Latest news with #Alserkal
Al Etihad
09-04-2025
- Sport
- Al Etihad
UAE's Alserkal invited to big league in Norway after WGM status
10 Apr 2025 01:24 KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)It's heady days for Rouda Alserkal, the newly crowned first woman Grandmaster of UAE chess. Fresh from her norm being ratified, the 15-year-old will be heading to Norway to participate in a tournament with heavyweights of the chess world, on a special invite by organisers of the Norway Chess a press conference in Dubai at the Seven Seas hotel on Wednesday evening, it was confirmed that Alserkal will be travelling to the coastal city of Stavanger to participate in the May 26 to June 6 to Aletihad on her way to the conference, Alserkal said the news has barely sunk in. "When I saw the message, when I woke up about a week ago, I could not believe it; it sounded too good to be true, you know, like a scam. But then my club – Abu Dhabi Chess & Mind Games Club (ADCC) – confirmed it," the excited teen Norway Chess Open will be the home event of world No.1 and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen, besides big names such as D Gukesh, current world champion and India's youngest to do so, Hikaru Nakamura, the Fischer Random chess world champion, India's first WGM Koneru Humpy and many more."I was very close to beating [India WGM] Dronavalli Harika in a rapid game at the Asian Chess Championship. I lost eventually, but that game gave me belief. When I received this [Norway] news, I told my coach immediately that I need to start preparing," she belief turned into determination as she doubled up her training hours from the four hours she used to dedicate to it before achieving the WGM norm last November. She did not wait for her title to be ratified, which was last week. "I have cut down on my fun time. But I am not really complaining about that because if I want to achieve greatness, of course, I'll have to sacrifice something."I was speaking to Salem Saleh [the only Grandmaster UAE had until Alserkal] two days ago, and we discussed openings and endgames as areas I must focus on more. Besides, with opportunities like this, I want to target entering the 2,300 Elo rating mark," said Alserkal, adding that she is looking forward to potential interactions with elite players and gaining insights during the Alserkal's achievements, Norway Chess managing director Kjell Madland said: "She stands tall as an inspiration for women in this region to achieve. The Norway Chess Open provides a great opportunity for Grandmasters and chess players to hone their skills and gain competitive exposure. "We hope to find and encourage many future chess stars from the Middle East to play in the Norway Chess Open." Madland also expressed interest in creating future synergies with potential partners in the Grandmaster group, in which Alserkal has been invited to participate, will have nine rounds, with opportunities for title norms and a prize fund of €13, Alawlaqi, the media spokesperson of ADCC, said it was a source of pride to see one of their own flourishing. "What Rouda has achieved is not just for herself, but for the whole country. We are now looking at our other players now to reach such levels. This partnership with Norway Chess recognises the hard work we have put in with events such as the AD Chess Festival, which is popular in many parts of the world, how far Abu Dhabi has come with its public reputation and having many such partnerships in the UAE and abroad."
