Selections 27 gulf

• IN CONVERSATION WITH LAILA SHAWA • ART AROUND THE WORLD • VENICE BIENNALE • POP ART NOW • • LOUIS VUITTON TRAVELS • ARAB MODERN ARCHITECTURE • SPECIAL SECTION CURATED BY FABRICE BOUSTEAU •

issue # 27 | AUTUMN 2014

ARTs / STYLE / CULTURE from the Arab world and beyond

THE DISCOVERY ISSUE

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Editor’s Letter

THE DISCOVERY ISSUE It saddens me to see

ice, we invited three of

the region around us

our contributing critics

turning to a darker

Hilary French, Maria

shade, so in this is-

Christina Didero, and

sue we’ve gone out

Merlin Fulcher to share

of our way to bring

their personal notes on

you a diverse palette

this year’s Architecture

of people and places

Biennale, and later on

from around the world,

Maria

including

writes her review of

artist

Laila

Shawa, originally from

Christina

also

Design Miami/Basel.

Gaza, who tells us her story; Maher Attar, D ‎ i-

Fabrice

rector of the Photo

Beaux Arts magazine

Library of the office of

editor and curator of

HH Sheikha Moza bint

the Indian Pavilion at

Nasser,

shares

Beirut Art Fair joins the

with us his experiences

issue with his inspira-

and photography from

tions

across Africa, Asia and

about art around the

South America to visit

globe. From Paris, Avril

underprivileged

chil-

Groom reveals the lat-

dren; and an illustrated

est helping of brilliance

reportage by Nick Rice

from Boucheron, and

who

and George Butler from the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Bousteau,

and

thoughts

from Monaco, George Oliveira, a Brazilian lead for the Monte-Carlo Ballet, shares his feelings about life as a

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

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

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

we hope brings some colour and light to your world.

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

May you enjoy our multi-hued read for Autumn.

with wanderlust running through their veins, there’s a very special pair of Louis Vuitton destination guides illustrated by Italian comic book creator Lorenzo Mattotti about Vietnam and Japanese Manga artist Jiro Taniguchi about Venice. Continuing our love affair with Ven-

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

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.

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 international 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 transport 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.

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 Doctors of The World to document the plight of Syrian refugees in the many camps along the Lebanese-Syrian border and in the Bekaa Valley.

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contents

56

16

16 In conversation with Laila Shawa

26

The life of a ballet dancer

28

Illustrating Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon

36 A photographer’s journey with Maher Attar

Editorial Masthead Editor-in-Chief Rima Nasser Editor Kasia Maciejowska Designer Genia Kodash

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The anatomy of a speaker

Pictures Editor Rowina Bou Harb

44

Timeless jewels: rings through history

In-house writer John Ovans

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

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In-house illustrator Yasmina Nysten Contributing Writers India Stoughton Anya Stafford Nour Harb Lucy Knight Dan Hilton Roman Sit. clair Alberto Mucci Editorial enquiries info@citynewsme.com +961 (0) 1 383 978

East | Brand marks Dual Language Version:

Latin Version:

Customer Care +974 4436 1111 - www.51east.com.qa

contents

67 Special section curated

by Fabrice Bousteau 67

67

84 A history of modern Arab architecture 91

Venice Architecture Biennale 2014

104

Louis Vuitton goes travelling

Sales & Distribution Commercial Partner, Qatar Joseph Tayyer jtayyar@bespoke-collections.com qatar@citynewsme.com +974 5589 5982

110 What’s new in Miami 114

Design Miami Basel in review

Advertising enquiries UAE sales@citynewsme.com

122 Brazil’s fantasy art park Inhotim 129

Distribution UAE Messagerie de Moyen Orient

Volcano Extravaganza: art fest on Stromboli

134 hotel art collections

142 Public art Hamad International Airport

Distribution Qatar Bespoke Collections info@bespoke-collections.com Printing Chamas for Printing & Publishing s.a.l. info@chamaspress.com

146 Fine dining with fine art 154 A peek into the diary of Nicholas Chrisostomou

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IN CONVERSATION WITH LAILA 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.

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Laila Shawa by Inzajeano Latif

Meeting at her West London apartment, I find that Laila Shawa’s salon resembles her pictures: brightly coloured objects and art books fill up an elegant room. In the centre, her television is tuned to AlJazeera 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 dualistically 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?

“Being Palestinian is also different from simply emigrating because you have lost your home to someone else”

Laila Shawa: Well I hope I am a well-rounded person, 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 parents 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 Fashionista terrorista 150x200cm, 2010

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there and we have too many connecting tentacles.

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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 worries me. You can get trapped and therefore your standards 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

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.

mesmerized me. I later found out it was Van Gogh’s Chair. It did something to me. Then when I was fourteen, 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

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.

with my father and a friend of his, an Italian architect based in Egypt. My father asked me how I liked

nology and so much. We can use techniques used

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

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

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

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

study art? I teach at the Leonardo Da Vinci College in Cairo, I can get you in.’ My father agreed, so I went. A

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

year later I got a scholarship to the Academy of Fine

use humour to address serious ideas, today this has

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

merged towards a Pop style. You also have the guns

painter Oskar Kokoschka. And now here we are.

you made for Peace One Day, which one can say merge violence and beauty. How have these dichot-

SB: By now you have also gone into digital and

omies helped in communicating your ideas?

video art as well as sculptures using found objects.

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

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

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

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

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

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

around five pieces at the Beirut Exhibition Center for an

My personal life has limited me from doing various

exhibition called Bridge to Palestine. This includes one

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

of the guns though the guns have nothing to do with

to one method of expressing ourselves. Picasso’s

Palestine and it gives a completely wrong message.

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

Peace One Day is an anti-arms industry organization,

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

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

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“We were given real Kalashnikovs. They are the most common guns in the world and you find people carrying them wherever there is conflict�

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“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

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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

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Laila Shawa, 2012.

By Malcolm Crowthers

real Kalashnikovs. They are the most common guns

SB: What would you say to the current generation

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

of documentary political artists?

people carrying them wherever there is conflict. I had

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

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

counting and representing history. You have to know

mythology butterflies represent the souls of the dead.

what you are doing and not just give haphazard facts.

And usually the souls return to the location where they

But then again all experiences are different, and any-

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

one’s interpretation is acceptable.

being a beautiful piece, at the exhibition it became the centerpiece of the show but it does not represent what

SB: What do you have coming up next?

I think of what is happening in Palestine. Many people

LS: I have an exhibition coming up in February in

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

Kuwait, at Contemporary Art Platform. We’ve been

Palestinian, could take a symbol of resistance and turn

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

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

ation that has been going on all over the place has

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

changed things. This upheaval affects productiv-

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

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

thing to be taken out of context and have your piece

positive way. I tend to freeze and absorb things,

give the wrong message.

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.

