The ‘Legendary Lagos: City of Dreams’ event features 12 artists - nine from Nigeria and three international - painting large-scale works on walls across the city. Organisers say the goal is to make art accessible to everyone and inspire social change.

“We believe art shouldn’t be confined to galleries and museums,” said Osa Seven, one of the organisers. “Public art allows people to interact with creativity in their everyday environment. It’s about giving hope and showing what art can do to shape society.”

Lithuanian artist Andrey Adno said his mural, ‘The Pace of Lagos,’ reflects the city’s energy.

Local artist HK Locks focused on themes of unity and migration, depicting Lagos as a melting pot of ethnicities and ambitions. “Lagos is where people come to chase dreams,” he said. “My piece shows collaboration and the hustle that defines this city.”

According to the details, the initiative, which welcomed over 395,000 visitors in its inaugural season last year, aims to transform cultural tourism by offering visitors a unique after-dark experience at some of Türkiye’s most treasured historical landmarks.

The project, which began June 1, extends operating hours at renowned sites from Istanbul’s iconic Galata Tower to the ancient underground cities of Cappadocia, supporting the government’s broader vision of distributing tourism across all 81 cities and throughout the year.

The crown jewel of the programme remains the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ancient city of Ephesus in İzmir, which stays open until 11:00pm on Wednesdays through Saturdays.

In Istanbul, the Archaeological Museums, Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum, and Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum welcome visitors until 10:00pm, while the historic Galata Tower extends its hours until 11:00pm

The fairy-tale landscape of Nevşehir provides access to its famous underground cities of Derinkuyu, Kaymaklı, and Özkonak until 9:00pm, offering visitors a mystical journey through ancient carved chambers.

The dramatic Nemrut Mountain Archaeological Site in Adıyaman offers a unique dawn experience, with illuminated access available from 4:00am to 9:00am.

The site features monumental limestone statues commissioned by King Antiochus I of Commagene.

In Antalya, the popular Mediterranean destination features extended hours at various museums and archaeological sites including Aspendos, Patara, and Side until 10:00pm.

The capital’s Anatolian Civilizations Museum showcases artifacts from Hittite, Urartian, Sumerian, and Phrygian civilizations until 9:00pm, while Şanlıurfa massive museum with its 4.5 kilometer exhibition route displaying approximately 10,000 artifacts also extends hours until 9:00pm. The Gaziantep Zeugma Mosaic Museum, featuring 2,500 square meters of Roman-era mosaics, opens until 9:00pm.

The Night Museums Project addresses tourism challenges by distributing visitor traffic throughout the day and offering cooler evening exploration during Turkey’s hot summer months.

The initiative transforms industrial heritage sites as well, including İzmir’s 140-year-old Alsancak Tekel Factory, now converted into the Müze İzmir Culture and Art Factory.

The expanded 2025 programme includes enhanced lighting installations designed to create immersive storytelling experiences that bring Turkey’s multi-civilizational heritage to life, aligning with Turkey’s ambitious tourism targets to welcome 65 million visitors and generate $64 billion in tourism revenue.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

The region’s leading international art show showcased galleries from around the world, while becoming a platform for multiple South Asian artists, including plenty from Pakistan.

Faiza Butt, a UK-based artist of Pakistani origin, has showcased her work around the world. At Art Dubai this year, she presented her work depicting the Muslim man.

“The body of work you see here generally shows men who are some of them are Muslim men as your first reading of the image,” she told Business Recorder at the fair, “but we also have a Hasidic Jewish man and we also have a head of a classical Halkidiki from the Greek time.”

Art Dubai 2025: Anwar Saeed, Huma Mulji among Pakistani artists to exhibit this year

While at Slade School of Fine Art, Butt was inspired to draw the feminine form. A deeper look at the extensive body of work around the female form made her reconsider her options.

“So to reject the western history as not the history of the world but the history of the west and its domination of how we understand and perceive certain genres in art,” she explained, “I picked up this concept of working with the male form.”

Before Slade, Butt had been a student at Lahore’s famed National College of Arts (NCA), where she studied from renowned Pakistani artist, Anwar Saeed.

His works, which was also displayed side-by-side with hers, deeply inspired her and gave her a launchpad for her current art theme, she said.

“As a social commentator, I want my work to be purposeful,” said Butt. “I think as long as I can provoke people to ask a question to break the ice and to work on pre-existing presumptions, cultural framings.”