The National
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
What to expect at Art Dubai 2025: Digital work by Mohammed Kazem and AI-driven data sculptures
A digital commission by Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem and a series of performances and site-specific installations by Mexican artist Hector Zamora are among the highlights to expect at this year's Art Dubai. The fair will take place place at Madinat Jumeirah from April 18 to 20, with invitation-only previews on April 16 and 17. More than 120 exhibitors will be participating at the event. "For nearly two decades, Art Dubai has played two complementary roles, as the region's leading commercial art platform and as a unique institution that is rooted in and significantly contributes to the local cultural ecosystem,' says Pablo del Val, artistic director of Art Dubai. 'This year's programme continues this long-term approach, working in partnership with local institutions, business and government to create new opportunities for artists, and enhancing Dubai's reputation as a centre of innovation and thought leadership.' Art Dubai has now revealed the first details of its talk programme, as well as the commissioned works that will be revealed at the fair. Transformation is a focus of the Art Dubai Commissions programme this year. Zamora has interpreted this idea with sculptural pieces and group performances that interact with the terracotta objects. The artist will also unveil a site-specific installation at Alserkal Avenue. The work marks a new partnership between Art Dubai and Alserkal as the two organisations co-commission an artist whose practices are rooted in performance. A series of digital artworks, meanwhile, reflect on the theme: After the Technological Sublime. The works examine how technological advancements instill awe for human achievements, but they also evoke anxiety as the systems go beyond our control and distract us from vital environment, social, cultural and political challenges. Ouchhh Studio, for instance, will return to the fair to present MotherEarth. The AI-driven data sculpture transmutes raw climate data – such as air quality and CO2 emissions – into a sensory experience. Breakfast, a data artist living and working in New York, will exhibit Carbon Wake, a kinetic installation that is digitally controlled and makes use of real-time energy data collected from around the world to show the impact of individual choices. Other highlights include Retreat by Italian artist Jacopo Di Cera. The work underscores climate issues by showing the melting of the Brenva glacier in the Italian Alps in a four-metre-tall piece comprising more than 30 screens. Dubai's Hybrid Xperience, meanwhile, will give audiences a chance to visualise their dreams using AI technology. In Kahrabaa, Arabic for electricity, Ania Soliman presents a large-scale installation that was created in response to Beirut's ongoing energy crisis. Soliman, who has Egyptian, Polish and American backgrounds, presents her work on a five-metre-high canvas, which features technological and organic materials. Total Arts at the Courtyard will present Reconstructed Landscape, a work that brings together various found objects from UAE's mountains and urban environments into an imagined topology. Kazem will unveil a digital commission presented by Swiss wealth management company Julius Baer. The installation is titled Directions (Merging). The work places Dubai's co-ordinates in the centre of a walled, immersive space. The walls present a collection of static co-ordinates against a backdrop of rolling waves. The work touches upon resource exchange and the interconnectedness in the modern world, while also reflecting on Dubai's evolution as global hub. Piaget is also returning to the fair to present a commission by Kuwaiti artist Alymamah Rashed. The work will be in Rashed's idiosyncratic surrealist style and will be part of Piaget's exhibition Play of Shape, which will present boldly designed jewellery and watch collections. Art Dubai is also known for its talk programme. This year, its Global Art Forum will examine the ever-changing nature of the modern world and how it may instill uncertainty and anxiety about the future. The forum will be held under the title The New New Normal. Panels will tackle developments in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, gamified economics and cultural geopolitics. They will also look at beauty and luxury industries and the impact of social media on personal and political spaces. Cultural figures taking part will include architect Rem Koolhaas and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan. The Digital Summit will also return for its second year. A part of Art Dubai Digital, the sessions will explore the theme After the Technological Sublime. The programme will be a platform to discuss how art and technology are meeting critical environmental, social, cultural and political issues. The Collector Talks will, on the other hand, explore whether the practice and motivation of collecting has shifted recently. The sessions will examine whether contemporary collectors have bolstered goals beyond personal gratification, and are now instead motivated by other drivers. Finally, Art Dubai's Modern Talks will also return. The programme has been a staple of the fair and is dedicated to promoting scholarship and highlighting art histories that have not had their due attention. The talks will explore cultural connections between West Asia, North Africa and Latin America. It delves into their shared experiences and explores how artists today are using heritage as a tool to reflect upon contemporary realities. Both Art Dubai's Collector and Modern Talks are presented in partnership with Dubai Collection, the city's institutional collection of modern and contemporary art. Other talks include a new Conversations with Artists series, which will highlight the processes of artists participating at the fair, and a conversation series by Huna – a food, art and culture platform – that will have leading cultural voices from the UAE discuss their lives and practices.
