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ART DUBAI 2015

What is Art Dubai?

Welcome to Art Dubai 2015.  This important event, now in it’s 9th year is a permanent fixture on the Dubai International Events Calendar. Welcome also to corporate entertainment, parties, glamorous locations and the chance to meet some very arty people from all over the world. Read on, take a closer look.

Where was Art Dubai held this year?

This year as in previous years, Art Dubai was held mainly at Madinat Jumeirah and the Mina A Salam hotel, part of the same complex. Design Days Dubai, also part of Art Week was held in the Downtown area of Dubai.

How many rooms of art were there at Art Dubai?

There were 2 large  gallery rooms in the Madinat Jumeirah and one large gallery room at the Mina A Salam hotel, it was easy to walk between the two venues. The 2 galleries next to each seemed busier than the one at Mina A Salam. 92 galleries representing 42 countries all exhibited this year with a focus on the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

What would you expect to see at Art Dubai?

Expect to see art exhibits from the sublime to the faintly ridiculous! After all, how do we define Art? Especially modern, contemporary art? A small shower tray with some soapy water and some of the artist’s hairs reminded me of Tracy Emin’s famous unmade bed that was on display at Selfridges window in London. I’ve put some works that stood out for me here.

Bruce_Lee_Art_Dubai_2012

What is Design Days, also part of Art Dubai?

Design Days Dubai has only been running for the past 2 years and is mainly focused on furniture related items that could be works of art in themselves. I loved this exhibition and would highly recommend you visit next year if you are at all interested in Interior Design, lighting or arty homes.  It even has unusual handmade jewellery. Design Days Dubai comprised of one large hall set up opposite the new Opera District of Dubai. It would be sensible to get a taxi there to drop you right outside the entrance as parking wasn’t that easy.

What would you expect to see at Design Days?

International and local exhibitors bring a selection of their best pieces and display them to great effect in this limited space. There were items that ranged from Italian designed falcon stands (complete with real falcons) to evil eye dressing tables with secret compartments and lights that swayed when you walked by.

Should you invest in art from Art Dubai or Design Days?

Most definitely yes. Some of the jewellery for sale at Design Days was Dhs 500 and I haven’t seen this type of jewellery anywhere in Dubai. Similarly some pieces of furniture, lighting and rugs were affordable. Obviously some of art costs hundreds of thousands of Euros so perhaps invest isn’t the right word unless you really are confident of what you’re buying. But if you really love something, know precisely where it would go in your home, you can afford it and you don’t care if it doesn’t increase (or decrease) in value then go for it!

What price ticket did you notice attached to the piece of art work made of yellow felt stickers?

You have to put it together yourself! It comes to you in a box with instructions, it can be between 6 to 9 feet in diameter (so the owner has some creative authority over the work!). It is the 5th in a series of works by an Indian artist originally from London.

Answers in a comment please…

Thank you

Monica

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ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET 2012

Last week the World Trade Centre hosted the Arabian Travel Market, a great first stop when planning your holiday, be it close to home here in Dubai or further afield. It’s like going to a global tourist office with all the extra bits you may need to organize your holiday thrown in. Here are some snippets that you should know about. Emirates is starting to fly to Vietnam from the 4th of June, there will be one flight a day to Ho Chi Minh City leaving at around 9 am. It takes 7 hours 20 minutes and arrives at about 7 in the evening. No other Middle Eastern carrier flies direct to Vietnam, you’d need to go via Singapore or Thailand. Emirates are organizing holiday packages as we speak but they are not in their 2011/12 brochure.

A gorgeous hotel in Danang (one hour flight away from Ho Chi Minh) is the Nam Hai, contact The Travel Collection (with a branch in Dubai) for more information on how to book that. They have some offers on at the moment.

 The Ritz Carlton is opening an amazing new property set on 45 acres with a private beach in Abu Dhabi. It has a giant 1600 square metre outdoor pool so room for everyone to have a proper swim.   They have also taken over (for about  a year now) the Al Bustan hotel in Muscat, 2 easy destinations nearer to home.

You may have heard of the Missoni hotel in Kuwait, but this is the 2nd Missoni hotel in the world, did you know the first one is in Edinburgh in Scotland ! I also hadn’t realized that this hotel was managed by the Rezidor hotel group who also manage the Radisson hotels.   I spoke at length to the Rezidor Group who explained to me what the Missoni family from Italy were trying to depict with their Missoni hotels, uber design for one thing ! We’ll be trying out a couple of the much talked about new Asian restaurants in the newish Radisson hotel on the Sheikh Zayed Road and will of course let our readers know the results.