She isn’t trying to change society, Butt clarified, she’s only trying to start a conversation.

“I cannot change the world but as long as I can provoke or shake up the existing presumptions that could be a healthy start for the community,” she explained.

Butt was surrounded by a dozen people at Grosvenor Gallery, one among the 140 other pop-ups at the show. She explained her thought process behind a piece ‘Get out of my dreams’ that showed two men posing together, framed by colourful items, each of which had a meaning for Butt.

The images she uses are journalistic photos, which she refines by hand, and then wraps in themes inspired by Pakistani truck art and the larger-than-life, vintage movie posters she saw in Lahore.

Butt wasn’t the only one instilling Lahore in her art work.

‘Global cultural hub’: Art Dubai draws to a close

Maryam Baniasadi, who moved to Pakistan in 2012 from Iran, documented her journey through NCA in miniature paintings.

“Pakistan was really inspiring for me,” said the artist, who lives in Lahore with her husband. “The architecture, the nature, the vibrant colours － so I used a lot of composites in my work also, like nature is there.”

Baniasadi said she also tries to reflect the political environment around her in her work.

“When I moved to Pakistan, there was a lot of security [issues] in Pakistan,” she said. “You can’t tell that this painting has, like, you know, the tension of the city. It’s calm.”

Baniasadi said she hopes her journey from being a visitor to Art Dubai to exhibiting her work here will inspire other Pakistani artists to try, too. She was enjoying her first time exhibiting her work at LATITUDE 28, an Indian art gallery, which was showcasing works from other Pakistani artists as well.

“We have a nice roster of artists from Pakistan,” said Bhavna Kakar, who owns Latitude 28.The walls of her gallery were adorned with works by Noor Ali Chagani, Farhat Ali, Waseem Ahmed, and Khadim Ali.

All these Pakistani artists, she said, added to strongly to her gallery’s theme of miniature and sculpture.

“Each one has their distinct identity which adds so much to what we already do,” said Kakar.

In another part of the art show, Hannah Matin, gallery associate, agreed with her peer about how artists from different backgrounds complement each other’s works.

She was referring to Pakistani artists Sana Arjumand’s work displayed at Aicon Gallery, a New York-based art shop that specializes in contemporary works created by emerging and established Indian and Pakistani artists.

Arjumand’s piece title ‘The Perfect Mirror’ was specially placed across from an monumental piece by Nigerian artist Peju Alatise, said Matin, because the visuals of the former piece corresponded well with the sectioning of the Alatise’s expansive, brightly coloured creation.

Prajit Dutta, Aicon’s owner, said Matin, has a special passion for highlighting artists from India and Pakistan.

“They really encapsulate the cultures of Pakistan and India in a very beautiful way,” she noted. “For example, Sana Arjumand’s work, it’s all about the sense of spirituality and female representation in Pakistan.”

Arjumand was unable to attend the event due to visa issues, but her art piece was sold for more than $20,000 and was displayed with the likes of Pakistan’s famous artist Sadequain.

The fair, which ran from April 18-20 (with previews on the 16th and 17th) also featured an Art Dubai Modern segment with presentations by the region’s modern masters. The event, held at Madinat Jumeirah, also featured Digital Summit, a unique curated section dedicated to pioneering artists, collectives, galleries and platforms who are shaping today’s digital art world.

At a press conference earlier in the week, Art Dubai’s artistic director had said said, “Dubai is a unique, global city, one which is home to communities and peoples from all over the world, with different languages and traditions and, as we approach our twentieth year, the fair has become the main platform and commercial marketplace for galleries and artists from these scenes and geographies. We are proud to champion these voices, supporting a more diverse and global art world.”

Art Dubai is held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

This year’s programme features over 120 gallery presentations and 30 first-time exhibitors, alongside an ambitious programme of commissions and installations, talks and conferences, and special events.

At the press conference on Tuesday, Art Dubai’s Artistic Director said, “Art Dubai’s programme continues to go from strength to strength. This year’s line-up reflects the rapid maturing of the cultural scene in the Gulf region.”

Art Dubai 2025 runs from April 18-20, (with previews on 16 and 17 April), at Madinat Jumeirah

“Dubai is a unique, global city, one which is home to communities and peoples from all over the world, with different languages and traditions and, as we approach our twentieth year, the fair has become the main platform and commercial marketplace for galleries and artists from these scenes and geographies. We are proud to champion these voices, supporting a more diverse and global art world.”