The National
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Neom's first artists in residence explore art's role in building a futuristic city
What is an artist's role in building a city? The inaugural Artists in Residence programme at Neom addresses this question, and there is hardly a better place to investigate the subject than a city that is in the process of being built. A $500 billion project, Neom has made international headlines over the past few years for its mega-developments that include The Line, Oxagon and Trojena. Once completed, the area in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk region will effectively be transformed into what is routinely being advertised as 'the land of the future'. However, while these projects will certainly give Neom the appearance of a futuristic city, art and culture are what will give it a soul. 'When you're building a city, it's not just about building roads and buildings,' says Michael Lynch, executive director of entertainment, culture and media at Neom. 'The original intention behind what we wanted to do was to embed the idea that artists have a place and role in the Saudi of the present and the Saudi of the future.' Four Saudi artists – Bilal Allaf, Ahaad Alamoudi, Abdulmohsen Al Bin Ali and Ayman Zedani – took part in the Artists in Residence programme. They were joined by four international artists: Eduardo Cassina from Spain, Tamara Kalo from Lebanon, Giulia Bruno from Italy and Liva Dudareva from Latvia. Neom's culture wing consulted the Dubai-based Alserkal Arts Foundation to develop the residency and refine the selection process. 'We wanted Alserkal to work with us because they had run artist residence programme in many places before,' Lynch says. 'They brought a degree of professionalism to the idea of how this programme would work. We weren't looking at late-career artists. We wanted people who had an inquisitiveness.' In the first phase of the three-month residency, which began in September, artists travelled to Neom to become acquainted with the region, its landscape and the projects involved. 'We wanted them to to understand what we were doing,' Lynch says. 'We wanted them to hopefully, sort of provoke us into thinking about now what would be the next iteration of the Artists in Residence programme.' The artists travelled to Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, an art and advocacy foundation in Madrid, in the second phase of the residency to ruminate on their experiences in Neom while immersing themselves, Lynch says, 'in a sophisticated and developed artistic market'. 'The artists then had a month to themselves to think about what their work was going to be, and if they wanted to create work,' Lynch says. 'We didn't stipulate that they had to create work, but we envisaged that there would be an output at the end of it that we could show to the people at Neom.' The artists were paired with engineers and people working in different sectors within Neom to better comprehend the scope and aim of the projects. This proved to be influential both ways, Lynch says. Allaf is an example. The performance artist worked on a filmed dance piece that featured a robot developed by one of the engineers at Neom. 'The engineer also has become interested in the potential of engineering in relation to art,' Lynch says. 'We have a robotics and a 3D printing team to help us make buildings and all sorts of things, and they're now looking at how 3D printing could create major public art pieces for us into the future.' Other artists focused on a different aspect in Neom. Ali, for instance, was keen on exploring the ornithological and migratory patterns of the region's birds. The artist found connections between the flight patterns and local mythologies and social histories, responding to Neom's mandate of harmonising the natural environment with urban development. Cassina, on the other hand, found inspiration in a 1960s Japanese sewing machine he found at the site. He worked with various departments within Neom, including the sustainability and urban planning sections, and eventually created a 20 metre-long tapestry that maps out the history of Neom, between the Nabataean and contemporary eras. 'He actually created a map, which started at one end with the Nabataeans and finished with the camp that he was living in here,' Lynch says. 'He created a brilliant artwork.' Alamoudi also addressed the region's sprawling history, but through film. 'She went out into the desert and did a video telling her version of the story of Neom over a period of time,' Lynch says. The artist's works and research were presented in an exhibition at Neom in late November, effectively concluding the first Artists in Residence programme. A series of lectures by the artists were also hosted at the site, giving the Neom staff an insight into how they envision building a city for the future. 'We only did the exhibition for a relatively short period of time,' Lynch says. 'We only had the 5,500 people who live in Neom as the target audience, as well as the consultants that had come in from various places. I think it clearly established, as you talk about things like buildings of the future and design in the future, that you'll get as much good ideas from artists as you will from architects, engineers or futurists.'
