"It's one of those art fairs that you want to be a part of, because all the right people go to them. Whatever that means!" Tarané Ali Khan, the spokesperson for The Third Line gallery in Dubai, laughs as she realises the stupendous art world cliché that she has just uttered.
But the thing is, she's right.
More than 250 galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia are taking part in this year's Art Basel Miami Beach, which wraps up today. Miami Beach is the sister to the Swiss event (Art Basel), which is seen as the world's leading art fair.
In this, its seventh year, the fair's selection committee has chosen to host galleries from over 800 applicants. The exhibitors, which include 25 new participants, are showing works by more than 2,000 artists.
Elsewhere in the fair, the offbeat filmmaker David Lynch has been hired to design an installation. The project, Diamonds, Gold and Dreams, takes place within the 1,219 square metre Cartier Dome. Inside is a seven-minute "floating diamond" projection, accompanied by a musical score.
Organisers say the fair, which includes offshoot events like Design Miami, will attract 40,000 visitors this year, edging ever-closer to the tally of its Swiss counterpart.
It calls itself the "cultural and social highlight for the Americas" and few people disagree.
All this takes part in one of the world's best preserved Art Deco districts and what is more, it's still shorts weather.
Anyone you speak to at the Miami Beach fair will say the same things. Words like "funky" and "youthful" are bandied around endlessly, reflecting the event's desire to be seen as more accessible than its Swiss counterpart. With a focus on cutting-edge art, the Miami fair may not draw the wealth of the European event, but it takes more of the kudos.
While Middle Eastern art is becoming increasingly fashionable around the world, the region has until recently been under-represented at the Miami fair. However, for the first time, this year's event has a substantial contingent of artists, gallerists, journalists and collectors from the Arab world.
"The Third Line is one of the very few Middle Eastern galleries that have been accepted for Art Basel," says Ali Khan. The gallery she represents has been selected to take part in the fair's Supernova section, a platform that singles out 20 young galleries from around the world and allows them to present recent works by their artists.
The Third Line has flown four of its staff to Miami and paid around Dh40,000 for a 4x3 metre booth in Miami Beach's Convention Center. The cramped space will mean the pieces will have to be displayed on rotation, with only 11 of the 18 artworks visible at any one time. The conditions are far removed from the gallery's Dubai headquarters, but Ali Khan says it's well worth it.
"Our aim is to get recognition of the artists and their works on an international platform, to show the rest of the art world that things happen here. We want to show everyone that art is growing. It is very successful and can compete with the rest of the world," she says.
One of the pieces in the booth is an original work, created for the event by the Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri. Flower Power, an oil on canvas piece, depicts a 1950s B-movie-style robot, with a string of flowers around its neck, reflecting the festival's view of itself as youthful, fun and innovative.
The California-based Amir Fallah, famous for his depiction of ramshackle children's forts, and pieces by the Moroccan-born photo artist Hassan Hajjaj, will also be on show.
Following The Third Line's selection, other Dubai galleries have sent scouts to the event, testing the Miami ground for interest in Middle Eastern art.
"I'm going to take a look and maybe we will submit an application for next year. I don't know if it will get accepted," says Maliha al Tabari, the director of the Art Space gallery in Dubai.
"I went to Art Basel in Switzerland four years ago. That was amazing, but it's more for very high-end pieces like Picassos costing a million dollars or more. Miami Beach is more hip and funky and a trendsetter kind of fair. It has less of the masters."
Like many art fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach also aims to encourage discussion among its attendees. It does this in the form of its Art Basel Conversations and Art Salon programmes.
On this year's bill, the topic is Will Art Transform the Political Face of the Middle East?
The panel includes Ali Yussef Khadra, the founder of the Dubai art magazine Canvas, the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat and the Dubai-based art collector and businesswoman, Dr Lamees Hamdan.
"I'd very much like to see more Middle Eastern representation [at the fair], both Middle Eastern galleries and local UAE galleries," says Hamdan, who has recently been confirmed as the commissioner for the UAE's first national pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
"The way that people view art [from the Middle East] has changed. Ten years ago I don't think we would have had anything written about it in a newspaper. Now we are here."
She believes the region's growing representation at fairs such as Art Basel and Venice Biennale is helping to develop its reputation as a cultural centre. However, she says individual galleries must also make greater efforts to become known on the international stage.
"I think the UAE in general has a lot to offer. But we have to encourage our galleries to position themselves for an international crowd."
This year's event also marks the third edition of the Design Miami fair. The show, which began independently and is now part-owned by Art Basel's parent company, Messe Schweiz, features more than 20 international design galleries.
Among the exhibitions is ALEF, created by the Villa Moda founder, Sheikh Majed Al Sabah, a member of the Kuwaiti royal family.
