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L'Orient-Le Jour
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Summer in color in Lebanon, Abu Dhabi and Egypt: Where to be this weekend in the Middle East
When every weekend blurs into a never-ending scroll of flyers, exhibitions and underground gigs, having too many options can feel a lot like having none. This is why every Thursday, L'Orient Today, in partnership with The MYM Agenda, is going to guide you through the cultural happenings across the Middle East that are actually worth your time, whether it's a Beirut book launch, a rooftop concert in Amman or an experimental film screening in Tunisia. Consider this your weekly shortcut to what matters in the region's buzzing cultural scene. If you walk around the streets of Beirut, it's not hard to find a couple of shiny art galleries, displaying the next big artists. Here's our pick of two you can't miss this week: If you're around Clemenceau, make sure to visit the Salah Barakat Gallery and take a trip inside Azza Abo Rabieh's vibrant and multidimensional world. Abo Rabieh, a Syrian artist living in Beirut, is known for blending tulle and painting on her canvas, creating an almost illusionary effect that makes you never want to leave the inside of her brain. It is often so seamless and light that you find yourself perceiving everyday objects, such as strawberries and buildings, as infinitely delicate. For more information, click here. Water runs our lives, or at least that's the narrative that Joumana Jamhouri invokes in her latest photography exhibit at Mar Mkhayel's Galerie Tanit. Water demarcates our cities, reflects the sky, shapes the horizon and keeps us and our plants healthy and happy. It's a force much bigger than any of us, and Jamhouri's pictures of vast landscapes and close-ups of fish will feel like taking a swim on a hot summer day. What does summer mean to you? Artbooth Gallery, in Al Rawdah, Abu Dhabi, asked that question to 10 multi-disciplinary artists. The answers are what summer feels like — bold, hot, bright, vague and melancholic. The artist's individualism shines through, yet it still comes together to build a cohesive experience and a universalized vision. Summered is showcasing artworks by Soraya Abu Naba'a, Gilbert Halaby, Asaad Arabi, James Mathews, Habuba Farah, Noor Bahjat, Bruno Sfeir, Oussama Diab, Layal Khawly and Elias Naman until September. Ever noticed the men on the streets in Lebanon who collect bottles from garbage cans to sell later? Artist Béchir Boussandel couldn't help but become obsessed with them as he visited his homeland in Tunisia, and began a journey into a new medium — blown glass. His exhibition at Tabari Artspace in DFIC, Dubai, "Tempted By Other Suns," tackles his long-time muses: migration, urban transformation and survival. Boussandel, raised in France, blends paint, blown glass, metal and other organic materials to tell his story and that of the men he met on the streets of Tunisia. As French philosopher Claire Marin said, 'Like migratory birds, we are always tempted by other suns.' This Saturday, head to Dar al-Anda Art Gallery in Amman, Jordan, to catch the opening of painter Hiba Sweis' latest exhibition, "Let There Be Color and the World Shall Breathe." In a world where light was created on the first day, Sweis explores the reality of this theory. If light were present, then color would be the first word it spoke. In our lives, we cannot experience any of our senses without color or hues. Even our touch, our hearing, our feelings are bright, loud, dull or overwhelming. Sweis tries to translate her saturated world on canvases, taking you on a trippy yet reflective experience. For more information, click here. Safar Khan Gallery in Zamalek, Cairo, is hosting another Anthology exhibition, this time (and fittingly, given today's theme) focusing on each artist's interpretation of the Egyptian summer. Running until mid-September, the show will feature multiple revisits and changes by the curators, allowing you to visit periodically and compare and contrast the additions you love or dislike, making the exhibition an ever-evolving experience. Head over to visit your favorite established artists' latest works, or meet new and emerging voices in the scene, working in sculpture, photography, fabric appliqué, mosaics and various forms of painting. For more information, click here. This month, Stal Gallery in Muscat, Oman, is showcasing emerging artists in Omani contemporary art, particularly those who are not afraid to use bold colors to tell their stories. "Narratives of Colors" is a joint exhibition by H.H. Sayyidah Afra al-Said, Anwar Sonya, Hassan Meer, Moosa Omar, Idris al-Hooti and Hussain Obaid, which explores identity, memory and storytelling in screaming colors.
