Aranda/Lasch, K/R,

Miami Design District

113

Iwamoto Scott and Leong Leong, and

new art installations by John Baldessari

and The Buckminster Fuller Institute will

join existing installations by Zaha Hadid

and Marc Newsom.

The stunning new Pérez Art Museum

Miami (PAMM) which opened in De-

cember 2013, with it’s hanging gar-

dens and tranquil 29-acre park on the

edge of breathtaking Biscayne Bay, is

home to a growing collection of inter-

national works by some of the world’s

foremost artists. The site, designed by

Pritzker Prize winning Swiss architects

Herzog & de Meuron, has been uni-

versally acclaimed for skillfully marrying

cutting-edge architecture with Miami’s

tropical landscape, and encompasses

200,000 square feet of indoor and out-

door space with sprawling relaxed gal-

leries, shaded verandas, a waterfront

restaurant and an exceptional museum

shop. One could easily spend an entire

day with PAMM.

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STAY

The Betsy, South BeachThis beautiful colonial designed 63 room boutique hotel at the top of Ocean Drive has a superb restaurant BLT-Steak, a rooftop garden offering spa treatments, secluded courtyard pool and easy beach access. www.thebetsyhotel.com

The Metropolitan, Miami BeachA sophisticated refurb of a 1920s art deco grand dame in the heart of Miami Beach’s historic district, Christina Ong’s new Miami outpost boasts 74 rooms (of which 11 are suites) a private beach and a COMO spa. www.comohotels.com/metropolitanmiami

EAT

Juvia Great location, incredible views, lively atmosphere and tasty Asian fusion fare make Juvia one of the best nightspots in town. Dine outdoors at sunset. Book well in advance. www.juviamiami.com

La MarMaster chef Gastón Acurio’s new Miami restaurant serves delicious, award winning Peruvian cuisine in refined yet comfortable surroundings, set within the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on exclusive Brickell Key private island. (305) 913 8358.

Michael’s GenuineA vibrant neighborhood bistro in the heart of the Miami Design District where friends gather to enjoy simply prepared dishes made fresh from local ingredients. Delicious food and good selection of vino. www.michaelsgenuine.com

SHOP

FrangipaniFunky boutique in the heart of Wynwood selling everything from art to jewellery, tableware and vintage clutch bags. www.frangipanimiami.com

Niba HomeTop end shop and gallery in the Miami Design District selling art, objet d’arts and furniture, hand selected and beautifully merchandised by Nisi Berryman and Lynn Larrieu. www.nibahome.com

NestBeautiful home emporium where hand chosen furniture, lighting, vintage pieces, glassware, photography, textiles and art are showcased in an elegant yet comfortable environment.www.nestcasa.com

GALLERY

Pérez Art Museum MiamiNo visit to Miami is complete without a visit to PAMM, the city’s stunning new museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting international 20th and 21st century modern and contemporary art. www.pamm.org

Markowicz Fine ArtWell laid out gallery in the centre of the Miami Design District showcasing modern and contemporary works from an array of artists including Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Marilyn Minter and more. www.markowiczfineart.com

The Peter Tunney ExperienceCelebrated New York artist Peter Talbot Tunney’s Miami gallery is a riot of colour and creativity within Wynwood Walls. (305) 582 6890 [email protected]

Perez Art Museum, Miami

SUSpEnSE anD fRagILITY

maria Cristina didero was wowed by grandiose temporary architecture and the emotive capacities of textile techniques at this year’s design miami/basel, the

first under its new director

114

Every June, the art week of Basel - as it is called - is

synonymous with high expectations for professionals

and art-lovers from around the world. But for the de-

sign addicted this year, such expectations could be

said to be exceeded at Design Miami/Basel. This was

the first edition led by new director Rodman Primack

following his appointment in March 2014. Primack is

the first American director - Californian to be precise -

to head the fair, which itself was born in Miami (led first

by its Italian-Greek co-founder Ambra Medda, then by

the Austrian Marianne Goebl). Design Miami is now

ready to celebrate its 10th anniversary after position-

ing itself as one of the unmissable fairs on the global

design calendar.

Primack considers his new fair an event which has

already reached a prominent level thanks to his

predecessors, and which is now his task to refine

even more. “Design Miami/Basel takes place two

times a year in two different continents; it is like a

machine that constantly needs fuel. I would like to

organize some more events during the whole year”.

And while Primack begins to look to the Far East,

the Swiss edition was impressive enough, surpris-

ing many visitors with its site specific works, com-

missioned pieces, talks, projects and the impres-

sive number of galleries it brought together; in a

record for the fair, the prestigious roster reached

49 this year.