‘Global cultural hub’: Art Dubai draws to a close

Art Dubai is held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

A glimpse into South Asia

South Asian art, especially Pakistani art will also be well-represented at the fair across various galleries.

Among those on display this year include, Anwar Saeed (Grosvenor Gallery), Huma Mulji (Project 88), Shehnaz Ismail (Aicon), Waqas Khan (Galerie Krinzinger, Sabrina Almani), Sara Arjumand (Aicon), Maha Ahmed (P420), Waseem Ahmed (LATITUDE 28), Noor Ali Chagani (LATITUDE 28), Risham Syed (Project 88) and Faiza Butt (Grosvenor Gallery).

Seminal Indian artist M.F. Husain as well as Anish Kapoor’s works will also feature at the fair. Bangladeshi artist Rana Begum will also be represented by The Third Line.

Works of Pakistani artists, including Sadequain, set to feature at Art Dubai 2024

Concurrently, Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi just opened a solo exhibit –‘Vanishing Points: Imran Qureshi’ – at Alserkal Avenue, until April 20.

Art Dubai 2025 Gallery Programme

The 2025 edition and its geographical depth reflects Art Dubai’s role as a gateway for discovery, learning and exchange, as well as its ongoing commitment to showcasing art and artists from less-represented geographies.

The fair will also feature Art Dubai Modern with presentations by the region’s Modern masters.

Art Dubai Digital will offer a unique curated section dedicated to the pioneering artists, collectives, galleries and platforms who are shaping today’s digital art world.

Digital Summit will convene international and local industry leaders to discuss and debate the expanding digital art ecosystem and Dubai’s unique place within it.

The Bawwaba section will features gallery presentations of artworks made in the past year or specifically for Art Dubai, presenting artists who hail from across the Global South.

Art Dubai 2025 runs from April 18-20 (with previews on 16 and 17 April) at Madinat Jumeirah.

Drawn from museums and private collections worldwide, the ‘David Hockney 25’ exhibition focuses on the last quarter century of Hockney’s work, including many of the digital paintings on iPad he has pioneered.

Co-curated by Hockney’s friend Norman Rosenthal, it also features some of Hockney’s best-known works, including the 1972 ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’, which in 2018 sold for $90 million, at the time the highest price for a work by a living artist.

“I’ve learned to compare David Hockney with Picasso. Not because he’s the same, but because of the scale of his work, and the imagination, and the total achievement is not dissimilar,” Rosenthal said.

Many of the works are set in London and in Yorkshire and Normandy, respectively northern England and northern France, where the artist has spent most of his time this century.

“The show means an enormous amount to me because it is the largest I ever had … in the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s great Parisian building, designed by my LA friend Frank Gehry,” said Hockney in the exhibition brochure, referring to the winged building in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne park.

The exhibition includes the monumental 12 metre-wide “Bigger Trees Near Warter”, painted in 2007, paintings from his California period in the 1970s, as well as dozens of still lifes, landscapes, portraits and self-portraits.

One of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, Hockney, 87, was a major figure of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and has remained at the forefront of modern art, reinventing his familiar themes in new media and technologies, the exhibition’s brochure said.

“(Hockney) shows us the way, while recognising that the path that he himself has followed is continually evolving,” Fondation Louis Vuitton President Bernard Arnault wrote in an introduction to the exhibition.

It runs until August 31.

In her communication to the Wolf Foundation, Lari expressed gratitude for the recognition but stated she could not accept the award “in view of the unfortunate continuing genocide in Gaza.”

According to media reports, she declined the award because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a reason she explicitly stated in her response to them.

“I declined the award because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a reason I explicitly stated in my response to them. Given the current situation in Gaza, accepting the award was out of the question,” she said.

The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel since 1978 to living scientists and artists for “achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people.” It is awarded in six fields, including agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics, and an arts category that rotates between architecture, music, painting, and sculpture.

Lari, who focuses on the intersection of architecture and social justice, has built a reputation for creating sustainable structures for marginalized communities in Pakistan. She co-founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan with her husband, Suhail Zaheer Lari, in 1980.