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THE LIFE OF A BALLET DANCER

by John Ovans

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

Talking with George Oliveira, it strikes me that ballet

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

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

professes. “To have the opportunity to have a real

weightlessness is a conceit achieved by months of

career as a dancer is beautiful.” Since joining the

brutal training and years of excruciating pain. “In the

Monte-Carlo Ballet in 2004, Oliveira has danced in

profession you know you will have to deal with a lot

traditionalist productions such as Romeo and Juliet,

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

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

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

he enjoys working with young, progressive choreographers, as much as he does the inspirational direc-

Bruised, battered and with thighs that could crush your

tor, Jean-Christophe Maillot.

head, ballet dancers, infamously, know how to take it on the chin. Oliveira’s own path to his current career

The physicality of ballet is matched, apparently, by its

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

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

in Brazil, where after taking an interest in gymnas-

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

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

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

he travels all over the world performing everywhere

a day. One gets the impression that Oliveira could only

from Tokyo, China and Colombia, to Dubai, Istanbul

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

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

to thrive in an intensely pressurized environment, un-

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

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

travel that much.”

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

‘Stress’ is a word that Oliveira continually returns to

same time, it’s not”.

throughout our conversation. When I make the quintessential lowbrow ballet reference to psychological thriller Black Swan, he says that it’s not so far off reality – 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.

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“To have the opportunity to have a real career as a dancer is beautiful”

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BETWEEN TWO LAKES OF FIRE

by Nick Rice

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.

Ahmed Muhammad decided to leave his home in Syria

of his family were fortunate to escape to Lebanon and

when a bomb exploded on his land, killing two cows

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

and narrowly missing his mother and children. “I can

empty burlap sacks.

never forget this day – 2nd May 2013 – it was a Thursday, it was the day my whole life changed,” said Muham-

Barrel-chested and surprisingly quick to smile, Mu-

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

hammad gazed at the beige mountain range just a couple of kilometres away. He explained that his old

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

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

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

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

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

farmhouse, 35 cows, fruit orchard, Fiat tractor and

only saw dust and then my first thought was about the

Mazda truck that he proudly shows on his phone, are

children. I saw one of my granddaughters ahead of

all gone.

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

28

“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

Despite the wretched ordeal facing the refugees each waking day, we were welcomed with dignity and warmth

Clinic 1, George Butler

30

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

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

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

employment and a long history of instability, the refu-

Bashar al-Assad’s forces have decimated Josiyeh and

gee crisis is an added strain.

scores of other cities with barrels full of TNT and metal shards. Responding to the notion that his own son

The initial wave of refugees found rented accommo-

could have been part of the indiscriminate offensive

dation and many Lebanese families took people in,

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

but as numbers soared sprawling camps emerged

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

around the Bekaa Valley. Many refugees now com-

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

plain of discrimination and a desperate situation of no

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

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

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

munities feel swamped and with the sense of unease, the potential for violence lurks.

As he heaves out the words the light in his eyes visibly dulls. “My son believes in what he is doing and he

Take into account Syria occupied Lebanon for 29

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

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

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

ing allegations of Syrian involvement in the assassi-

“I am between two lakes of fire: I don’t want to lose my son but he is against us”

the people living in the region, are responsible for the

nation of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,

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

and it’s not hard to appreciate why some Lebanese

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

struggle with magnanimity. But refugees are unargu-

the one saving the country.’ He paused and looked

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

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

social fabric is fraying.

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

The Bekaa Valley region has been severely destabilised and many towns are suffering frequent casualties

The myriad complexities of this war are found in these

over conflicting Syrian allegiances. The towns of Arsal

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

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

deluge of refugees that have escaped the murderous

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

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

ers occupying the surrounding hills. Nearby Labweh is

registered more than a million refugees in Lebanon

a predominantly Shi’ite town and a Hezbollah strong-

and Syrians now account for more than a quarter of

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

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

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

infrastructure and resources under immense pressure

launched rockets and suicide attacks against Labweh.

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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

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Mobile Clinic, George Butler

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. hosted by the international humanitarian health organIn an attempt to regain some control throughout the

isation Doctors of the World (MĂŠdecins du Monde).

Bekaa Valley the Lebanese government launched a

Located in Lebanon since May 2012, Doctors of the

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

World work with local partner organisations to provide

Amidst all the increased armaments and volatility, hun-

comprehensive healthcare services to Syrian refu-

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

gees and vulnerable Lebanese.

I spent eight days visiting refugee camps and settle-

All the individuals and families we met complained of

ments with the renowned reportage illustrator George

similar problems: a desperate need for food, clean

Butler. His emotive paintings offer an alternative to the

water and basic hygiene. Access to medical treatment

shocking images captured by photographers; a dif-

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

ferent window onto this epic catastrophe. We were

their situation by any possible increment. The harsh

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Box of Belongings, George Butler

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winter caused a blight of respiratory infections and as

Despite the wretched ordeal facing the refugees

the season changes a surge in gastrointestinal prob-

each waking day, we were welcomed with dignity and

lems are expected alongside reproductive health is-

warmth wherever we went. Everyone shared heart-

sues and hygiene concerns.

breaking stories and a profound yearning to return to Syria. But who can say when that might be possible

As we toured the countryside around El Qaa we were

and is 10 years a realistic timeframe?

greeted by an elderly woman sitting outside a homemade tent. Muharra Bazar had been living on the edge

Reality in today’s Syria comprises a remorseless and

of a small field with her adult son and two daughters

obdurate dictatorship, a tangled web of combatants

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

driven by religious sectarianism, pro-democracy prin-

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

ciples or even the fulfilment of 7th Century apocalyptic

The day a bullet passed right in front of her daughters

prophecy, and a grieving population of everyday civil-

nose was when the family

ians struggling to survive.

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 explained how she couldn’t

“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”

Nobody can predict how long this war will go on but sustained international humanitarian aid is vital. There must be hope that the complex tapestry of events yet to play out will not be as bloodsoaked as prophecy and circumstance portends.

walk and needed medication she could only get in Syria. Doctors of the World were able to start proceedings 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 distinctly forlorn. His mother explained he had been engaged when they arrived in Lebanon but they had nowhere 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.

Clock 1, George Butler

This is the hope that sustains us.”

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Challenges and Reality

by John Ovans

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

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“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”

Here are some facts about global education: approxi-

“In each country you have thousands of stories and

mately 57 million children at primary school-level are

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

currently not being formally educated. Around 54%

problems and obstacles being faced, whether in the

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

cactus forests of Haiti, the slums of India or refugee

ability. Such enormous, distressing statistics are diffi-

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

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

the exhibition and forthcoming book, Challenges and

renowned photo-reporter Maher Attar, documenting

Reality. The images themselves are inevitably arrest-

education across four continents, ascribes faces to

ing, with the ‘Challenges’ delineated sometimes quite

the figures.

literally by subjects such as a young Indian girl with no arms, writing with her feet - an individual who Attar was

Attar is currently the Director of the Photo Library in the

particularly moved by - or children in Kenya who trav-

office of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in Qatar, the

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

founder and driving force behind Educate A Child, the

depressingly, is that nothing appears to be shifting,

global initiative supporting more than 25 educational

although the work of the EAC hopes to change that.

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 India, 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.

opposite page top: CÓTE D’IVOIRE - DUÉKOUÉ CAMPAGNE 116 students are squeezed into the classroom in Duékoué village, 460km from Abdjan.

opposite page bottom: Kenya – Tana River County The 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.