His seven-day design show is intended to preview many of the pieces that will appear in his Al Sabah Art & Design Collection, which will open in the DIFC Gate Village, during Art Dubai in March 2009.
"We have a message to deliver and this message is that there is so much in the Middle East that nobody knows about, in terms of beautiful craftsmanship. We want to show people how beautiful art and design is in our part of the world," he says. He believes the Miami event is the ideal location to launch his collection.
"It's the most credible art fair in the art world. If you make it at Design Miami or Art Basel, you are in with the best galleries in the world. That it why we decided to come here."
Highlights of his exhibition include the work of the Lebanese designers Huda Baroudi and Maria Hibri, known collectively as the design firm Bokja. In the ALEF show are pieces of vintage 1950s and Sixties furniture, which they have strikingly reupholstered in traditional fabrics of the Middle East.
Also in the collection are surreal pieces by the Dutch artist Pieke Bergmans, who has created a Middle Eastern versions of her Crystal Virus series.
The artist hand-blows large glass "bubbles" onto antique Middle Eastern furniture. As the crystal is blown, it burns and marks the furniture, while at the same time taking on the texture and shape by the surface with which it connects.
As well as the individual pieces on display, Sheikh Majed says Middle Eastern hospitality is a theme that he wants to convey to visitors.
"We have these beautiful outdoor chairs where people can sit and eat dates, sweets and pistachios, then drink Arabic coffee, with incense burning around them. We wanted to bring the flavour of the Middle East to Miami.
"Everybody ends up here, the smell has been going all over the place," he laughs.
Although his exhibition had only been running for one day when we spoke, Sheikh Majed says he already considers it to have been a success.
For the members of The Third Line gallery, the success came when they were selected for the prestigious event. Everything else is a bonus.
But after hearing nothing but positivity from the fair's attendees, eventually, Sheikh Majed is able to offer-up some small criticism.
"With Europeans we do not have a problem, they come and they buy and they leave. But with Americans it is different, they always say: "What is your best price? What's the best you can give me?"
ogood@thenational.ae
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (11.30pm)
Saturday Freiburg v Borussia Monchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Dortmund, Cologne v Wolfsburg, Arminia Bielefeld v Mainz (6.30pm) Bayern Munich v RB Leipzig (9.30pm)
Sunday Werder Bremen v Stuttgart (6.30pm), Schalke v Bayer Leverkusen (9pm)
Monday Hoffenheim v Augsburg (11.30pm)
Company%20Profile
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
MEDIEVIL%20(1998)
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20SCE%20Studio%20Cambridge%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sony%20Computer%20Entertainment%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsole%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PlayStation%2C%20PlayStation%204%20and%205%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
RACE CARD
6.30pm: Madjani Stakes Group 2 (PA) Dh97,500 (Dirt) 1,900m
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,400m
7.40pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 2,200m
8.50pm: Dubai Creek Mile Listed (TB) Dh132,500 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (D) 1,400m
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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MANDOOB
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Ali%20Kalthami%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Mohammed%20Dokhei%2C%20Sarah%20Taibah%2C%20Hajar%20Alshammari%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Your Guide to the Home
- Level 1 has a valet service if you choose not to park in the basement level. This level houses all the kitchenware, including covetable brand French Bull, along with a wide array of outdoor furnishings, lamps and lighting solutions, textiles like curtains, towels, cushions and bedding, and plenty of other home accessories.
- Level 2 features curated inspiration zones and solutions for bedrooms, living rooms and dining spaces. This is also where you’d go to customise your sofas and beds, and pick and choose from more than a dozen mattress options.
- Level 3 features The Home’s “man cave” set-up and a display of industrial and rustic furnishings. This level also has a mother’s room, a play area for children with staff to watch over the kids, furniture for nurseries and children’s rooms, and the store’s design studio.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, Group C
Liverpool v Red Star Belgrade
Anfield, Liverpool
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Dubai Rugby Sevens, December 5 -7
World Sevens Series Pools
A – Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan
B – United States, Australia, Scotland, Ireland
C – New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales
D – South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya
The specs: 2018 Honda City
Price, base: From Dh57,000
Engine: 1.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 118hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 146Nm @ 4,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.8L / 100km
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Rain Management
Year started: 2017
Based: Bahrain
Employees: 100-120
Amount raised: $2.5m from BitMex Ventures and Blockwater. Another $6m raised from MEVP, Coinbase, Vision Ventures, CMT, Jimco and DIFC Fintech Fund
Mountain%20Boy
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Zainab%20Shaheen%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Naser%20Al%20Messabi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The%20Roundup%20%3A%20No%20Way%20Out
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Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
65
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Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Remaining fixtures
- August 29 – UAE v Saudi Arabia, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
- September 5 – Iraq v UAE, Amman, Jordan (venue TBC)