Her humanitarian work includes constructing over 50,000 sustainable self-built shelters and more than 80,000 ecological cooking stoves using natural materials such as mud, lime, and bamboo.

The architect advocates for traditional construction techniques that can lead to low-impact, carbon-neutral buildings. In 2023, she received the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Gold Medal for her humanitarian contributions to architecture.

The Wolf Foundation has not issued a public response regarding Lari’s decision as of this report.

‘Crude Oil (Vettriano)’ is Banksy’s re-imagining of the 1992 painting ‘The Singing Butler’ by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano, whose death was announced on Monday.

It depicts Vettriano’s butler serenading a dancing couple on a beach, with Banksy’ addition of a sinking oil liner and two figures in hazmat suits moving a barrel of toxic waste in the background.

The painting, bought by the co-founder of pop-punk band blink-182 Hoppus and his wife Skye in 2011, is being offered at Sotheby’s London “Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction”, with an estimate of 3 million - 5 million pounds ($3.81 million - $6.35 million).

“It was first exhibited in (Banksy’s) landmark exhibition in Notting Hill in 2005, which really propelled him into the public sphere,” Mackie Hayden-Cook, specialist, contemporary art at Sotheby’s, told Reuters.

“It’s rare for a work of this quality to come to market, and this one really has all the best ingredients. A fabulous owner, it’s hand-painted, impeccable exhibition history, and its subject is more urgent now than ever before.”

Speaking before news of Vettriano’s death, she linked Banksy’s decision to re-imagine his work to the parallels between the two artists at the time.

“Like Banksy, you have a really, really popular artist that is loved by the masses and appreciated by many. But for whatever reason, he was snubbed by the art world,” Hayden-Cook said.

Hoppus said part of the sale proceeds would go to medical charities and the California Fire Foundation, following the Los Angeles wildfires. He and his wife also intend to buy new art.

“Coming up in punk rock, it was always the ethos that if your band got any success, you brought your friends up with you,” he told Reuters on Sunday.

“So with this art sale, I hope to take some of the money and put it back into the art community with up-and-coming artists that we’re inspired by and just continue that…I want to be a punk rock Medici.”

Curated by his son, artist Amin Gulgee, the new space was two years in the making and now houses a permanent collection of Gulgee’s paintings, mosaics in lapis lazuli, sketches and sculpture spanning from the 1950s up to the year 2007.

“I’ve curated the collection of over 170 works dividing it into 17 sections which are spread over 13 rooms over two floors of the museum”, Amin told Business Recorder.

Humbled and “overjoyed” by the turnout at the opening, Amin shared how his architect Samina Anjarwala helped him “reimagine the space, which is now an extension of the adjoining Amin Gulgee Gallery”.

Each theme is described in wall text personally written by Amin, who shares much personal context and anecdotal evidence. “I have tried to tell a story about my father, and it was a very personal experience doing that,” he shared.

Gulgee, an engineer by profession, attended the prestigious Columbia University in 1947 as well as Harvard University in 1948.

During his time as a graduate student in the United States, Gulgee studied art on his own, spending countless hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston – his two favorite painters being Velázquez and Rembrandt, as described by Amin.

Also included in the museum are archival photographs.

Gulgee witnessed the birth of Pakistan and images include him showing his works to former French statesman Charles de Gaulle, former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi, Former US President Richard Nixon, among others.

Additionally, there are videos of interviews with Gulgee in which the artist describes his works, as well as the room that he painted in, replete with his brushes, palette knife and materials, which Amin shared he has left as his father had.

Qatar Museums set to exhibit Pakistani art by Sadequain, Ismail Gulgee, Rashid Rana

Pietra dura

Pietra dura – a technique of inlaying stonework in which different sections are precisely cut and placed together – was one of the mediums Gulgee was especially synonymous with.

In the 17th century, this method of mosaic was reinterpreted in Mughal India and called ‘parchin kari’.

The marble walls of the Taj Mahal commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan brought about richly colored floral and geometric patterns using jade, cornelian, lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones.

In 1957, King Mohammad Zahir Shah asked Gulgee to paint his portrait in oils. Gulgee went on to make portraits of members of the royal family, spending almost a year in Kabul.

During his stay in Afghanistan, Gulgee conceived his first mosaic: a depiction of the king using polychrome onyx and marble in pietra dura.