39

In parallel with the concrete objectives of the EAC – enabling millions to complete a full course of primary education through cost-effective and sustainable solutions – Attar is able to offer the direct and powerful support of visual impact to raise awareness, citing the work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, most famous for his social documentary photographs in Third World nations, as particular inspiration. He says himself that conclusions are difficult 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 educate 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

“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”

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 successful reportage, but Attar feels strongly aware of his ability 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 opposite page: Kenya – Kajiado County A classroom at the Onirie School run by the Masaï tribe.

40

target of 10 million more children back in primary school education. The book will be followed by an international photo exhibition.

41

ANATOMY OF A SPEAKER Cult 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.

42

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RINGS THROUGH TIME

by Nour Harb

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 17th19th 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.

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2

3

5

1

4

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11

10

9 12

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1. De Clerq diamond ring from the 3rd or 4thcentury Roman Empire

2. Jewish wedding ring with miniature building from 19thcentury 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. Gold ring with two snakes from the 3rdcentury 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

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THE LUXURY EDIT Selections goes shopping...

Ankle boot by Chanel, Pre-fall 2014

Annie Liebovitz, art book of portrait photography with four available covers featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Patti Smith, David Byrne, Kieth Haring; shown here on custommade tripod display stand designed by Marc Newson.

Published by Taschen

Marrakech Intense, the new fragrance

by Aesop

Cheval d’Orient watch by Hermès

Ultra-light aluminium gentleman’s bicycle with inbuilt solar-powered lights by Vanmoof

46

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

Evening gloves by Dior, Autumn/Winter 2014

Monarch Fire handknotted silk rug by Alexander McQueen for The Rug Company

Dangerous Liaison handbag by Charlotte Olympia, Pre-fall 2014

Figurines by Paul Smith for LLadro

47

REFLECTIONS OF THE ORIENT

by Avril Groom

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

48

When Boucheron last year launched a piece made

links with Imperial Russia in the late nineteenth cen-

from rock crystal with diamonds floating magically in-

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

side it could not have known what an avalanche it was

by the Orientalisme movement at the turn of the twen-

starting. In this Biennale year, with so many jewellery

tieth century, was a favoured jeweller of the Mahara-

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

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

curring and novel theme. Yet for Boucheron it comes,

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

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

year assessing the royal treasures of Persia.

archives. Rock crystal was a favourite material in the Art Deco era, to give light-looking volume to larger

Such a heritage has led Choisne to create Rêves

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

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

to be used in breathtaking ways.

tion in homage to five exotic lands but packed with

opposite page: Ispahan necklace, 2014, by Boucheron

above: Tiara in platinum set with diamonds, 1904,

by Boucheron

No one knows this better than Claire Choisne, Bouch-

Boucheron symbols and including feats of the jewel-

eron’s talented creative director, presenting her

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

second Biennale collection. She worked with highly

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

respected creative jewellery Lorenz Bäumer, who

new phase of our work on Boucheron’s iconic motifs

launched Louis Vuitton’s high jewellery collection

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

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

filled creations, gems beyond compare, and the bold

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

creativity and workmanship that I believe characterise

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

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

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Indian Palace ring

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Tresor de Perse ring

Ispahan earrings

Nymphea bracelet

Grand Palais from 11th September, are indeed astonishing, 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. Skilfully 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 reflects this with superlative workmanship - a necklace of rock crystal faceted like diamonds, diamonds cut as baguettes, two enormous sapphire cabochons and

Louis Boucheron became obsessed with the blue of Persian tiles during his 1930 visit, and Ispahan reflects this with superlative workmanship

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 (reflecting Boucheron’s classic serpent bohème motif), or the beautifully flattering Splendeur de Russie, based on an archive tiara, with two diamond sprays, totalling 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 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

seventeenth century, 188.79 carat Colombian emerald, carved by the Indian Moghuls and now set in a restrained, tasselled, diamond necklace that complements its beauty. Inspiration indeed, and beautifully interpreted by Choisne’s talent.

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ALIEN ON THE LAWN

by Sheyma Buali

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

53

Chilean architect Smiljan Radić’s work has been re-

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

ferred to as ‘fragile constructions’ because of its use

mented on it has used similarly opposing adjectives to

of leftover material, and trees and rocks. His design

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

for the Serpentine Galleries’ 2014 summer pavilion

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

fits this description perfectly. The fragility of this struc-

carved into the walls to the freshly laid grass and huge

ture appears in the plastic, fibreglass, papier-mâché

flat boulders beneath the structure. Vertically placed

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

giant rocks also serve as the stands upon which the

‘fragile constructions’ use things and objects that can

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

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

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

available,” Radić explains.

hand, like a round organic space ship has crash-landed on this earthy plain.

Julia Peyton-Jones, the Serpentine’s co-director, amusedly noted, “The pavilion has been described

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

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

Pieces of mâché fabric look like they are stitched to-

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

gether. The grey timber floors are earthy while giving

54

“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

it a futuristic tint. These floorboards are a wonderful

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

contrast to the 1930’s Alvo Aalto designed minimal,

ion has become more experimental in the architecture

petit light wood furniture scattered around.

it offers. “Each year it is getting stronger. It’s becoming an historical thing,” Radić explains, joking about the

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

stress he bore while designing his contribution for the

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

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

white steel rods, it resembled a matrix jungle gym that

public and anticipated event: the choice of the archi-

evoked the digital memory systems so common in our

tect, the architecture itself and what it means to the

everyday life within the airiness of the park. Both 2013

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

and 2014 have pushed how the Pavilions series’ chal-

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

lenges space and time.

sible in the end.”

55

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.

POW! POP ART RELOADED

by Kasia Maciejowska

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.

56

A quarter of a century has passed since an exhibi-

team behind Pop Art Myths wanted to take it back

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

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

curatorial team at Museo Thyssen felt it was high

text, debunking popular misconceptions. As well

time to revisit the much-loved movement. As recent

as classic works by star artists from America and

exhibitions had focused on how works by seminal

Britain, the show made a point of exhibiting art by

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

their Spanish, Italian, German and French contem-

fluence contemporary art, Paloma Alarc贸, Head of

poraries who shared a similar attitude.

Modern Painting at the museum, and the curatorial

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

57

opposite page: Ed Ruscha, Ionic, 1996, acrylic on canvas. 137 x 102 cm.

Private collection

right: Ray Johnson, James Dean (Lucky Strike), 1957, Collage with card. 26 x 19 cm Legado Ray Johnson.

