NEW DELHI: India’s biggest art fair opened in New Delhi this week with a focus on homegrown artists and exhibits inspired by contemporary themes such as the worst floods in the Kashmir region in more than a century.
A smorgasbord of works by 1,100 artists lured art lovers, gallerists and gawkers to a cavernous exhibition space in the capital, cementing the annual fair’s reputation as one of South Asia’s top cultural events.
Each year, an estimated 100,000 visitors flock to the four-day fair with entry tickets that cost no more than $6.
The city’s glitterati strolled past exhibits by 85 galleries at Thursday’s preview clutching glasses of red wine, with several displays sold before the seventh edition of the fair opened for public viewing on Friday. The show runs until Sunday.
“We’ve had five or six sell-out booths and several galleries have done exceptionally well,” founder Neha Kirpal told Reuters.
India’s art scene has been expanding for the past few years, with auctioneer Christie’s second Mumbai auction in December generating sales of $12 million. A report by analysts ArtTactic said confidence in the market was at its highest since 2007.
For four days each year, New Delhi becomes a center for the visual arts, with the India Art Fair at the hub of several spin-off events such as museum shows, seminars and glamorous parties.
“Beyond the fair itself, the effect it has on the art scene in Delhi at large ... and almost collaterally, the rest of Delhi programs its art agendas,” said artist Jitish Kallat, who said he would be lucky to attend half the events on the schedule.
A life-size wooden replica of a typical Kashmiri house lies on its side at the fair’s entrance, a reminder of the destruction wreaked by floods in the Himalayan state last year.
Kashmiri artist Veer Munshi, who lives in Delhi, took nearly three months to complete the house, and said he would use proceeds from its cost of about 3 million rupees ($48,500) to rehabilitate artists and writers from his native land.
Inside the fair, among an array of paintings, sculpture, video installations and photographs is another wooden exhibit — one inspired by a militant assault on the city of Mumbai in 2008.
Mumbai artist T V Santhosh’s installation tilts the city’s historic railway station at an angle, with several digital clocks on its walls counting down time in the Mumbai landmark.
Elsewhere, metallic beads take the shape of four men hanging on for dear life on a Mumbai train while an army of giant ants, with their bodies sculpted from motorbike parts, bask under the winter sun.
Like other years, customs duty and red tape threatens to temper the enthusiasm of Western gallery owners attending the fair.
“I was told that a lot of the galleries from the United States stopped (coming) because of all the taxes and all the paper work involved,” said Clarita Brinkerhoff, whose Florida-based gallery is exhibiting for the first time in India.
Brinkerhoff’s metal sculptures of peacocks, India’s national bird, studded with Swarovski crystals found favor with the Delhi crowd, with five of her exhibits sold on the first day.
She wants to be back next year, but said she hoped “the process would not be so complicated.”
It may be years before New Delhi can hope to match art fairs in Hong Kong or Dubai, but director Kirpal is unperturbed. She describes India as an emerging market in contrast to several art markets that have stagnated.
“The good news is that we are at the beginning of our growth curve for the market,” she said. “There’s only one way to go.”
Art fair turns India’s capital into art hub
Art fair turns India’s capital into art hub
Art Week Riyadh: A ‘constellation of events’ that ‘pushes the boundaries’
- Curatorial team discuss the aims and intentions behind inaugural edition of AWR
RIYADH: The inaugural Art Week Riyadh begins April 6 in the Kingdom’s capital. A non-commercial initiative, AWR builds on the city’s already thriving art community while inviting international artists and art lovers to join in.
Princess Adwaa bint Yazeed bin Abdullah, head of Art Week Riyadh, explained the event’s inspirations and goals in a statement, writing: “Art Week Riyadh is born from a belief in the power of art to inspire, challenge, and connect us. Riyadh has long been a city of growth, and through this platform we hope to contribute to its cultural future — one that is open, dynamic and deeply rooted in both heritage and innovation.”