115

117

Visitors were welcomed by a grandiose installation by

New York-based designer Jamie Zigelbaum entitled

Triangular Series, an outstanding scenography of 59

suspended tetrahedral lamps, scattered throughout

the ground floor entrance to create a sense of immer-

sion. Walking into the fair itself one became further cap-

tivated by the most stupendous objects by the most

influential authors from today’s international design

scene. Design At Large was a new, dedicated section

for gigantic projects, curated by expert Dennis Freed-

man, capable of providing the opportunity to show

these works outside their usual gallery spaces, giving

visitors the chance to be struck by these vast projects.

One such that was particularly taking was SÉANCE, an

interactive colour lab by American artist Sheila Hicks.

DESIgn aT LaRgE waS a nEw, DEDICaTED SECTIOn fOR gIganTIC pROjECTS

SÉANCE by Sheila Hicks. Photo: Ames Harris

119

The first stand-out display to be mentioned came from

the brilliant Gallery Libby Sellers, which presented the

refined and sophisticated work of Studio Formafan-

tasma, whose very original objects in volcanic lava sat

alongside vibrant, playful pieces from Anton Alvarez,

who is notable for his distinct and idiosyncratic ap-

proach to design creation. Thanks to his ingenious

Thread Wrapping Machine, the Swedish-Chilean Al-

varez crafts furniture without using screws, joinery or

nails. Using wood, plastic or steel, he fuses parts to-

gether with metres and metres of glue-coated thread,

which generates a joyful decorative pattern.

opposite page top: Volcanic Lava Collection, Formafantasma

opposite page bottom left: Anton Alvarez The Thread Wrapping Machine Stool, 2014 Wood, paint, glue-coated thread

opposite page bottom right: Anton Alvarez The Thread Wrapping Machine Lamp, 2014 Wood, glue-coated thread

below: Libby Sellers Gallery exhibit

121

Another leader in the textiles department was Gjertrud Hals, whose display with Galerie Maria

Wettergren offered a delectable and romantic piece by the Norwegian designer and fiber art-

ist called Here, Now. The 3.5 x 2.35 metre wall unique piece of cotton-thread, crochet lace,

and flax fibers looked as if it should be handled with extreme care. Hals used many different

weaving techniques, from knitting and crotchet, to embroidery and macramé, with incredibly

poetic results. Leading design sponsor Swarovski presented Prologue, a dazzling, imposing

large-scale work by London-based studio Fredrikson-Stallard; a suspended circular sculpture,

like a titanic lens refracting light that had a sparkling intensity when moving even just slightly, and

holding over 8,000 golden Swarovski crystal-droplets, referred to the iconography of the sun to

represent new beginnings. German design star Konstantin Grcic partnered with Audi for his first

architectural project: the TT Pavillion was a rounded structure in wood and steel, realized using

only elements of the Audi TT car. In all it felt like an excellent beginning for the new director.

opposite page: Gjertrud Hals - Here, Now, 1

above: Prologue by Fredrikson-Stallard Photo: Ames Harris

below: TT Pavillion by Konstantin Grcic Photo: Ames Harris

122

fOREST fREQUEnCIES

inhotim art garden has introduced immersive installations and integrated monuments to its 110 hectares of Atlantic rainforest and brazilian savannah over the past eight years

so that making a visit is like wandering through a dream


A vast jungly garden filled with art sounds like the stuff

that hallucinations are made of, the only trip you need

to take is to Brumadinho, Brazil. There, you’ll find a

world far-removed from the din of football fans and

carnival: the Instituto Inhotim, a botanical garden that

is home to 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photo-

graphs, videos and installations by many more Brazil-

ian and international artists from 30 different countries.

Originally the estate and art collection of Bernardo Paz,

a mining magnate, Inhotim (pronounced In-yo-tcheen)

is located within both a remnant of the Atlantic rainfor-

est and Brazilian savannah, two endangered environ-

ments rich in biodiversity. It was opened to the public

in 2006 as a visitation area, stitching together aston-

ishing artworks with forest fragments, 25 gardens and

almost 5000 species of flora which include several

rare tropical species. The artworks enjoy a symbiotic

“NARCISSUS GARDEN INHOTIM” (2009) DE YAYOI KUSAMA FOTO PEDRO MOTTA

124

relationship with the landscape, very deliberately inte-

grated in an area largely protected as a Natural Heri-

tage Private Reserve. Pathways, stairways and patios

built upon natural quartzite rock formations link the 21

pavilions, with visitors often required to move by golf

cart – but the experience is very much regarded as an

independent one, with people encouraged to create

their own unique journeys around the site, as if Inhotim

is, as Paz has described it, a “Disneyland of the future”.