Courtesy Richard L. Feigen & Co

At the mention of Pop Art one’s head is filled with Warholian imagery – soup cans in grids, neon Mariliyns 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 Richard Hamilton. All these image-styles wield a doubleedged sword. Although nostalgic and ultra-accessible

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

because they contain familiar imagery from popular

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

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

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

photography), they also undermine those same icons

ment that transformed our gaze and paved the way to

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

postmodernism, at the same time it also manifested a

shown – in different colours or jumbled up sequences,

clear orientation towards the past.” She explains that

they undermine the credibility of that icon, because

Pop Art’s eagerness to connect with tradition came

they rupture the existing image-language of the system

through in its re-evaluation of artistic styles and genres

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

like portraiture, landscape, history painting, still life,

vious techniques to these icons, they present image-

and made them relevant again. According to Alarcó,

making itself as a technique and a business employed

this re-integrates these artistic traditions into the con-

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

temporary urban landscape, “paying homage to them

ing depth. This removes the sense of authentic value

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

placed in the subject being shown – whether Marylin

haps foregrounded most clearly in The Living Room,

Monroe or Campbell’s soup brand – and replaces it

an adaptation by Equipo Crónica of Velázquez’s clas-

with feelings of instant impact, play and novelty.

sic painting Las Meninas.

59

below: Richard Hamilton, Release, 1972, collage screen print. 70 x 95 cm.

IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Generalitat, Valencia

60

opposite page: Joe Tilson, Pool Mantra, 1975, Mixed media on wood. 155 x 158 cm.

Private collection.

Courtesy Fondazione Marconi, Milan

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

“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,

and every sort of object from visual and popular

the show did pay homage to the way the move-

culture, Pop Art abolished the separation between

ment’s ironic and innovative codes for re-framing

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

how reality is perceived remain one of contempo-

over the relationship between the aesthetic and the

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

anti-aesthetic which remains in certain aspects of

saying, “With its incessant exchange between art

contemporary art today.”

62

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

63

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

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

GLOBAL ATTITUDE

by Kasia Maciejowska

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-

nectivity and multiple screens. “Our society all over

amour the Indian subcontinent, just before the mil-

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

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

you consider that this critic and curator possesses

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

synaesthesic capabilities – synaesthesia is a neuro-

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

logical phenomenon that translates one sensory per-

explain how local attitudes were

ception into a different sensory

what really did it for him: “The

perception at the same time, for

way you are obliged to think in

example converting music into

India just completely matched

colour – it is easy to imagine

with how I think all the time. In-

why the place made such an

dia obliges you to take a kind of

impact, one that would last for

cool-schizophrenic approach to

years and shape his career.

the world.” By this he means to juggle multiple moods, incom-

For his 2011 exhibition at Cen-

ing

incongruous

tre Pompidou, titled Paris-Del-

experiences all at once. “India

hi-Bombay: India Through the

is the country that stands out

Eyes of Indian and French Art-

to me in the world because of

ists, Bousteau brought Indian art

messages,

how the senses are overstimulated – the smells, the

to his homeland, although through a different lens to

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

his exhibition for Beirut Art Fair 2014. Speaking at Le

things at the same time.”

Gray hotel, Beirut this summer, he draws a comparison between India and Lebanon, citing that both have a

Bousteau draws a parallel between the all-encom-

mix of religions, also finding similarities in recent art

passing multi-sensory stimulation of India and the

history as artists move away from painting and begin

demands of contemporary culture, with its hyper-con-

to embrace contemporary media.

65

A more pertinent observation, perhaps on the like-

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

ness between the two countries, is the importance of

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

jugaad – the Indian attitude of constant creativity that

mixing the real and the spiritual.”

allows everyday people to make something good out of difficult situations. The term was invented among

Because of their longstanding history and important

agricultural people in the 1970s in India and was taken

place in pan-Oriental culture, Bousteau believes that

up by young entrepreneurs there during the 1990s.

Indian films will play a crucial role in disseminating In-

Bousteau believes that this concept is the reason why

dian attitudes around the world. Bollywood is already

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

more popular than Hollywood throughout the Middle

poor and uneducated use ad hoc creativity to bet-

East. In 2008, Bousteau released a book about Arab

ter their situation. This DIY approach and the positive

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

transformations it enables, feature in everyday life

by Navarra) in which he surveys the regional scene.

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

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

both. “Jugaad thinking

Abu Dhabi Art, even

is really about creating

designing a sensory

your own happiness”,

maze for the fair in

he says.

2010. His work this September is his first

As we discuss what

project in Beirut, as he

people in the Occi-

continues to expand

dential countries might

his curatorial portfo-

learn from this way of

lio around the world.

thinking, Bousteau ex-

“The curatorial pro-

plains that for him one

cess is always differ-

valuable aspect of the jugaad attitude – as

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

well as of understand-

ent according to each country, each exhibition. There are new

ing the world through another concept central to India

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

thinking, dharma – is the accepted knowledge and in-

the same spirit.”

trinsic expectation that dark and light are two sides of the same coin. “In the West we are taught that life can

In the coming months Bousteau’s work will appear

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

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

is to realise that good and bad often come rolled into

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

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

in Landscapes of Contemporary Creation at Espace

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

Culturel Louis Vuitton. Considering whether he has a

key spiritual concept.” When asked whether Indian art

curatorial style, he settles on a related fluidity between

can communicate such concepts between cultures,

media and disciplines that informs his approach. “I am

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

obsessed with synaesthetic environments because of

When you see some of these Indian art works you learn

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

something you already know in your DNA – you learn

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

66

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

67

Fabric Bousteau

68

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

SIX MONTHS TRAVElLINg THE ART WORLD

In our modern societies progress remains the

In any exhibition people should benefit from

rule; progress that aims to exceed itself in a

a rich and multidisciplinary offer; this might in-

solely forward motion focused on continuous

volve works from contemporary masters be-

increase. It follows what the Greeks called

ing re-discovered alongside pieces by new

pleonexia - the wish to have more; too much;

emerging artists. It can incorporate many

to excess; beyond limit, leading to irrationality

senses – sound as well as vision, and pos-

and greed. Sometimes art takes the opposite

sibly even taste; it should welcome visitors

course in order to follow the path of develop-

from all backgrounds – from amateurs to en-

ment on a more human scale.

thusiasts and experienced collectors.

Our globalised era must be considered a

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

challenge rather than a constraint. Creativ-

should be considered an autonomous entity,

ity can be stimulated and motivated by this

while simultaneously being a fragment of a

world of possibilities. The art scene today is

whole with each artwork independently influ-

a land where global references coexist with

encing the entire scene. With this in mind, the

local heritage and traditional rituals in a com-

works I have chosen here propose a sort of

posite, cosmopolitan, youthful, dynamic art.

unity through diversity. Those I have picked all share the same spirit in life and take on

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

new challenges every day through their per-

at-heart, and open to everything and every-

petual questioning. I view this selection as a

one; to dare to follow transversal paths and,

platform for authentic sharing and exchange,

most importantly, never to consider oneself

revealing the dynamism of artists today.

an expert or specialist but rather a selector.

To maintain humility and humanity one must always question oneself and take risks, daring to make interdisciplinary links between

Composed from excerpts from discussions with Fabrice

art, music, dance, design, architecture.