Curator Vittoria Mataresse heads a team including associate curators Basma Harasani and Victoria Gandit-Lelandais and public program curator Shumon Basar who have worked tirelessly across multiple time zones over several months to bring the event to life.
“It was very important for us to be playful and not have the kind of rigid structure or format we’re used to seeing. Art Week Riyadh sits in between an exhibition and an art fair. It’s really a constellation of events,” Matarrese tells Arab News. “Unlike major art events that often impose universal themes and rely on globally established artists, we wanted to work within the frame of a regional art ecosystem, embracing the textures, the urgencies, the sensibilities of the Arabian Peninsula. We are trying to retrace something which is very specific and, in this way, we propose a critical departure (from the normal) format.”
The theme of AWR’s inaugural edition is “At the Edge” and the event brings together more than 45 galleries from the Kingdom, the wider Arab world, and beyond. There are three main sub-themes: “Everyday Life,” “Landscapes,” and “Motifs.”
JAX District in Diriyah will host three major exhibitions offering an expansive insight into Saudi Arabia’s cultural identity. A number of established Saudi artists whose studios are based in JAX will also be opening their doors to the public. Meanwhile, in central Riyadh, more than 15 galleries housed in the Al-Mousa Center will present exhibitions, and a wider program across the city will feature several talks and collaborations.
Gandit-Lelandais, who has worked in the region for more than two decades focusing on contemporary Arab art, tells Arab News: “Art Week Riyadh really is different, because the market and the ecosystem is different. I think it’s about making people stop implementing the European and American formats into different places because they don’t have to fit — the format can be adapted.”
The team have designed the event as “an umbrella for everyone to gather under,” Gandit-Lelandais says. “It is inclusive and it’s meant to be niche — it is for the public, and for the art enthusiasts and for the collectors.
“With Riyadh growing so fast, the kind of dialogues that we have built are so important to bring people here, but not with a Western look at how art should be,” she adds.
Harasani, the lone Saudi in the curatorial team, tells Arab News: “I’m really excited to link our local artists and our local scene (with the world). I think an educational foundation is super-exciting and super-necessary at this time for artists, art practitioners, young collectors and everyone that comes under that umbrella. We wanted to allow these generations of artists from Saudi Arabia to narrate themselves, beyond the usual framework.”
While none of the curators live in Riyadh, they all offer a nuanced and sensitive take on the capital.
“I’ve been working in Riyadh so much that it does feel like a second home,” Harasani says. “Riyadh is culturally different from Jeddah, where I’m from, and it was interesting to delve into the art scene. I thought it would be similar to the Hajazi scene, but it’s completely different. It was a massive learning experience for me to see that — given that we’re all from Saudi — there are so many different ways of working, ways of producing, ways of communicating.”
Riyadh’s rapid expansion, both physically and culturally, over the past decade contributes to the richness and diversity on show at AWR, the curators say.
“That’s the beauty of the Middle East, 10 years here is 100 years elsewhere,” Matarrese says. “I think what’s really smart about what Saudi is doing right now is they’ve learned from other people’s mistakes and they’re looking at how to navigate this in a better way.
“There’s one thing that is important in the DNA of what we are doing,” she continues. “Our visitors are not going to know what to expect. We really pushed the boundaries of what this could be showing; we are trying to deconstruct the conventional display models, to experiment with something else and re-articulate the dialogue between the different parts of the art world.”
For Harasani, the event is another marker of the artistic progress that has been made in the Kingdom in recent years.
“This did not exist when I was growing up,” she says. “The fact that we can see our dreams come to fruition now — and (see) bigger projects like Art Week Riyadh — I feel very lucky and privileged to be a part of that.”
New York Arab Festival returns with diverse lineup
- The New York-based dance music collective showcases beats from the Arab, Asian, and Pan-African diasporas
DUBAI: The fourth edition of the New York Arab Festival (NYAF) runs from April 1- May 30, with headlining acts including DJ duo Haza Party.