Three curators manage the park, including Rodrigo

Moura, Jochen Volz, and headed up by Allan Schwar-

zman. While 100 pieces are on display, they are taken

from a collection of more than 800 works, accumulat-

ed from Brazil and abroad from the Sixties to the pres-

ent day, and refreshed every two years to introduce

new acquisitions and reinterpretations. One of Inho-

tim’s best coups is Chris Burden’s Beam Drop, a repri-

sal of the artist’s 1984 work involving the release of a

few dozen steel beams into wet concrete, an exercise

in unreplicable chance. Elsewhere, gums will be set

a-tingling by Hélio Oiticia and Neville D’Almeida’s Cos-

mococa, an installation in which visitors move through

THE aRTwORkS EnjOY a SYmbIOTIC RELaTIOnSHIp wITH THE LanDSCapE, a naTURaL HERITagE pRIVaTE RESERVE wHERE paTHwaYS, STaIRwaYS anD paTIOS bUILT On naTURaL QUaRTzITE ROCk fORmaTIOnS LInk THE 21 paVILIOnS

above: Viewing Machine by Olafur Eliasson.Photo: Rassana Magri

right: Desvio Para O Vermelho by Cildo Merieles. Photo: Pedro Motta

opposite page: Beam Drop by Chris Burden. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

125

OnE Of InHOTIm’S bEST COUpS IS CHRIS bURDEn’S bEam DROp, a REpRISaL Of THE

aRTIST’S 1984 wORk InVOLVIng THE RELEaSE Of a fEw DOzEn STEEL bEamS InTO wET COnCRETE,

an ExERCISE In UnREpLICabLE CHanCE

126

a series of five rooms that aim to recreate the sen-

sation of being on cocaine, fulfilled by a giant, floor-

covering mattress, strobe lights, Jimi Hendrix and a

strange indoor pool; while over in Cido Mereiles’ Red

Shift, sits a house furnished entirely in red, with even

the taps running red water.

Since the World Cup, the number of visitors to Inhotim

has more than tripled, which is good news for Paz’s

expansive vision of a “post-contemporary society”. It

is meant as more than simply a passive experience

in more ways than one, and is an active hub for com-

munity development, currently employing 400 locals

127

and hosting more than 30,000 students a year. Up-

coming projects include an on-site guest-house and

a science centre to specialise in biodiversity and cli-

mate change, whilst an old chapel and farmhouse will

become new spaces for the ever-growing portfolio of

artworks. Ultimately, Inhotim isn’t about art, and it isn’t

about nature – it’s about an approach to life. You might

call it a paradise with a purpose.

paz’S ExpanSIVE VISIOn IS Of a “pOST-

COnTEmpORaRY SOCIETY”

Celacanto Provoca Maremoto, by Adriana Varejão. Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Seção diagonal, by Marcius Galan Photo: Pedro Motta

The Art PAPer accompanies every issue of SelectionS for an in-DepTh look aT The arT worlDin thiS iSSue:

collector profile with ayyam founder khaled samawi

Tim noble and sue webster in conversation

Joana hadjithomas and khalil Joreige in nice

art after the internet with omar kholief

interview with Brit sculptor fiona Banner

istanbul’s art international in preview

in the studio with manuella Guiragossian

Trevor paglen’s installation sensation from art Basel

Bridge to palestine at Beirut exhibition center reviewed

The 10 art apps you should download now

Beirut Art Fair Special:

The art of Dharma: indian pavilion

silke schmickl talks video

curator comments from philippe Tretiack

spotlight on Janine rubeiz

art fair highlights

04

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ISLanD COnTEmpORaRY

stromboli, the lava-filled sea-bound peak located off the toe of italy’s boot, hosts an annual contemporary art festival organised by the fiorrucci Art Trust and enthusiastically named Volcano Extravaganza. this year titled forget Amnesia, under the guest curation of artist haroon mirza, it plays with ideas about memory and island mentalities, and makes reference to that infamous Mediterranean isle, ibiza, where the club Amnesia has drawn escapists since 1976 when it was initially named the Workshop of Forgetfulness. For ten days in July, artists, curators, performers and thinkers made the pilgrimage to Stromboli, this most captivating of the eight Aeolian islands that was rendered a cult destination when Roberto Rossellini made his film of the same name there starring ingrid Bergman.

Here we visit the fourth iteration of art’s dreamy summer retreat.