And finally Dubai Events and Promotions department are launching a new What’s On Calendar called dubaicalendar.com with all Dubai’s main events on one website.

A travel note: www.DoinDubai.com regularly contributes Dubai happenings to Haute Compass a luxury travel site based in Sweden and will be writing for Columbus, an International Travel Magazine based in the Netherlands.

If you haven’t booked your holidays yet hopefully this post has given you some food for thought and keep reading for reviews of some of the places we’ve mentioned above, finally do like and share the post on Facebook, thanks and stay cool in the heat ….Monica

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ART DUBAI

“It’s Art Jim, but not as we know it !”

Bruce_Lee_Art_Dubai_2012

 

I went to the preview of Art Dubai 2012 at the Madinat Jumeirah last night (20th of March) and was hugely impressed by the variety of art on display from around the world. 75 galleries exhibited from 32 different countries and most things were for sale from the Dhs 1 million or so for the 22 carat Cartier necklace to under one thousand Dhs for a paper plate with a stencil in the shape of a snowflake. It’s all art, but a far cry from the flat, one dimensional fine art oil painting variety although there was some of that. Going to the preview meant I had the chance to speak to some of the artists about their work. Here are my favourites, from the beautiful to the bizaare !

A set of coloured panels provided the backdrop to a cut out black canvas of flowers, while tightly curled up ribbons of paper stuck close together formed a dramatically coloured structural image. 4 people travelled the world with models of religious buildings on their heads pointing out the similarities of religion. Dutch in Indonesia is evident. A  giant fibre glass hair clip when oversized liked this becomes an instrument of torture and could be seen as kind of skeleton. There are many everyday objects that have connotations of torture.  A batch of discarded medical prints are transposed onto uniform mirrors, do you think they needed nose jobs ? Look in the mirror and tell me. Global warming is an issue but a freezing installation using Murano glass creatures, shattered mirror panels and real ice men make the point about climate change. And while they are often in the newspapers, these clever collages have used newspaper to flesh out Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. There are many pictures I haven’t included, do write if you would like to see more of this wildly successful, entertaining and thrilling exhibition.

Do remember to like the post on Facebook, thanks Monica.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NurA7WQ-QDg?rel=0&w=640&h=480]

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DUBAI PEARL MUSEUM

Do you know where the Dubai Pearl Museum is

Many visitors and residents of Dubai are aware of the Dubai Museum in Bur Dubai, but did you know a little bit further in Deira is an immaculate collection of Dubai pearls housed in a permanent museum type display on the top floor of Emirates NBD bank ?

What’s the Dubai Pearl Museum about

I visited the Dubai Pearl Museum as part of a larger group and found it informative and insightful. The informal tour begins with a short (10 minute) dvd explaining the fascinating history of pearling in the UAE, the lives of the workers who dived for pearls and how they prepared for the long, difficult voyages as well as explaining the growth of a natural pearl in an oyster.

Pearl Museum Dubai

Where did the pearls come from for the Dubai Pearl Museum

There is a semi guided walk around the Dubai Pearl Museum displaying literally thousands of pearls most of which were donated by Sultan Al Owis whose father, a pearl trader, started off this prolific collection.

Apparently pearls are best displayed on a red background to show their lustre and indeed all the displays are against a red velvet background. As well as the pearls themselves there is a collection of the real instruments and tools required for extracting and sorting the pearls, I found the collection of different sized brass sieves fascinating.

Pearling was a unique tradition for a whole community in the UAE that touched all facets of life. There is also a display of the earliest currency used in this part of the world.

Early currency at the Pearl Museum

The exhibition is a wonderful and unique way of preserving a piece of history and heritage that is too easily forgotten in modern Dubai.

Visit the pearl museum for a glimpse of the real Old Dubai. I highly recommend it. Click here for what you NEED TO KNOW to make a visit to the Dubai Pearl Museum and Thanks for liking  DoinDubai.com on Facebook. 

How pearls grow Pearl Museum

UPDATED 20th NOVEMBER 2013

And if you happen to be in London between September and January, do check out this gorgeous exhibition held jointly with the V and A and the Qatar Museums Authority. Check the link to read about Pearl fishing in the Gulf.

Thanks Monica.

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