The New York-based dance music collective showcases beats from the Arab, Asian, and Pan-African diasporas. The festival will play host to a special version of the collective’s signature “Haza Souk” event, featuring a lineup of DJ sets, merchandise outlets and food.
On April 8, Palestinian poet Ahmad Almallah will present his latest book “Wrong Winds” while April 13 will see Palestinian rockstar, singer and songwriter Rasha Nahas perform at Brooklyn Art Haus.
A double bill dedicated to the centennial of dancer Samia Gamal will take place at the Jalopy Theatre on April 16, with New York based choreographers and dancers Angie Assal and Soumaya MaRose celebrating the history of the late Egyptian choreographer.
Meanwhile, the NYAF Arab Shorts Film Program at the Bartos Screening will feature the work of filmmakers including Alia Haju and Khaled Jarrar.
From May 1-4, NYAF will collaborate with experimental theater club La MaMa ETC for a “festival within a festival” celebrating Arab artists in four multidisciplinary “happenings” featuring spoken word performances based on texts by the late poets Etel Adnan and Joyce Mansour, dance, music and multimedia visuals. Performers include Andrew Riad, Nadia Khyrallah, Sarah Brahim, and Amr Kotb, among others.
On May 14, Lebanese American singer-songwriter H.Sinno’s “Poems of Consumption” — which turns Amazon customer reviews into pop songs — will be presented.
NYAF was established in 2022 to commemorate Arab American Heritage Month and “fight the erasure of Arab and Arab American identities from NYC, a place Arabs have called home for over three centuries,” the festival said in a released statement.
Maja-Ajmia Zellama tackles cultural identity and grief in ‘Têtes Brûlées’
- The Belgian-Tunisian director discusses her Saudi-backed debut feature
RIYADH: Belgian-Tunisian-Danish filmmaker Maja-Ajmia Zellama’s debut feature “Têtes Brûlées” (‘Hotheads’) received two special mentions at last month’s Berlin International Film Festival.
The film, which was backed by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Fund, has been praised for its depiction of a universal story through a singular lens. Zellama wrote and directed the movie, which follows the story of Eya (played by Safa Gharbaoui), a 12-year-old girl growing up in a Tunisian-Muslim family in Brussels, whose life revolves around her beloved 25-year-old brother Younès and his friends. Following Younès’ sudden and unexpected death, Zellama takes viewers through the culture, customs, resilience, and solidarity of this tight-knit community through the family’s mourning period.
“I didn’t expect so many compliments about the film from people who are not Muslims or not from immigrant backgrounds,” Zellama told Arab News. “I spoke a lot with a teenager from Germany, and I understood at that moment how grief is so universal. There are other people who say, ‘Oh yes, I’m learning a new thing about a new culture and new religions.’”
Zellama also expressed her appreciation for the Red Sea Fund’s support of a “multicultural” story. “For me, it was a major recognition to have this help and support from a Muslim country. It helped me to make this kind of film, and I’m also very curious about working more with Middle Eastern countries,” she said.
The film tackles aspects of identity, the Arab diaspora, collective grieving, religion, cultural customs, and commentary on street crimes. Largely set in the family house, constantly filled with people after Younès’ tragic death, one of the director’s goals was to show the contrasting comfort and simplicity of immigrants’ family lives compared to their lives outside of their homes.
“For me, the most complicated part of identity and immigration is systemic racism,” Zellama said. “It’s oppression in the society. But in the home, it’s not always so complicated. There are nuances; it’s complex, but in a positive way.”
Zellama’s own life was a major inspiration for the film. Her father is Tunisian and her mother Danish. She was born and raised in Belgium around a large Tunisian community. Her household was home to two religions and three languages. “The question of identity has been present all my life, of course, as a mixed kid, but also as a person of the diaspora,” she explained.