L'Orient-Le Jour
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Lebanon, UAE, KSA, Jordan... Our selection of cultural events to attend this weekend
When every weekend blurs into a never-ending scroll of flyers, exhibitions, and underground gigs, having too many options can feel a lot like having none. That's where we come in. Starting today, L'Orient Today is teaming up with The MYM Agenda to guide you through the fray. Every Thursday, we'll handpick the cultural happenings across the Middle East that are actually worth your time, whether it's a Beirut book launch, a rooftop concert in Amman, or an experimental film screening in Tunis. Consider this your weekly shortcut to what matters in the region's buzzing cultural scene. Starting Thursday, the city of Ehden (in Zgharta) kicks off its annual "Ehdeniyat International Festival," giving everyone a chance to run away from the sweltering Beirut heat and take refuge in North Lebanon's evergreen mountains. Famed pianist Guy Manoukian will be there to christen weeks of performances by local and international artists like Abeer Nehme and our moms' favorite, Kadim al-Sahir. You have until August to catch Caracalla's rendition of 'One Thousand and One Nights,' a story as iconic as the dance crew on stage. Known for their ruthless attention to detail and commitment to perfection, their dancing promises to transport you through each tale's endless twists and turns. Catch them at Theatre Caracalla, Horsh Tabet. For tickets and details, click here. This weekend in Al Quoz, Dubai, Ayyam Gallery's multimedia exhibition "Wavering Hope" continues to explore the different facets of Syrians' collective trauma. How do 14 years of civil war and decades of cruel rulers impact a people? And in the aftermath of conflict, is there space for hope? The 12 artists on display try to answer these questions and make space for optimism, no matter how fragile. For details, click here. In the same neighborhood, artist Nazgol Ansarinia is bringing you the streets of Tehran with her exhibition "Instruments of Viewing and Obscurity" at Green Art Gallery. Ansarinia zooms in on Iran's urban sprawl and Brutalist architecture, turning them into points of departure through which to question state and social control, in a world where the house is an extension of the body and the window that of the eye. This month, Ithra, known as the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, is hosting its annual July festival, offering a program packed with something for every age and interest. When it's too hot to do anything else, skip the beach and catch the children's activities this week, or pick up a chessboard, paintbrush, or calligraphy pen to create your own fun. Check the full program here. If Ithra's too much of a drive, Al-Ula in Medina Province is offering an equally immersive experience of exhibitions, shows and activities sprinkled around the city, so you never run out of things to do. And if somehow nothing entices you, strolling through the larger-than-life naturally formed sculptures in the desert landscape would be enough to keep you occupied. Check the full program here. This weekend, painter Laila Shaw's "Voices from Gaza" continues to take center stage as part of the artist's reflections on her homeland's violent destruction. Shaw invites us to walk along the walls of Gaza, through layers of graffiti, political slogans and symbols of resistance, building a landscape of resistance as emotional as it is visual. What once represented the cornerstones of where she lived are now being used as calls against erasure and exile. The exhibition is on display at the Contemporary Art Platform, Shuwaikh Industrial, Kuwait. For details, click here. In its first weekend at Orfali Art Center in Amman, Jordan, painters Ashtar Nasralla and Hiba al-Lami explore people's connections with each other and nature, and how the two are often interchangeable. Though the paintings are faceless, they still lure you in to feel the bond of the figures standing behind the blue and green trees; a feeling both experimental and human. Cairo's landmark Mashrabia Gallery is welcoming back artists, new and old, who have shaped its journey and turned it into a hub for local contemporary art. Their exhibition is not a retrospective but rather a new beginning in a genre that is always evolving.