Painting of Stromboli made at Volcano Extravaganza, 2014, Forget Amnesia, by Celia Hempton. Photo: Lewis Ronald

130

Summertime on Stromboli feels moody and somno-

lent. Despite it being tourist season, this last stop on

the ferry route from Sicily, following the larger islands

of Lipari and Vulcano and the chic haven of Panarea,

feels hidden and hushed – until the last week of July

that is, when a subset of the London art world arrives

to wreak playful mischief among the black rocks and

white houses.

This year that included video artist Ed Atkins, art-pop

bands Django Django and Factory Floor, multi-media

artist Hassan Khan, DJ-composer Shiva Feshareki,

multi-disciplinary artists Celia Hempton, Prem Sahib

and Richard Sides – plus the curators, gallerists, writ-

ers and committed art audience who travelled from

Bangladesh, Italy, Brazil and Turkey. Most happenings

were held at the trust’s two venues on the island, fabu-

lously named La Lunatica and the House of Extrava-

ganza, with others hitting the shores and winding al-

leyways. Each one was recorded and live broadcast

via NTS radio.

The festival’s line-up is always just as resolutely con-

temporary, but Haroon Mirza’s curation, executed in

collaboration with Milovan Farronato, director of the

London-based Fiorucci Art Trust, brought dual empha-

sis on technology and immersion – two keynotes of

club culture – to this year’s lectures, exhibitions, film

screenings, music, dance and performance art.

As seen in works by artists such as Jeremy Deller and

Mark Leckey, the celebration of rave culture is enjoy-

ing a moment in the arts as the nineties generation

becomes today’s leading image-makers. Forget Am-

nesia is part of that, exploring rave’s escapism-from-

the-self on an isle with an off-the-map ambience. As a

result, works echoed the dream-like trance state and

radical inclusivity that characterised this mass practice

of collective disappearance.

1. Artists Factory Floor, aka Nik Void and Gabriel Gurnsey

2. Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili,Always someone to cover your silence, painted fabric /performance. 28th July 2012, Stromboli. Photo: Ken Okiishi

3. Florence Derieux, Rimbaud, talk, 3rd August 2012, La Lunatica, Stromboli.Photo: Giulia Casanova

4. Jessica Warboys, Underlap, sea paintings,20th July 2011, Stromboli. Photo by Morten Norbye Halvorsen

5. Chiara Fumai , Free like the speech of a Socialist, performance, 15th August 2011, Stromboli. Photo: Matthew Stone

6. One of Stromboli’s continuous eruptions, July 2014. Photo: Lewis Ronald

7. Andro Wekua, action performed by Nick Mauss,27th July 2012, Stromboli. Photo: Giulia Brivio

5

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Stromboli’s micro-eruptions, which happen between

three and twenty times every hour, produce similar

seismic waves (under 20Hz) as those that emanate

from the sub-woofers of speakers used in clubs like

Amnesia – the Balearic nightlife institution referenced

in this year’s Volcano Extravaganza theme. In the spirit

of things, the festival made use of the island’s two tiny

clubs Mega and Tartana to host big DJ names like

James Lavelle.

While this year’s theme thought about the social and

psychological role of island escapism, last year’s

theme Evil Under the Sun (after the film adaptation of

an Agatha Christie novel) tapped into Stromboli’s dis-

tinctive atmosphere of natural mystery and simmering

heat, and the notion that this bears or brings out some

sort of human or earthly malevolence.

Stromboli does hold an ominous power over those

who set foot there. Erupting continuously, as she has

done for 2,000 years, her cratered peak is perpetually

shrouded by a grey puff of cloud tinged with volcanic

ash that further darkens the lava-derived rocks and

sands below, acting as a reminder of the potentially

destructive terrestrial force contained within.

In the words of Haroon Mirza and Milovan Farronato,

“What happens in London stays in London – but some-

times it also goes to Stromboli.”

Listen to Haroon Mirza’s soundtrack for Forget Amnesia on Fiorucci

Art Trust’s Soundcloud.

1. Osman dresses painted by Celia Hempton, July 2014, Stromboli. Photo: Lewis Ronald

2. Jessica Warboys, sea painting,20th July 2011, Stromboli. Photo: Milovan Farronato

3. Stromboli island seen on departure

4. Baga Stead installation, July 2014, Stromboli. Photo: Lewis Ronald

5. Stuart Comer, You Stole My Dream, lecture and film program with musical accompaniment by Emily Sundblad and Andreas Reihse. 27th July 2012, Stromboli. Photo: Giulia Cenci

6. Richard Sides installation, July 2014, Stromboli. Photo: Lewis Ronald

All images courtesy the artist and Fiorucci Art Trust

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134

a CURaTED nIgHT’S SLEEp

Since art hotels have become the most inspiring way to spend the night, we asked hotel curators for the inside

track on their collections.