And Zellama’s experience of losing a much-loved family member was central to the narrative. “When I was grieving with my family, it was the most difficult time in my life. But it was also one of the moments in my life when I felt the most love and solidarity, because we were surrounded by so many people who were (making us) dinner, going to the grocery, giving money,” she said. “So, for me, yes, there is the grief that we had in our family, but also — and most of all — the love.”
The film explores spirituality in a nuanced and open way, particularly in its funeral and burial scenes, inspired by Zellama’s own journey with faith. She was keen to have Eya find a kind of forbearance through religion while also providing representation and an alternate, more complex, portrayal of Islam in countries outside the Middle East.
“Muslims are very different, and each person practices religion in a different way,” Zellama said. “She finds this way, and she’s good with it.”
And the film has proven to cross cultural and religious boundaries, with viewers from other faiths and backgrounds connecting to its central themes.
“Just to hear the Qur’an, (even if) you don’t understand it, you can feel something,” she said. “You don’t know what it is, but you can feel something. When you see her praying, you can imagine. And, for me, that’s enough.”
The character of Eya is key to the film’s success: she’s mature, but also playful; she’s creative, clever, defiant, and works to break stereotypes throughout the film. One of the most affecting, and effective, scenes is when she breaks away from the group of mourning women to help bury her brother alongside the men.
“I wanted to have a character who grows up in a lovely family who give space for this young girl to be what she wants,” Zellama said. “She doesn’t (think to) herself, ‘Oh, this is a boy thing or a girl thing.’ No, she’s doing what she wants to do at this moment.
“She’s very impulsive, and the impulsivity was also an important thing in the character of Eya,” she continued. “She looks like so many Muslim women and children I see around me. So, this was not me making a ‘statement.’ It was more me thinking that there are so many strong little girls around me, and I wanted to have a character like that.”
Saudi surrealist filmmaker Meshal Al-Jaser talks AlUla, tasheer, and ‘Gunpowder’
- The Saudi filmmaker’s viral music video explores otherworldly landscapes and traditional dance
ALULA: For the video of the latest track from his electronic music project Arabian Alien, Saudi filmmaker Meshal Al-Jaser headed to the heart of AlUla’s dramatic desert landscape. “Gunpowder” blends striking visuals with Al-Jaser’s signature surrealist touch.
The track, created with his bandmate Mohammed Alhamdan, explores themes of heartbreak and disillusion, using the raw beauty of AlUla to amplify its message.
“It’s about tragedy,” Al-Jaser tells Arab News. “It’s about someone who’s trying to cope with getting his heart broken.”
The video has racked up more than 1.7 million YouTube views in the first month of its release, thanks to its arresting visuals, especially of the Hejazi war dance, tasheer, which involves firing rifles into the ground as the wielder jumps into the air, sending a dramatic display of fire and gunpowder under their feet.
“I was always fascinated by tasheer, in terms of visuals,” says Al-Jaser. “A lot of the tribes in Hejaz practice it. And, like many other Saudi dances, it really originates from trying to intimidate the enemy. With time, it became more of a celebratory dance that they do at weddings and such.
“For years, I really wanted to capture it the right way, because it requires a lot of elements to come together,” he continues. “What’s specifically fascinating about it for me is really the precision and the skills of the people that do it. You have to jump at the right time, point in the right direction, shoot at the right time and land at the right time. It’s not a simple dance. It requires a lot of skill.”
“Gunpowder,” is an extension of Al-Jaser’s mission to capture the true essence of Saudi culture. “I don’t want to change anything in it or bend it around, as much as I just want to capture it in the way I view it,” he says.
Shooting against the towering sandstone cliffs and vast desert landscape of AlUla was also a treat. “I was really mindblown. It’s one of the most unique locations in the world. It’s very diverse. Every piece of it feels like a whole different world. So, when (Film AlUla) approached me (to shoot a video there), I already knew it was going to look good because of the environment,” Al-Jaser says. “One of the biggest challenges was that we only had two days to shoot it. We were just running around to really try to capture all the essence of the place, because it’s so different.”
