Milk and honey: MIA Art Collection, DIFC & ELF host art and poetry fest
- 22 May 2024
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
MIA Art Collection, in collaboration with Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Emirates Literature Foundation (ELF) has inaugurated La Belleza: Poetry & Art, an exhibition curated by a team of international curators directed by Alejandra Castro Rioseco with special co-curator Namal Siddiqui, in DIFC’s iconic The Gate building. Delivering a month of poetry and international art, the event runs till June 14, after its inaugural on May 14. It is the second exhibition this year hosted by MIA Art Collection in collaboration with DIFC, and the first active collaboration with ELF, home of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFL). La Belleza is inspired by the need to connect with the sensitivity and “beauty of the simple”, from mundane to sublime experiences, while routine examples of everyday acts have been transformed here into poetry, turning them into “something beautiful”. (Belleza means beauty).
The exhibition sees the participation of 19 artists and poets, in a curatorial line based on literature as a cornerstone of the beauty of culture. 25 art pieces, including artworks influenced by poetry, sculpture and graphic art, are being shown. Combining new artworks with pieces from the MIA Art Collection, the DIFC collection and latest pieces by poets and artists, the show strives to craft an aesthetically attractive and moving experience. MIA Art Collection’s weltanschaaung on art and culture includes showcasing the direct connection between art and poetry. Historically, art and poetry have been related and poetry has been often fundamental in the training of artists, particularly in the Middle East region.
Poetry and the role it plays in trying to sensitivise the world, takes on new value in this exhibition. La Belleza seeks to integrate poetry and art and unify them through a journey that specially emphasises women poets and their role in the society of poets, particularly in the Arab world, one of the cradles of poetry and art. Says Rioseco: “The world of art teaches us that the vast majority of art pieces we see in museums are by male artists, while the women’s gaze therein is almost non-existent. Once again, driven by its mission to promote visibility of women artists in the world, MIA Art Collection chooses to highlight the delicate spaces within the galaxies of the arts of literature and poetry. In doing so, it allows us to reflect on the reality of women artists and their visibility.
“This particular exhibition is profoundly important to me, because after living six years in the UAE, I feel I have now developed a better grasp in understanding the world of poetry. As such, I am able to capture poetry within the arts and involving young Arab poets in doing so, makes me deeply happy.” Some of the artists displaying their works in the exhibition are also poets. Artists include Shahla Hosseini (Iran), Louma Rabah (Lebanon), Suzi Fadel Nassif, born in Lebanon and based in the Emirates for over two decades, Spanish artist Sara Biassu, Egyptian artist Monelle Janho and Argentinian artist Teresa Giarcovich.
Poets include Dhuha Awad, who is British-Yemini and runs workshops where she teaches poetry writing and free prose set to music as a form of art therapy; Mahmoud Ali, spoken word artist from Somalia who was born and raised in the UAE; Yasmine El Kurdi, with Lebanese and French nationality, who recently moved to Dubai from Vienna; Tamara Khodr, who writes and paints on human existence; and Rawad Raidan, whose explores themes of belonging at home and being on the outside looking in. Mahmoud Ali says this in his poem The Beauty of Georgia: “In every moment, in every sight/Beauty’s essence shines, in radiant light/In Georgia’s embrace, the greatest gift we find/A tapestry of beauty, in heart and mind.”
In Yasmine El Kurdi’s words, “You see, there is beauty in the unseen/the unsaid, the subtext/In the suggestion and the implication.” Rioseco, in a follow-up event after the inaugural, said that “when you work with art, you will know the value of beauty.” Project Director Hana Sammak El Kurdi commented that “poetry cleanses our souls.” She gave the examples of William Blake (British) and Etel Adnan (Lebanese-American), who were both poets and artists, to show how art and poetry are harmoniously linked.
Rioseco founded MIA Anywhere Virtual Museum in 2020, a technological platform for promoting women artists, allowing visitors to walk through its virtual museum space. It was also the place for her personal art collection, consisting exclusively of contemporary women artists (www.miaartcollection.org). Namal Siddiqui is born and raised in the UAE, with roots in Pakistan. She has a Masters of Arts degree in Creative Writing with distinction from Birmingham University and manages the year-long cultural events at ELF. She is currently working on a poetry book for publication and has written poetry since childhood.
Hana Sammak El Kurdi is an arts advocate and an education expert with more than twenty years of experience in the education field in Lebanon. She is a graduate of the American University of Beirut and recently acquired certification in Art Management from ESA Business School. She is the Founder of Sundara, which promotes art and cultural exchange, showcasing the work of emerging and established contemporary artists from around the world. El Kurdi previously collaborated in MIA’s Lavinia exhibition. ELF is a not for profit non-governmental organisation that supports and nurtures literature in the UAE and in the region.