b y M i r i a m D u n n

Understandably diverse and sometimes entirely un-

expected, the art greeting guests at hotels undoubt-

edly brings something extra to a stay. What a privilege

to dine at the restaurant of the majestic Dolder, Zu-

rich, against the backdrop of Salvador Dali’s Femmes

métamorphosées – Les sept arts, or take in the price-

less portrait of King Louis xIV, the Sun King, by Hya-

cinthe Rigaud, at the legendary Le Negresco Hotel in

Nice. And who wouldn’t be impressed by the crafts-

manship that went into the floor-to-ceiling tapestry of

Kate Moss, by photographer Chuck Close, which is

one of the most popular pieces in the $30m art col-

lection on display at The Surrey, New York? Whether it

sums up the personal tastes of its owners, or pays trib-

ute to its location, a hotel’s art collection puts a signa-

ture stamp on a space, adding value in both financial

and experiential terms.

135Femmes Metamorphoses by Salvador Dali, Dodler Zurich

137

Kate Moss by Chuck close-courtesy the surrey

opposite page: Louis xIV portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, Versailles Salon, Negresco, Nice

below: Kate Moss by Chuck Close, The Surrey, New York

138

When the Intercontinental Westminster curated its

art, the team were keen for it

to reflect the rich tapestry of

London life and connect with

both locals and visitors, as Ed

Purnell, Area Director of Market-

ing, London, explains. The col-

lection includes limited-edition

prints from political satirist Ger-

ald Scarfe, lithographs by Chris

Orr and political cartoons by

Marin Rowson. “From the mo-

ment you walk through the front

doors of the hotel you get a real

sense of location. Tom Clarke’s

bronze sculpture The Ladder To

welcomes you to Westminster,”

Purnell said. “One of our stand-out pieces is the dra-

matic The House Always Wins – you can guarantee at

least one guest to be gazing at

it at any time, Instagramming or

tweeting away.”

The art on display at the Ju-

meirah Creekside Hotel, Dubai,

also pays tribute to its surround-

ings, albeit in the broader, re-

gional sense, comprising almost

500 works by both acclaimed

and emerging talents from the

greater Middle East. Camelia

Esmaili, whose atelier curated

the programme, explained that

the challenges ranged from

the practical to meeting the

very specific demands of the hotel’s owners. “In a

top and above: Print of Radeau de la Meduse by Eugene Delacroix, Jumeirah Creekside, Dubai

139

Looking to celebrate talent from far afield rather

than close to home, the business mogul, collector

and philanthropist, Jean Pigozzi, made it a mission

to use each wall and open space at his eco-luxury

jungle retreat, Isla Simca, in Panama, as a means

of celebrating African contemporary art. Another

champion of leading lights from the contemporary art

world, fellow collector and industrialist, Dakis Joan-

nou, also uses his portfolio of hotels to support cre-

ative talents. His latest Athens venture, the New Ho-

tel has been reinvented by the Brazilian architects,

Humberto and Fernando Campana, famed for cre-

ating living art from cast-offs. Ingeniously-upcycled

Isla Simca, Panama

living environment you have to give a strong con-

sideration to aspects like whether light could dam-

age the art, while making sure that the pieces are

immersed where they’ll shine brightest, be it in the

rooms, the lobby or the garden,” she said. “We had a

huge space that the owners wanted to fill with a car-

pet, to reflect the Middle Eastern heritage. Eventually,

we managed to convince them to do something dif-

ferent.” Today, an enormous sculptural art installation

Flying Carpet by Iraqi-born Halim Al Karim occupies

the space in question. At 15 metres high, officially the

largest art installation in the UAE, the work is likely to

leave a lasting impression.

140

ful in a space, but will also

create an energy, start

conversations, spark curi-

osity in the hotels guests

and visitors.” The work on

permanent display in the

hotel is by James Knowles,

Roger Smith’s president

and artist-in-residence,

whose bronze sculptures

at the entrance and band

of aluminum works that

wrap around the second

floor have become part of

the building’s infrastruc-

ture. “Many guests don’t

realise that there is this

additional element to the

hotel’s existence, until they

arrive,” Druttman said. “... it

is a joy to be able to invite

hotel guests to also join

us and experience the art

more intimately.”

The general manager of

the Pullman Dubai Deira City Centre,

Laurent Chaudet, shares her view that,

“Art immerses guests in a world of dis-

covery, while also providing a more

personal connection with them, leaving

behind a priceless memory.” Whether it

does or not obviously depends on the

guest – but as art hotels (rather than

simply hotels with art collections) pro-

liferate it should be easy for guests to

find their ideal match.

wooden furniture scraps are displayed throughout,

alongside works from Joannou’s private collection

by Jack Pierson, Douglas Gordon, Laurie Anderson

and Jenny Holzer.