From viral YouTube sketches to acclaimed short films, Al-Jaser’s work has challenged cultural taboos and reimagined Saudi identity through a satirical lens. His storytelling often explores the tension between tradition and modernity, mixing absurdity with sharp cultural commentary.
In 2023, Al-Jaser released his debut feature film, “Naga,” which boldly set out his signature style — provocative, surreal and unafraid to push cultural boundaries. The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a thriller-horror hybrid set in a dystopian desert landscape. It follows a rebellious young woman named Sarah, who sneaks out to attend a secret party in defiance of her conservative father’s rules. But when she misses her curfew and tries to return home, her night takes a bizarre and terrifying turn.
“My ultimate dream was always to become a filmmaker and make feature films. So this was just a small step towards that,” Al-Jaser says. “It was very interesting. Anyone you know who has shot a feature film would tell you that it’s the hardest thing they’ve done, because, especially with the first film, you kind of want to do so much with so little, and it’s a whole different experience.
“I know it’s all directing and storytelling, but, really, the amount of effort it takes to make a feature film as opposed to a short film makes it feel like a whole different medium. So, my experience was very challenging, but at the same time, I also feel really privileged to have done my first feature with Netflix. It was nice for them to really believe in me. And for it to go to Toronto… I’m so thankful for that.”
Al-Jaser hopes to make his big-screen start as a filmmaker soon. “Hopefully I will make my cinematic debut, because ‘Naga’ was a streaming film,” he says. “I’ve never experienced my film in a cinema and that’s something I’m really looking forward to.
“I really am attempting to do the best I can. Of course, I feel the weight and the responsibility, since I’m one of the first generation of Saudi filmmakers, but I also feel the privilege of that,” he continues. “If I can stay focused — which is easier said than done — then hopefully everything will fall in the right place.”
REVIEW: ‘The Residence’ — gloriously silly and wonderfully fun
- Netflix’s latest Shondaland series is a brilliant whodunnit for the streaming generation
LONDON: There’s a common thread running through most of the year’s best TV so far — one that looks sure to continue through the upcoming shows expected to dominate the next awards season: they have tended to be high-brow, high-production affairs shows with Very Serious subject matter and Very Serious performances.
And they’ve been Very Good to watch, it’s true. But sometimes you need something that’s just a bit more… fun.
Step forward “The Residence,” the latest show in Netflix’s megadeal with Shonda Rhimes’ production company. This eight-part whodunnit is set in a fictionalized version of the White House and is a typically screwball murder mystery with an array of eccentric characters and a charismatic lead detective. But, more importantly, “The Residence” is wonderfully, absurdly, stupendously fun. In an era of serious TV, it’s a glorious palette cleanser, a rollicking, twist-riddled romp through the most famous house in history.
During a state dinner for the visiting Australian prime minister, the US president receives the shocking news that a murder has been committed on the grounds. With hundreds of guests (including the odd cameo from real-world figures) and staff in attendance, the whole house is locked down so that legendary detective Cordelia Cupp can swoop in and solve the crime.
The masterstroke here is casting Uzo Aduba (“Orange is the New Black”) as Cupp — a character as brilliantly deductive as she is hilariously deadpan. The writing is snappy and concise, sure, but it’s Aduba who brings it to life across a show that could have been, at eight episodes, a couple hours too long to sustain a sole mystery.
Thankfully, with comic chops as accomplished as these — and a supporting cast that includes excellent turns from Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Lee and others — there’s little sense of lag, even as audiences are treated to the umpteenth plot twist. And yes, all of the most obvious mystery tropes are shamelessly mined, and Cupp’s abrasively, frustratingly brilliantly detective feels like an homage to many of those who have come before (even Benoit Blanc gets a namecheck), but when a show is this much fun, you won’t care. Bingeworthy escapism at its finest.