Bousteau, Paris, August 2014

69

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

Daniel Buren

Défini, Fini, Infini, 30th June - 30th September MaMo, Cité Radieuse Le Corbusier, Marseille, France Photo © Sébastien Veronese

70

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

Babak Alebrahim Dekordi Peiman Barabadi Paintings, May 2014 Tehran, Iran Photos Š Fabrice Bousteau

73

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

JR Inside Out: Au Pantheon!, 2014 Pantheon, Paris France Photos Š Fabrice Bousteau

74

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

Nikhil Chopra The 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 Photos Š Fabrice Bousteau

77

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

Petrit Halilaj Art Basel 19th-22nd June Photo Š Fabrice Seixas

78

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

Subodh Gupta Everything Is Inside, 17th January - 16th March, 2014, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi, India.

Photo Š Fabrice Bousteau

80

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau

Jeff Koons A 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

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SAVE THE DATE. MODERN. CONTEMPORARY. ABU DHABI ART. 5 - 8 November 2014 Manarat Al Saadiyat Saadiyat Cultural District

abudhabiart.ae

#AbuDhabiArt

#InAbuDhabi

A MODERNIST ARABIA

by Kasia Maciejowska

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.

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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

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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 Venezia Photo: Andrea Avezzù Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia

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 inviting 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 national 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.

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 Morocco, 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 Niemeyer’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 colonialism and post-colonial neoliberalism, although many local architects also adhered to the modernist project.

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A better fit couldn’t have been curated for the theme Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014, chosen by this year’s architect curating the Biennale Rem Koolhaas. And no curators more suited to the task of telling Arab modernism’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.

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

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 pavilion 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 wider global relevance, and as sectarian violence soars across the region, is commendable to say the least.

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VIENNA INtErNAtIoNAl Art FAIr 2 – 5 octobEr 2014 MEssE WIEN, HAll A

Preview & Vernissage Wednesday, 1 October 2014 www.viennafair.at

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.

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Elements [central exhibition]

by Rem Koolhaas

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Hilary

French

(Architectural

writer and academic): Elements puts the ingredients of construction under the microscope for a much closer look - a refreshing Merlin Fulcher (Reporter at the

change from the current fashion

Architects’ Journal): Despite all

for urbanism and master plan-

it could have achieved Elements

ning where context, often his-

failed to deliver its purpose in my

torical rather than physical or

view. Rather than promoting think-

geographical, is considered to

ing outside the box, Koolhaas cre-

be more important and buildings

ated a confined, ugly arena where

are reduced to mere objects in a

the weapons of homogeny are

landscape. Some elements here

magnified to a daunting scale.

are familiar to all, like windows or

Without passing direct judgment

ironmongery, whereas some - like

on these objects he fails to frame

false ceilings – are only for the

a debate. The result is to atomise

initiated, but we can all enjoy the

architects and architecture when

all-important experiential qualities

both need to work together most.

of architecture.

“Elements puts the ingredients of construction under the microscope for a much closer look”

Maria Cristina Didero (Design curator and director of Fondazione Bisazza): Rem Koolhaas has always been fond of accumulation: for his it is a state of mind that is superbly reflected in this Biennale in Venice. Proceeding with the addition of layers, here he has tried to mirror the history of architecture.

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Township of Domestic Parts: Made in Taiwan [Taiwanese pavilion]

by Jimenez Lai

MF: This colourful and thoughtHF: John Hejduk, whose teach-

provoking

ings considered everything from

eye-catching

a holistic perspective, would turn

interpretation of the biennale’s

in his grave at this attempt to re-

deconstructivist theme. Despite

duce everyday domestic activi-

offering an unusual insight into do-

MCD: The extravagant and joyful

ties to simple forms. We can all

mestic traditions, Lai has avoided

Taiwanese approach to architec-

agree that architectural form is

discussing the impact of modern-

ture is reflected here: Jimenez

not just abstract shapes or func-

ism on Taiwanese manufacturing.

Lai goes further and overcomes

tions but here the social and psy-

Considering the critical role Tai-

the basic sections of the typical

chological dimensions of space

wan plays in our global economy,

house with an anthropological

seem to be ignored in favour of a

an evaluation of its high-tech elec-

excursion that gives an interest-

jokey approach to reminiscences

tronics factories and workplace la-

ing and fresh point of view to

about past details and the well-

bour relations might have offered

look at domestic life.

known canon.

more meaning.

“The extravagant and joyful Taiwanese approach to architecture is reflected here”

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installation although

is

an

flawed

Towards Biology: Time Space Existence [collateral exhibition]

by Ricardo Bofill

MF: This immersive and panoramic video contains a stirring manifesto for an alternative architectural profession elevated above standard modernist valuations of space and time. Bofill describes a disused cement works transformed into a venue for the experimentation

MCD: This satellite project was

and distribution of architectural

superbly curated by Rene Riet-

knowledge. Such a vision recog-

meyer and the Global Art Affairs

nises that the true fundamentals of

Foundation resulting in an emo-

human experience and architec-

tional installation that managed to

ture stand outside of time and that

immerse visitors and show how ar-

our biggest challenges will remain

chitecture is closely related to our

meaningful now and forever.

everyday life

accumulation,

HF: Using La Fabrica, a 150-yearold cement factory converted to their architectural studio as a case study, this exhibition deals with the fundamental aim of architectural design - the creation of a new space that makes evident a

“our biggest challenges will remain meaningful now and forever�

relationship between built form and the activities it houses. Masters 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

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The Sky Over Nine Columns [art installation]

by Heinz Mack

MF: Mack’s bold and visually

HF: From Trajan’s column on-

arresting sculpture reminds us

wards, monuments and victory

how contextual beauty can be

columns embellished with bas

realised using generic architec-

relief and statuary are a common

tural elements. Such ubiquitous

sight. There is no need to read this

shapes made resonant through

art piece of decorated columns as

local decorative crafts provide

architectural. They may have a

a morale-boosting alternative to

powerful sculptural presence en-

the future catalogued so fatalis-

hanced by light reflected on the

tically inside the main exhibition.

shimmering golden mosaic sur-

Their unifying power is however

faces, but so close together with-

blunted by their physical isola-

out anything to support some must

tion and the feeling that when

surely be superfluous?

amongst the columns one is so terribly alone.

“Mack’s bold sculpture reminds us how contextual beauty can be realised using generic architectural elements”

MCD: As the director of one of Giorgio Cinni Foundation’s competitors, the Bisazza Foundation, I would rather not comment on this piece.