The National
10-02-2025
- Business
- The National
Beirut store Orient 499 bringing its unique style to Dubai's Alserkal Avenue
'I was always attracted to the artisan world," explains Frank Luca, co-founder of the Lebanese boutique, Orient 499. The boutique has been a pillar of the Beirut cultural scene since 2006, when it was opened by Luca and his business partner Aida Kawas. The pair have now opened the first international outpost at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai. 'I grew up in a family of antique dealers for three generations, So, I always paid attention to details, always finding amazing techniques.' Since its foundation, Orient 499 has run on a simple concept – to be a curated space that celebrates and champions artisanal skills. Having started with traditional Lebanese soap making, copper work and hand-blown glass, these have all been translated into functional objects for a modern audience. As with many great ideas, however, it came about almost by accident. The pair met in Istanbul and while chatting, they realised they have many shared interests. Kawas invited him to open a boutique offering artisanal treasures in the Turkish city, and while Luca was intrigued by the proposition, he was unconvinced by the location. "I love Istanbul, but I live in Lebanon. I barely knew her, but I thought about it, and three weeks later we signed the papers in Beirut." Over the years, the products have expanded to encompass ceramics, trays, artworks, antiques and clothes, all carefully designed and chosen by themselves. "Aida has a very strong knowledge of fashion, so she is designing clothes, as she used to work with tailors and the people doing the embroidery," he explains. Today, the new Alserkal space is populated with beautifully displayed treasures, including Levantine glass; furniture inlaid with mother of pearl, which is a Syrian speciality; embroidered suzani wall hangings from Uzbekistan; Ethiopian silver crosses; and kaftans cut from the finest Varanasi brocade. Elegantly sparse, each piece is given space to be been seen and admired. About to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary, Luca is reflective about the journey it has undertaken. "We work with craftsmen and craftswoman who used to come to our shop by bicycle," he explains. Over endless coffees, the pair would sit chatting with the makers, who would discuss their hopes for the future of their craft, which often felt uncertain. As the company has grown, it has, in turn, secured a financial lifeline for so many of the craftspeople. "After two or three years, we saw them coming with their own car, and now we work with the children,' explains Luca. These strong bonds have been sorely tested over recent years, he explains. First by Lebanon's financial crisis, then Covid-19 and then the Beirut explosion. Most recently, they have had to navigate how to remain safe during the Israeli invasion. 'All the orders were halted, but we are like a big family, and were there to support everyone, and find shelters for them from the bombs," Luca says. Coping with disaster is ingrained deep within the Lebanese psyche, yet he admits to being frustrated at times. 'We are in a country that has zero support for the crafts. In India, they have a Ministry of Crafts. In Lebanon, of course, we don't expect anything like that, but at one point I saw the figures of the financial volume of crafts being made in Lebanon, and realised we are doing one-third of it. Orient 499 represents one third of the crafts being made. Now, when I go and renew my passport, I say, 'You should give me a medal for what I'm doing for the country',' he laughs. In recent years, the pair have started to source expensive cloth from around the world for select clothing. With high prices per metre however, they were apprehensive. "We started to work with very elevated fabrics, but worried what clients are going to pay this price? But we said, 'let's try it', and it became one of the best-selling items. Even though the budget is high, the quality is amazing. So now we have cashmere from Europe, the most beautiful linen from Belgium, silk from Italy, and brocade from Varanasi, and we have our own atelier of couture, so we add embroidery or beading." Working with very limited numbers enables the company to stay true to its manifesto of only offering the unique, steering well clear of anything mass-produced. "This is luxury now," he explains. "The handmade and unique. And I think now more people are turning to very niche brands that really produce in limited quantities. When we have a fashion design, we do a maximum of six pieces, so imagine the chance to cross someone in a party and to have the same dress. Impossible! "But its exhausting. In terms of business it's not the most clever thing to do, but it brings us joy and at the same time, a client knows and is willing to understand the price point and the uniqueness of it. Searching out the most beautiful fabrics, but only making two pieces with it." Describing the Beirut space as "poetic", Luca admits creating the right atmosphere in Dubai was difficult. Situated in a warehouse, they needed to make it softer and more human. "We teamed up with Mariagroup Architecture founder Michele Maria, who with her brother Georges runs the respected practice in the Lebanese capital," he explains. "She did my apartment in Beirut, and I always loved what she was doing. She decided to create a warm box inside the warehouse." The effect is a soft framework of lighting, that shows each piece to perfection. Now that other Lebanese companies are moving into Alserkal Avenue, alongside Orient 499, Luca is delighted. "It's like a little Beirut," he laughs.