In the 1970s, Gulgee revisited this method to assemble a portrait of Aga Khan III Sultan Muhammad Shah – a replica of which is on display. During his trajectory, Gulgee made portraits of various heads of state and royalty in lapis lazuli.

Incidentally, one of his favourite and oft-used colours, ultramarine, is derived from lapis lazuli.

Artist Adeel uz Zaffar lauded the curation of the exhibit saying, “Gulgee has produced outstanding portraits of the late Karim Aga Khan IV and his grandfather made with lapis lazuli – a precious stone found in Central Asia.”

“I have always seen the works in print and on social media, but it is a breathtaking moment for me to physically experience them at close range, to feel and understand the craft and the beauty. Certainly a photograph does not do justice to the actual work.”

Calligraphy

While the origins of the ‘Naskh’ script can be traced to the first century, they became popular in the 6th century as used by scribes.

In 1974, Gulgee engaged with Islamic text for the first time, with a painting depicts a verse from Quran stating, “And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided.”

“Gulgee’s hand would fly across the paper as he inscribed calligraphy in these rounded letters,” Amin writes for that section of the gallery.

“He would often conjecture that the movement of foliage must have inspired the early calligraphers to develop Arabic script, noting how a leaf curves and gestures in the wind, creating fluid lines.”

“The works are very carefully selected for each section and the entire retrospective is very well-curated which allows an audience to experience the various thought processes of Ismail Gulgee – the entire range of an artist, state commissions to his personal narratives and selected themes,” added uz Zaffar.

“My favorite section is the one showcases an entire range of his brushes as a reminder of his long life journey.”

Artist Mona Naqsh – daughter of seminal Pakistani artist Jamil Naqsh – called the endeavour a “gift to Karachi”, citing it an important addition to the art landscape.

Artist Adeel uz Zafar opens up about current art trends, NFTs

The goal of the Gulgee Museum is to be an educational tool for the study of the artist, according to a press release issued by the museum.

Eventually there will be an outreach program targeting schools and universities of Pakistan to give students free guided tours of Gulgee’s immense trajectory. The roof of the museum is a space where discursive sessions can be held on topics of culture relevant to Pakistan.

“It was my parents’ dream that their home would eventually become a museum. I truly hope that I have done justice to that vision,” Amin added.

The second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, titled “And All That Is In Between”, features as its centrepiece segments of the “kiswa”, the black cloth embroidered with gold and silver that covers the Kaaba, the cubic building towards which all Muslims pray.

Hundreds more works are on display at the west terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport in the coastal city, including valuable objects on loan from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and the Louvre in Paris, and rare artefacts from the Vatican Library such as a medieval Quran in Hebrew script.

“This bringing together of the contemporary and the past really emphasises the change that Saudi Arabia is going through,” said Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, curator of the exhibition.

Home to Islam’s holiest sites, the kingdom has long been dominated by Wahhabism, a strict interpretation of Islam that prohibits the representation of human and animal figures.

As a result of the prohibition of such depictions in most Sunni Muslim schools of thought, geometric patterns came to be widely prevalent in Islamic art.

But the biennale in Jeddah features medieval Persian illuminations, including royal portraits, as well as a fountain designed by Yemeni-Indonesian artist Anhar Salem whose mosaic tiles, assembled by colour using artificial intelligence, are made up of avatars sourced online.

‘Traditional conceptions’

“We have traditional conceptions of Islam and its history, which I feel we should begin to re-examine from a new perspective,” said visitor Abdelelah Qutub, a 31-year-old architect from Mecca.

A few metres (yards) away, Franco-Lebanese artist Tamara Kalo had recreated the camera obscura, the precursor to the modern camera invented in the 11th century by Muslim philosopher Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen).

Kalo told AFP her installation, made out of copper, sought to raise the question of “what it means to see and what it means to be a witness”.

The exhibition has also encouraged artists to be bold with scale, as can be seen from a massive disc covered in petrol – a nod to Saudi Arabia’s position as the world’s leading crude exporter – that spins endlessly.

Its creator, Italian artist Arcangelo Sassolino, said: “For me it represents time… it’s something that keeps evolving while we’re watching the piece.”

Under his “Vision 2030”, de facto Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to transform the kingdom’s image, weighed down by decades of repression and ultraconservatism.

According to James Dorsey of the National University of Singapore, Saudi authorities are seeking to address what he described as a “reputation deficit”, having long been considered a “secretive, ultraconservative kingdom”.