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A Clockwork Jerusalem [British pavilion]

by Sam Jacob of FAT and Wouter Vantisphout of Crimson

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“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”

HF: As this exhibit suggests, nobody would disagree that there is a need to engage in some new thinking about the current British

MF: This counter-reading of Brit-

housing situation, and moreover

ish modernism celebrates a brief

that this could result in new forms

period

of housing that would prove to be

which ultimately failed. Sam Ja-

more sustainable than either Gar-

cob’s and Wouter Vantisphout’s

den Cities or modernism’s British

selective narrative is heart-warm-

version of high-rise estates. But

ing and well-timed but overlooks

maybe architects and planners

the hard reality of an architecture

have been looking backwards for

which started and remained un-

MCD: FAT’s curatorial approach

too long and focusing too much on

ashamedly elitist and commer-

to the subject is really summed up

town planning. Perhaps it is time

cially driven. The story behind

in the title: this project covers Brit-

to look closer – to consider the el-

London’s financial towers is more

ish modernity, from William Blake’s

ements - at the individual houses

bleak but would have at least ex-

poem Jerusalem from the 18th

then we might be able to achieve

posed modernism’s greatest con-

century to how it has been devel-

Howard’s “real reform”.

ceit for all to see.

oped to country’s post-war period.

of

romantic

optimism

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Arctic Poppy Orangery [Antarctica pavilion]

by Alex Kozyr

HF: Along with ten new participating countries, is the debut of the Antarctica pavilion, initiated by Alexander Ponomarev and curated

by Nadim Samman. An ambitious

MF: This fanciful greenhouse for

transnational project, it brings

arctic poppies documented in-

together a series of proposals

side the transnational Antarctopia

for the sixth continent (and chal-

pavilion provides a unique step-

lenges the perhaps overly nation-

ping stone towards greater public

alistic structure of the Biennale’s

understanding of the earth’s most

Giardini). Beyond the necessities

inhospitable continent. Kozyr’s

of the scientific explorations and

crystalline shelter for cultivating

institutional missions, Antarctopia,

the South Pole’s most beautiful

planned for 2015-16, offers the

flower reminds us of the region’s

potential of a new cultural field.

delicate ecology currently safe-

The Orangery (Alexey Kozy and

guarded by international agree-

Ilya Babak) a botanical and medi-

ments prohibiting nuclear dump-

cal research centre and recre-

ing and mineral extraction. The

MCD: As per the Moroccan pavil-

ation zone marries the ambition of

value of such intangible but in-

ion that dealt with the problem of

functional technology with poetic

fluential power systems must be

building in the desert, this project

optimism using powerful solar col-

more widely recognised as we

digs in to the possibilities of ar-

lectors that mimic the arctic poppy,

approach the first Antarctic Bien-

chitecture in extreme conditions;

relentlessly tracking the sunlight

nale and before competing na-

Kozyr’s studio investigated this

by rotating on delicate stems

tions tear this treasure apart.

range with a stellar touch.

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www.beirut-art-fair.com

BEIRUT ART FAIR ME.NA.SA.ART

18-21 September 2014 BIEL, Hall 2 103 Beirut, Lebanon

TAKE ME AWAY

by Avril Groom

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.

However far Louis Vuitton’s excursions into the realms of

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

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

ognised monogram canvas, about to be given some

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

very special treatment that, generously, involves equally

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

iconic design names from other fashion houses and ar-

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

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

That detail has become more important than ever since

its most precious symbol - to celebrate the monogram’s

Nicolas Ghesquière has taken on the designer’s mantle.

centenary in 1996 collaborations resulted in object such

As well as continuing with the instantly recognisable LV

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

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

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

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

the Iconoclasts project Ghesquière has his own agenda

distinctive brass corners of a Vuitton trunk, a new bag

and friends, plus the confidence to give carte blanche

quilted in the lozenge shapes of the stitching inside a

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

trunk lid, even a precious evening minaudière shaped

could almost be considered rivals such as Karl Lager-

like a tiny trunk.

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

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to Chanel style and whether Kawakubo’s design will include other-worldly excrescences.

Louis Vuitton’s original monogram

The other designers are Christian Louboutin (a travelling

evidence is a set of each designers’ initials handpainted

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

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

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

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

Newsan, who turns his hand to anything from clocks

Delphine Arnault, who conceived the idea with Ghes-

and furniture to aerospace design, and portrait photog-

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

rapher and film maker Cindy Sherman. The highly lim-

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

ited edition results of the project will arrive in selected

are a group of geniuses.”

Louis Vuitton flagship stores in October; for now the only

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Lorenzo Mattiotti’s illustrations of Vietnam for Louis Vuitton

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Jiro Tanigushi’s illustrations of Venice for Louis Vuitton

Rather more accessibly, Vuitton have another travel

delicate drawings of his chosen city; Mattotti’s style

related project about to launch. This is the latest in

is more robust and impressionistic. Both are totally

their series of Travel Books, which link well-known

individual and a true traveller’s viewpoint.

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,

The Books are €45; 50 special artists’ editions, numbered and signed, are €2000, all arriving in Lebanon in September.

New York by a Frenchman, London by a Japanese and Easter Island by an American, this year’s additions are Venice by Japanese manga artist and writer Jiro Taniguchi and Vietnam by Italian illustrator and comic book artist Lorenzo Mattotti. We follow the lone figure of Taniguchi through extraordinarily

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MIAMI’S NEW HAT

by Nicholas Chrisostomou

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

Miami has done some serious growing-up. The Miami of 2014 is artistic, cutting edge and original, and its creative energy is infectious. Nowhere is Miami’s cultural renaissance more evident than in Wynwood, the Miami 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 Miami’s art and soul. Wynwood was the brainchild of

110 Wynwood Walls, Miami

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Tony Goldman who in 2009 saw the potential in the

Dacra was instrumental in bringing Art Basel to Mi-

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

ami and making the annual event internationally fa-

talent and a haven for anyone with an artistic lean.

mous. Craig Robins of Dacra is now masterminding

Goldman was the driving force behind Wynwood until

the development of the Miami Design District, a fast-

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

growing neighbourhood north of Midtown which is

has taken over her father’s legacy and continues to

home to over 100 art galleries, showrooms, antique

follow his vision for Wynwood’s development.

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

Miami Design District

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

end shopping mecca, and construction is underway

wood Walls, a showcase of work by internationally

to further transform the District into a destination for

renowned graffiti artists including murals by Sheph-

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

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

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

to the area is complete without a walk around the

designers have already defected from Bal Harbour to

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

the Miami Design District, and come early 2015 other

Panther Coffee, and a nose around the galleries. And

luxury fashion brands including Givenchy, Tom Ford,

on the second Saturday of every month Wynwood

Marc Jacobs and Dolce & Gabbana will join them.

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

The new look District will also include buildings by

crowd of thousands.

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

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Perez Art Museum, Miami

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 December 2013, with it’s hanging gardens and tranquil 29-acre park on the edge of breathtaking Biscayne Bay, is home to a growing collection of international works by some of the world’s foremost artists. The site, designed by Pritzker Prize winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, has been universally acclaimed for skillfully marrying cutting-edge architecture with Miami’s tropical landscape, and encompasses 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space with sprawling relaxed galleries, shaded verandas, a waterfront restaurant and an exceptional museum shop. One could easily spend an entire day with PAMM.

FLY Qatar Airways flies a wide-bodied 777 direct from Doha to Miami four times per week, departing Doha at 8.40am landing in Miami at 5pm in plenty of time for dinner! www.qatarairways.com

SHOP

STAY

Niba Home Top 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

The Betsy, South Beach This 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 Beach A 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 Mar Master 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 Genuine A 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

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

Nest Beautiful 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 Miami No 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 Art Well 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 Experience Celebrated New York artist Peter Talbot Tunney’s Miami gallery is a riot of colour and creativity within Wynwood Walls.