The art programme at the Roger Smith Hotel in mid-

town Manhattan, New York, acknowledges emerging

artists through its Introducing Series at The Window

at 125. Director of Art Programming, Danika Drutt-

man, who curates a portion of the shows in-house,

explained, “I am looking for work that will look beauti-

Enveloped by Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Jumeirah Creekside, Dubai

Lebanon, Headquarters, Tel: +961 7 735 226, Fax:+961 7 735 228

U.A.E. - Dubai, Tel: +971 4 295 7922/11, Fax: +971 4 295 7921

Dar AL Baba- Mohammed Bin Rashed Blvd.

www.albaba-sweets.com

142

pUbLIC aRT On THE fLY

doha’s new airport, Hamad international, boasts a multi-million dollar collection of installations that are the latest

jewel in Qatar’s elaborate crown of public art

b y E l i a n a M a a k a r o u n

Sitting there, at the centre of the new Hamad Inter-

national Airport in Doha, one cannot but pause in

awe and stare at the US$6.8 million, seven-meter-tall

bronze canary-yellow teddy bear - with a lamp over

its head. Dubbed the Lamp/Bear by Swiss artist Urs

Fischer, it is slowly becoming the most photographed

artwork at any airport. Which is a strange one, because

how many airports have art like this – with such scale

and impact, enabled by Qa-

tar’s generous budget and

commitment to exhibiting a

world-class collection of art

in public spaces.

As Qatar grows into an in-

ternational country, Qatar

Museums Authority, an or-

ganization committed to

help the country originate art, culture and heritage

experiences from within, aims to present the very

best in art and culture and takes on the role of build-

ing bridges among the diverse peoples who live in

Doha from all over the world. As a result, permanent

and iconic art installations by world-renowned artists

such as Damien Hirst, Richard Serra and Adel Abdes-

semed mark the country all the way from its streets to

its desert.

The airport, being the first impression tourists take

of Qatar the minute they land, is the latest project in

the country’s strategy for

becoming a public arts

destination. “When deal-

ing with an international

location, we want artworks

that speak to all different

nationalities and ages,” ex-

plains Jean Paul Engelen,

Director of Art at Qatar Mu-

seums. “The Tom Otterness

work is a great example of art being a playground for

children,” he says, and adds that he is confident that

Iraqi artist Ali Hassan’s Desert Horse sculpture will be

“very popular”; it is visible to all departing travellers.

“wHEn DEaLIng wITH an InTERnaTIOnaL LOCaTIOn, wE wanT aRTwORkS THaT SpEak TO aLL DIffEREnT naTIOnaLITIES anD agES”

Lamp Bear by Urs Fischer

Oryxs by Tom Claassen

144

“Thanks to the several artworks installed throughout

the country, art and creativity are becoming part of

people’s everyday lives in Qatar,” Engelen adds. When

choosing pieces for the Hamad International Airport,

he describes the importance of playing to each artist’s

strength. “Tom Otterness is great with playgrounds

and works in bronze, while Yousef Ahmed’s work is

more sensitive and delicate, and therefore better suit-

ed in a first class lounge,” he clarifies.

Unlike most of its neighbouring countries, Qatar has

held a number of local art exhibitions over the past

years, including a photography competition for Qatar-

based artists, the four winners of which now enjoy

exposure in the airport’s departure hall. Yet there is

also commitment to bringing the outside world to the

Gulf: “Qatar Museums is heavily involved in bringing

in international artists to give lectures and conduct

workshops with local artists as a way to further sup-

port them,” says Engelen, “it shows both artists and the

public here what is going on outside – and visitors see

what we’re about here in Doha.”

In line with the country’s National Vision, anticipated

to be accomplished by 2030, Qatar Museums plays

a crucial role in supporting the country’s aim to be-

come a knowledge-based economy. “It’s all about

education,” says Engelen, “the more you learn, the

more you see, the more you know.” When asked why

few existing airports have integrated public art to the

extent that Qatar is planning to, Engelen recognises

that it is a matter of budget as much as one of vision.

“We are fortunate that the country has a major vision

and it acts upon it.”