Efforts to project “openness”, including the biennale, are “key to the success of Vision 2030”, he said.

‘Share space with the West’

Strategically located in a terminal adjacent to the one reserved for Muslims on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Jeddah biennale attracts a mix of both art enthusiasts and pilgrims.

“We had pilgrims coming from over the road here to see the Mecca and Medina pavilions last time,” said art historian Julian Raby.

The first edition in 2023 attracted 600,000 visitors – approaching the Venice Biennale’s 700,000 visitors in 2024.

Now, the Islamic Arts Biennale aims to exceed a million visitors, many from abroad.

“That internationalism is exactly the opposite of how many people consider Saudi Arabia. They look at Saudi Arabia and consider it as a cloistered country,” said Raby.

“The Islamic world has never been cloistered, it’s been in dialogue, dynamic.”

In front of her monumental sculpture, a black steel bush of roses floating above a fountain, Jordanian artist Raya Kassisieh was proud to benefit from the platform provided by the biennale.

“We are able and at the level to converse and share space with the West,” she said.

In a session titled, ‘Art with a Mission’, Obaid-Chinoy reflected that when she tells a story, she aims to find a common thread that binds everyone, and that the medium of film chose her.

“I hope that I can open up people’s eyes because we are all born equal. We all go six feet under the ground, and the time that we spend here, we must realise that we have to amplify each other and work off each other,” Obaid-Chinoy shared.

The two-time Academy Award winner said that being a filmmaker is about relinquishing control and a key step in building a vulnerable relationship between the storyteller and the person whose story is being told.

“Throughout my career, whether I’ve been in war-zones or I’ve been in a quiet situation, I have known that the key has gone in, click, and the lock has opened.

“I know that moment when that happens because I can see through the journey of that film, when that person is willing to relinquish control.”

Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has also been in attendance at the WEF, and spoke about Pakistan’s fiscal and economic dilemmas during sessions and on the sidelines with fellow world leaders.

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Obaid-Chinoy is a recipient of the Crystal Award that recognises artists and leaders who have had a significant global impact through their advocacy.

She was also in attendance last year, where she talked about women “taking charge” in a session along with designer Diane von Furstenberg.

During her session this year, she added how in creating films, she makes a deliberate effort to bond with the people whose stories she tells, away from cameras, to ensure they feel safe with her.

“I say that filmmakers can get people to say things that people have never admitted, even to themselves. It’s almost as if they are confessing to themselves about their lives and what they have gone through. You open up the inner sanctum of someone.”

The artist added that she sees storytelling as an avenue for change, and it is not the conclusion. It is people across the world who “rally and make it special.”

“I don’t see myself as just creating films. I see myself as telling stories that will create a path. So, every film that I’ve ever done has an impact campaign associated with it,” Obaid-Chinoy said.

“The people who I have made films about as a filmmaker, I can never promise them anything. I can only promise them that in giving their testimony and bearing witness and in making sure that I can keep their secrets, they will find their path.”

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Obaid-Chinoy ended her talk with a recent anecdote of an email she received just months ago containing a photograph of a dairy company in Canada. She recognized this was an individual she had filmed in 2008 in ‘Damascus on a wheelchair’.

“[He was] an Iraqi refugee who had come to protest the fact that the Iraqis were not getting asylum at a fast enough space. Because he was in that film, he used that to petition UNHCR to get him asylum.There is a photograph of him with a dairy company with his name on it and his three grown up sons.

“And in it, he’s written, ‘Dear Sharmeen, this is because of you,’” she said.

In a letter to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, revealed by Paris daily Le Parisien and confirmed to Reuters by the Louvre, Louvre President Laurence des Cars warned that the centuries-old building is in a dire state, and pointed at problems with water leaks and “worrying temperature swings which endanger the conservation of works of art”.

Built in Paris in the late 12th century, the Louvre Palace for centuries was the official residence of the kings of France, until Louis XIV - weary of rebellious crowds in Paris - abandoned it for Versailles, after which it became a museum for the royal art collection in 1793.

Last year, the Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors, who all entered via the pyramid-shaped western entrance, designed by architect I.M. Pei, which itself has become problematic as its greenhouse effect makes the Louvre’s subterranean reception uncomfortably hot on summer days.