(305) 582 6890 ashleyturchin@gmail. com

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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

Primack considers his new fair an event which has

synonymous with high expectations for professionals

already reached a prominent level thanks to his

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

predecessors, and which is now his task to refine

sign addicted this year, such expectations could be

even more. “Design Miami/Basel takes place two

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

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

the first edition led by new director Rodman Primack

machine that constantly needs fuel. I would like to

following his appointment in March 2014. Primack is

organize some more events during the whole year�.

the first American director - Californian to be precise -

And while Primack begins to look to the Far East,

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

the Swiss edition was impressive enough, surpris-

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

ing many visitors with its site specific works, com-

the Austrian Marianne Goebl). Design Miami is now

missioned pieces, talks, projects and the impres-

ready to celebrate its 10th anniversary after position-

sive number of galleries it brought together; in a

ing itself as one of the unmissable fairs on the global

record for the fair, the prestigious roster reached

design calendar.

49 this year.

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Design At Large was a new, dedicated section for gigantic projects

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 immersion. Walking into the fair itself one became further captivated 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 Freedman, 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 SÉANCE by Sheila Hicks.

Photo: Ames Harris

interactive colour lab by American artist Sheila Hicks.

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The first stand-out display to be mentioned came from the brilliant Gallery Libby Sellers, which presented the refined and sophisticated work of Studio Formafantasma, whose very original objects in volcanic lava sat alongside vibrant, playful pieces from Anton Alvarez, who is notable for his distinct and idiosyncratic approach to design creation. Thanks to his ingenious

opposite page top: Volcanic Lava Collection, Formafantasma

Thread Wrapping Machine, the Swedish-Chilean Alvarez crafts furniture without using screws, joinery or nails. Using wood, plastic or steel, he fuses parts together with metres and metres of glue-coated thread, which generates a joyful decorative pattern.

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

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

below: Libby Sellers Gallery exhibit

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opposite page: Gjertrud Hals Here, Now, 1

above: Prologue by FredriksonStallard Photo: Ames Harris

below: TT Pavillion by Konstantin Grcic Photo: Ames Harris

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 artist 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 macramĂŠ, 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.

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FOREST FREQUENCIES

by John Ovans

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

Originally the estate and art collection of Bernardo Paz,

that hallucinations are made of, the only trip you need

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

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

is located within both a remnant of the Atlantic rainfor-

world far-removed from the din of football fans and

est and Brazilian savannah, two endangered environ-

carnival: the Instituto Inhotim, a botanical garden that

ments rich in biodiversity. It was opened to the public

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

in 2006 as a visitation area, stitching together aston-

graphs, videos and installations by many more Brazil-

ishing artworks with forest fragments, 25 gardens and

ian and international artists from 30 different countries.

almost 5000 species of flora which include several rare tropical species. The artworks enjoy a symbiotic

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

Three curators manage the park, including Rodrigo Moura, Jochen Volz, and headed up by Allan Schwarzman. While 100 pieces are on display, they are taken from a collection of more than 800 works, accumulated from Brazil and abroad from the Sixties to the present day, and refreshed every two years to introduce new acquisitions and reinterpretations. 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. Elsewhere, gums will be set a-tingling by Hélio Oiticia and Neville D’Almeida’s Cosmococa, 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

relationship with the landscape, very deliberately integrated in an area largely protected as a Natural Heritage 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”.

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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

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

Since the World Cup, the number of visitors to Inhotim

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

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

covering mattress, strobe lights, Jimi Hendrix and a

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

strange indoor pool; while over in Cido Mereiles’ Red

is meant as more than simply a passive experience

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

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

the taps running red water.

munity development, currently employing 400 locals

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and hosting more than 30,000 students a year. Upcoming projects include an on-site guest-house and a science centre to specialise in biodiversity and climate 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.

Celacanto Provoca Maremoto, by Adriana Varejão.

Photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Paz’s expansive vision is of a “postcontemporary society” Seção diagonal, by Marcius Galan Photo: Pedro Motta

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The Art Paper accompanies every issue of Selections for AN IN-DEPTH look at the art world In 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

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

ISLAND CONTEMPORARY

by Kasia Maciejowska

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.

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Summertime on Stromboli feels moody and somnolent. 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

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

2. Ketuta AlexiMeskhishvili, 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

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-

4. Jessica Warboys, Underlap, sea paintings,20th July 2011, Stromboli.

Photo by Morten Norbye Halvorsen

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, fabulously named La Lunatica and the House of Extravaganza, with others hitting the shores and winding alleyways. Each one was recorded and live broadcast via NTS radio.

The festival’s line-up is always just as resolutely contemporary, but Haroon Mirza’s curation, executed in

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

collaboration with Milovan Farronato, director of the London-based Fiorucci Art Trust, brought dual emphasis 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 enjoying a moment in the arts as the nineties generation becomes today’s leading image-makers. Forget Amnesia is part of that, exploring rave’s escapism-fromthe-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.

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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

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

3. Stromboli island seen on departure 2 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

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 distinctive atmosphere of natural mystery and simmering heat, and the notion that this bears or brings out some sort of human or earthly malevolence.

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

Stromboli does hold an ominous power over those who set foot there. Erupting continuously, as she has

All images courtesy the artist and Fiorucci Art Trust

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 sometimes it also goes to Stromboli.”

Listen to Haroon Mirza’s soundtrack for Forget Amnesia on Fiorucci Art Trust’s Soundcloud.

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A CURATED NIGHT’S SLEEP

by Miriam Dunn

Since art hotels have become the most inspiring way to spend the night, we asked hotel curators for the inside track on their collections.

Understandably diverse and sometimes entirely un-

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

expected, the art greeting guests at hotels undoubt-

Kate Moss, by photographer Chuck Close, which is

edly brings something extra to a stay. What a privilege

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

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

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

rich, against the backdrop of Salvador Dalí’s Femmes

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

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

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

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

ture stamp on a space, adding value in both financial

cinthe Rigaud, at the legendary Le Negresco Hotel in

and experiential terms.

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

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Femmes Metamorphoses

by Salvador Dali, Dodler Zurich

135

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opposite page: Louis XIV portrait

by Hyacinthe Rigaud, Versailles Salon, Negresco, Nice

below: Kate Moss

by Chuck Close, The Surrey, New York

Kate Moss by Chuck close-courtesy the surrey

137

When the Intercontinental Westminster curated its

matic The House Always Wins – you can guarantee at

art, the team were keen for it

least one guest to be gazing at

to reflect the rich tapestry of

it at any time, Instagramming or

London life and connect with

tweeting away.”