“IT’S aLL abOUT EDUCaTIOn. THE mORE YOU LEaRn, THE mORE YOU SEE, THE mORE YOU knOw” JEAn PAUL EnGELEn, DiREctoR oF ARt At QAtAR MUSEUMS

below: Desert Horse by Ali Hassan

MEA_MOBAPP2_A4.pdf 1 5/14/14 4:43 PM

MEA_MOBAPP2_A4.pdf 1 5/14/14 4:43 PM

146

fInE DInIng, fInE aRT

Eating at a restaurant that has been well-curated can give your visual aspect something extra to chew on – as four curators explain by sharing their very different

approaches to art for dining spaces

Historically, the relationship between art and restau-

rants was eked out a while back – from Picasso to

Miro, impoverished post-Impressionists would sing for

their supper by way of a paintbrush and canvas, creat-

ing works that now hang on the wall at distinguished

places like Colombe d’Or on the Cote d’Azur, and

are worth millions. Now, the link between fine art and

fine dining manifests in a variety of ways: some res-

taurants employ curators to conjure the desired ambi-

ence, others have their own artist-in-residence. The

most impactful is when entire spaces get treated as an

installation, with diners participating in the art as they

eat, their meal experience becoming positively syn-

aesthetic. Other approaches remain more casual, with

friendships dictating what fills with walls: there seems

to be some kind of affinity between the chef and the

artist, due to both being creative maestros in their

own ways. The rise of the ‘art restaurant’ is not without

controversy, with elitist murmurs expressing distaste at

the apparently reductive nature of the munch’n’muse

combo, but as we’ve discovered from talking to cura-

tors and restaurateurs in cities across the globe, when

done well, food and art can complement one another

very tastefully indeed.


Artist plates at Lucio’s, Sydney

147

148

MARk Hix, tRAMSHED, Hix MAyFAiR,

tRAMSHED EtC.

LONDON, UK

Mark Hix—one of London’s best-known chefs, res-

taurateurs, and art lovers rolled into one—owns a

multitude of restaurants across the city. One of these

is Tramshed, in Shoreditch which boasts a bespoke

Damien Hirst installation as the centerpiece: a Her-

eford cow and cockerel preserved in a glass tank of

formaldehyde, floating four feet above a swathe of

hipster diners. Much of the work that hangs in Hix’s

restaurants comes from his friends, many of whom

are YBAs and who create works specifically for his

restaurants, or else come to his attention through

his Cock’n’Bull Gallery, a subterranean space below

Tramshed. Perhaps explaining his willingness to hang

something as unsettling as a dead cow in the air, Hix

states that he believes the work should “enhance the

space but also stand in its own right as art. I’m not try-

ing to curate an exhibition ‘in a restaurant’ nor am I just

looking for art to put on the walls.”

149

FRANCESCA GAviN, SoHo HouSE

LONDON, UK

After spending time researching emerging artists, doing studio visits and flitting from gallery to gallery, Francesca

Gavin, the curator for London’s most popular members’ club Soho House, not only chooses the work, but places

it all too, in what she describes as a “wonderful frenzy of salon hanging.” As a critic herself—she is currently the

visual arts editor at British magazine Dazed & Confused, and has contributed to innumerable others—Gavin is

aware that some in the art world regard the re-contextualisation of artworks into a social space such as a restau-

rant as a form of dumbing down. “The exhibitions I curate outside of Soho House are very different in approach,

I admit,” she says. “However, I think art is something that should be integrated into life, not just something to be

worshipped in a white cube. Having a coffee and daydreaming on the canvas next to you can be just as thought-

provoking.”

151

luCio GAllEtto, luCio’S

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

“Food for me is an art,” declares Lucio Galletto. “The

same passion and love goes into cooking a great

meal and looking after people as into a piece of art.

Combining the two is one of the most beautiful ex-

periences you can have.” More than any of the other

individuals we’ve interviewed, Galletto finds art and

food to have a common soul, therefore should sit to-

gether bound by logic. The Sydney chef established

his Italian restaurant in Paddington, Australia in 1983,

and has been filling it with artwork ever since, cour-

tesy of his friends in the art world, both locally and in-

ternationally. “The paintings change and move all the

time,” he says. “We are running out of space on our

walls so paintings have to be hung higher and closer

together to allow more space. The walls are almost

completely covered now so it is hard to fit in new

pieces, but we always manage.” Although, perhaps

considering practicalities, he adds: “We will have to

move to the ceilings soon!”

152

BoB RAMCHAND, lA pEtitE MAiSoN

BEIRUT, LEBANON

Much like the chicken-and-egg causality puzzle of old,

we can sometimes ask: which came first, the restau-

rant or the art? An ensemble of six canvases by Leba-

nese artist Mansour El Habre was the starting point

for designing the Middle East incarnation of cult Nice

restaurant La Petite Maison, which also has a branch

in London, and opened its Beirut doors last year. “We

simply built the space around it!” says director Bob

Ramchand, who counts the likes of Youssef Aoun and

Ara Azad amongst his collection. Looking across the

ocean, Ramchand asserts that he is always looking

for artists from the South of France who represent the

laid-back, understated luxury lifestyle of the French

Rivera. “Ingenus, outspoken a bit disrespectful but

oh-so talented,” he soliloquises, citing drawings from

signature artist of the house Max Cartier, and Cacou,

Annanou and Zebulon, who for Ramchand, do every-

thing to add to his desired Mediterranean flavour.