both locals and visitors, as Ed Purnell, Area Director of Market-

The art on display at the Ju-

ing, London, explains. The col-

meirah Creekside Hotel, Dubai,

lection includes limited-edition

also pays tribute to its surround-

prints from political satirist Ger-

ings, albeit in the broader, re-

ald Scarfe, lithographs by Chris

gional sense, comprising almost

Orr and political cartoons by

500 works by both acclaimed

Marin Rowson. “From the mo-

and emerging talents from the

ment you walk through the front

greater Middle East. Camelia

doors of the hotel you get a real

Esmaili, whose atelier curated

sense of location. Tom Clarke’s

the programme, explained that

bronze sculpture The Ladder To

the challenges ranged from

welcomes you to Westminster,”

the practical to meeting the

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

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

138

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

Isla Simca, Panama

living environment you have to give a strong con-

Looking to celebrate talent from far afield rather

sideration to aspects like whether light could dam-

than close to home, the business mogul, collector

age the art, while making sure that the pieces are

and philanthropist, Jean Pigozzi, made it a mission

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

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

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

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

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

of celebrating African contemporary art. Another

pet, to reflect the Middle Eastern heritage. Eventually,

champion of leading lights from the contemporary art

we managed to convince them to do something dif-

world, fellow collector and industrialist, Dakis Joan-

ferent.” Today, an enormous sculptural art installation

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

Flying Carpet by Iraqi-born Halim Al Karim occupies

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

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

tel has been reinvented by the Brazilian architects,

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

Humberto and Fernando Campana, famed for cre-

leave a lasting impression.

ating living art from cast-offs. Ingeniously-upcycled

139

ful in a space, but will also create an energy, start conversations, spark curiosity 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 infrastructure. “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 wooden furniture scraps are displayed throughout, alongside works from Joannou’s private collection

by Jack Pierson, Douglas Gordon, Laurie Anderson and Jenny Holzer.

Enveloped

by Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Jumeirah Creekside, Dubai

the Pullman Dubai Deira City Centre, Laurent Chaudet, shares her view that, “Art immerses guests in a world of discovery, while also providing a more personal connection with them, leaving

The art programme at the Roger Smith Hotel in mid-

behind a priceless memory.” Whether it

town Manhattan, New York, acknowledges emerging

does or not obviously depends on the

artists through its Introducing Series at The Window

guest – but as art hotels (rather than

at 125. Director of Art Programming, Danika Drutt-

simply hotels with art collections) pro-

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

liferate it should be easy for guests to

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

find their ideal match.

140

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PUBLIC ART ON THE FLY

by Eliana Maakaroun

Doha’s new airport, Hamad International, boasts a multimillion dollar collection of installations that are the latest jewel in Qatar’s elaborate crown of public art

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

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

national Airport in Doha, one cannot but pause in

and iconic art installations by world-renowned artists

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

such as Damien Hirst, Richard Serra and Adel Abdes-

bronze canary-yellow teddy bear - with a lamp over

semed mark the country all the way from its streets to

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

its desert.

Fischer, it is slowly becoming the most photographed artwork at any airport. Which is a strange one, because

The airport, being the first impression tourists take

how many airports have art like this – with such scale

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

and impact, enabled by Qa-

the country’s strategy for

tar’s generous budget and

becoming a public arts

commitment to exhibiting a world-class collection of art in public spaces.

As Qatar grows into an international country, Qatar

“When dealing with an international location, we want artworks that speak to all different nationalities and ages”

destination. “When dealing with an international location, we want artworks that speak to all different nationalities and ages,” explains Jean Paul Engelen,

Museums Authority, an or-

Director of Art at Qatar Mu-

ganization committed to

seums. “The Tom Otterness

help the country originate art, culture and heritage

work is a great example of art being a playground for

experiences from within, aims to present the very

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

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

Iraqi artist Ali Hassan’s Desert Horse sculpture will be

ing bridges among the diverse peoples who live in

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

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Lamp Bear by Urs Fischer

Oryxs by Tom Claassen

“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

“Thanks to the several artworks installed throughout

In line with the country’s National Vision, anticipated

the country, art and creativity are becoming part of

to be accomplished by 2030, Qatar Museums plays

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

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

choosing pieces for the Hamad International Airport,

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

he describes the importance of playing to each artist’s

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

strength. “Tom Otterness is great with playgrounds

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

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

few existing airports have integrated public art to the

more sensitive and delicate, and therefore better suit-

extent that Qatar is planning to, Engelen recognises

ed in a first class lounge,” he clarifies.

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

“We are fortunate that the country has a major vision

Unlike most of its neighbouring countries, Qatar has held a number of local art exhibitions over the past years, including a photography competition for Qatarbased 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 support 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.”

144

and it acts upon it.”

FINE DINING, FINE ART

by John Ovans

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-

eat, their meal experience becoming positively syn-

rants was eked out a while back – from Picasso to

aesthetic. Other approaches remain more casual, with

Miro, impoverished post-Impressionists would sing for

friendships dictating what fills with walls: there seems

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

to be some kind of affinity between the chef and the

ing works that now hang on the wall at distinguished

artist, due to both being creative maestros in their

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

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

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

controversy, with elitist murmurs expressing distaste at

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

the apparently reductive nature of the munch’n’muse

taurants employ curators to conjure the desired ambi-

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

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

tors and restaurateurs in cities across the globe, when

most impactful is when entire spaces get treated as an

done well, food and art can complement one another

installation, with diners participating in the art as they

very tastefully indeed.

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Artist plates at Lucio’s, Sydney

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Mark Hix, Tramshed, Hix Mayfair, Tramshed etc.

London, UK Mark Hix—one of London’s best-known chefs, restaurateurs, 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 Hereford 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 trying to curate an exhibition ‘in a restaurant’ nor am I just looking for art to put on the walls.”

148

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 restaurant 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 thoughtprovoking.”

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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 experiences 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 together bound by logic. The Sydney chef established his Italian restaurant in Paddington, Australia in 1983, and has been filling it with artwork ever since, courtesy of his friends in the art world, both locally and internationally. “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!”

151

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 restaurant or the art? An ensemble of six canvases by Lebanese 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 everything to add to his desired Mediterranean flavour.

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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

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

February and September hundreds of thousands, some-

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

times millions of dollars, are lavished on fifteen minutes

was made an Order of the British Empire by the Queen

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

of England for her for services to fashion journalism. My

for one, enjoy wearing beautiful clothes, but getting up

bad. Fashion PR was obviously not my calling.

close and personal with the world’s style police can be a terrifying experience, so before you accept an invita-

Jump forwards 20 years to London Fashion Week Feb-

tion to attend a September fashion show in London, New

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

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

designer’s show, after having been plied with bottomless drinks and banging house ‘music’ while being kept wait-

154

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

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

ternship with top London fashion PR Beverley Cable.

ket everything from stunning clothes worn by the likes

Clutching my clipboard I waited nervously for the torrent

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

of fashionistas to storm the venue for Maria Grachvogel’s

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

show, hunting their seats like wolves chasing rabbits. It

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

was my job to seat the international fashion press. Now

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

of course I know that Anna Wintour is the international

behind me burning into the back of my head. Nowhere

fashion press, but back then I barely knew the difference

had I ever before experienced so many fraught egos

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

squeezed into one venue. And when the show eventu-

ion blurb for which publication. The first to approach me

ally started, few were interested in what came down the

was a bespectacled lady who promptly asked where her

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

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

so was wearing, and the never-ending debate about

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

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

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

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

cacophony of oohhs and aahhs from numerous fashion

ing and confident, wear an invisible body suit of fashion

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

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

tion. I was instantly relieved of my clipboard and ushered

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

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

row. Sitting anywhere else would be like holidaying in

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

Torremolinos when you packed for Mykonos.

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