18.21SEPT

UNSEENAMSTERDAM

PARISPHOTO

13.16NOV

FOR FUTUREREFERENCE





121cm x 84 cm, Ed. 5



18.21SEPT

UNSEENAMSTERDAM

PARISPHOTO

13.16NOV

FOR FUTUREREFERENCE





121cm x 84 cm, Ed. 5



18.21SEPT

UNSEENAMSTERDAM

PARISPHOTO

13.16NOV

FOR FUTUREREFERENCE





121cm x 84 cm, Ed. 5



154

a pEEk InTO THE DIaRY Of nICHOLaS CHRISOSTOmOU

in his latest diary entry for Selections, events consultant, Gulf regular and founder of new on line travel and lifestyle portal The Cultured Traveller takes us with him to

London fashion week

Catwalk shows are complicated beasts. Every year in

February and September hundreds of thousands, some-

times millions of dollars, are lavished on fifteen minutes

of what can best be described as pure indulgence. I,

for one, enjoy wearing beautiful clothes, but getting up

close and personal with the world’s style police can be

a terrifying experience, so before you accept an invita-

tion to attend a September fashion show in London, New

York, Paris, or Milan this year, you might like to think twice.

I recall a day back in my youth when I was doing an in-

ternship with top London fashion PR Beverley Cable.

Clutching my clipboard I waited nervously for the torrent

of fashionistas to storm the venue for Maria Grachvogel’s

show, hunting their seats like wolves chasing rabbits. It

was my job to seat the international fashion press. Now

of course I know that Anna Wintour is the international

fashion press, but back then I barely knew the difference

between a tie and a cravat, let alone who wrote fash-

ion blurb for which publication. The first to approach me

was a bespectacled lady who promptly asked where her

seat was. I had no idea who this person was (who it has

to be said was dressed like one of my aunties) so in my

best English I politely asked her name. This met with a

cacophony of oohhs and aahhs from numerous fashion

assistants who couldn’t believe I had asked such a ques-

tion. I was instantly relieved of my clipboard and ushered

to a chilly corner of the venue where I wouldn’t come into

human contact for the rest of the day. My short career in

fashion was already over. It turns out that the lady whose

name I didn’t know was Hilary Alexander, who in 2013

was made an Order of the British Empire by the Queen

of England for her for services to fashion journalism. My

bad. Fashion PR was obviously not my calling.

Jump forwards 20 years to London Fashion Week Feb-

ruary 2014, where I was seated in the front row of a British

designer’s show, after having been plied with bottomless

drinks and banging house ‘music’ while being kept wait-

ing for two hours. Said designer’s name is used to mar-

ket everything from stunning clothes worn by the likes

of Beyoncé, to department store ready-to-wear, cush-

ions, vases and even yoghurts. What struck me as I sat

there, on the other side of the clipboard, was how much

worse it was being a guest. I felt the eyes of everyone

behind me burning into the back of my head. Nowhere

had I ever before experienced so many fraught egos

squeezed into one venue. And when the show eventu-

ally started, few were interested in what came down the

runway, many bitched about the models or what so-and-

so was wearing, and the never-ending debate about

size zero rambled on. So if you accept an invite to attend

a fashion show next month, make sure you arrive glow-

ing and confident, wear an invisible body suit of fashion

armour and have a sense of humour. Of course it’s best

to arrive on the arm of a celebrity and head for the front

row. Sitting anywhere else would be like holidaying in

Torremolinos when you packed for Mykonos.

64, boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris +33 (0)1 42 82 50 00 printemps.com

THE PREMIUM ADDRESS FOR FRENCH LUXURY

Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Goyard, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Manolo Blahnik, Omega, Prada, Rolex, Saint Laurent Paris, Valentino, Van Cleef & Arpels, & many others...

4-aug-14•printemps_selections mag ad.-english_23.5x28.5_5mm

64, boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris +33 (0)1 42 82 50 00 printemps.com

THE PREMIUM ADDRESS FOR FRENCH LUXURY

Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Goyard, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Manolo Blahnik, Omega, Prada, Rolex, Saint Laurent Paris, Valentino, Van Cleef & Arpels, & many others...

4-aug-14•printemps_selections mag ad.-english_23.5x28.5_5mm

selections 27 gulf

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