A visit to the Louvre, the museum’s head wrote, has become “a physical ordeal”, with artworks being hard to find due to inadequate signage, lack of space for visitors to take a break, and insufficient food and sanitary facilities.

Designed to receive four million visitors a year, the Louvre saw record attendance of 10.2 million visitors in 2018, but des Cars - who was appointed in 2021 - has imposed a limit of 30,000 visitors per day in order to avoid overcrowding.

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Des Cars’ letter did not mention financing, but French TV news channel BFM said renovation costs could amount to 500 million euros ($520 million), which would be a challenge for President Emmanuel Macron’s government which has struggled to gets its 2025 budget approved by parliament.

Le Parisien reported that talks are under way between Macron’s office, the culture ministry and the Louvre. A source close to Macron’s office confirmed that “the president has followed this issue with attention for several months”.

The culture ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After his first election in 2017, Macron gave his victory speech in front of the Louvre, while the Tuileries gardens around the former palace also played a prominent role during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Besides a top-to-bottom renovation, the museum is also considering building a new wing for the Mona Lisa, as well as a new entrance on the eastern end of the museum, to relieve congestion at the Pyramid entrance. ($1 = 0.9615 euros)

The announcement reflected Dubai government’s dedication to amplifying the role of the arts in enriching Dubai’s creative landscape, while reinforcing its status as a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talent.

To be held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, it will encompass various initiatives, entertainment activities, and artistic festivals.

‘Take a Walk on the Art Side’: Dubai Art Season 2024 gets under way

Dr Saeed Mubarak bin Kharbash, CEO of the Arts & Literature Sector at Dubai Culture, said, “Through its diverse artistic, cultural, and creative activities, Dubai Art Season offers a unique experience that reflects the essence of Dubai, its vibrancy, and its future aspirations,” as per the press statement.

“It also highlights the emirate’s capabilities in attracting creatives from around the world and cultivating connections among them, aligning with the Authority’s responsibilities and sectoral priorities aimed at enriching Dubai’s cultural movement and supporting cultural tourism.”

Calendar

The season will kick off with Al Marmoom: Film in the Desert festival, taking place from January 4 - 12, under the theme ‘Stories at One with Nature,’ presenting a diverse programme of activities designed to enhance the sustainability of the regional film industry.

The twelfth edition of the Al Quoz Arts Fest will follow on January 25 - 26 at Al Quoz Creative Zone and Alserkal Avenue, comprising over 200 artistic and cultural events.

‘Global cultural hub’: Art Dubai draws to a close

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will take place from starting on January 29 - February 3, at InterContinental Hotel Festival City featuring author talks, panel discussions and workshops.

The 13th edition of the Sikka Art and Design Festival, highlighting visual arts and local and regional artistic innovations will take place from January 31 - February 9, 2025, at Al Shindagha Historic Neighbourhood.

The season will end with the 18th edition of Art Dubai, at the Madinat Jumeirah from April 18 - 20 2025.

This edition will feature various galleries across its four sections: Contemporary, Modern, Bawwaba, and Art Dubai Digital.

Furthermore, Dubai Opera will present a series of musical and theatrical performances throughout the coming year, highlighting regional and international talent in performing arts and music.

A short walk away is a state-run insurance office with giant Egyptian-style carvings, and a palm-lined seafront promenade with pastel-coloured apartments with porthole windows, curved balconies and exotic motifs.

Architecture aficionados may go crazy over Miami’s South Beach, but the coastal Indian megacity is home to what experts believe is one of the world’s largest collections of Art Deco buildings.

Decades of neglect, however, have led to buildings being demolished or compromised through slapdash modern renovation.

Lovers of the dramatic architecture fear that will only increase as Mumbai undergoes a rapid $30 billion infrastructure makeover including major road, rail and bridge projects.

A sweep of some Art Deco buildings – including offices, colleges and residential complexes – was listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2018, alongside the city’s Victorian Gothic architecture for its “unique style” described as “Indo-Deco”.

Today, the city’s breakneck pace of development has left a small but dedicated group of building owners, architects and heritage lovers trying to conserve the city’s Art Deco character.

The job requires “constant vigilance”, said Nayana Kathpalia, who lives in an Art Deco building that was recently restored – but crucially in a manner that maintained its original character.

‘Modern, open, friendly’

Many apartment building owners are eager to cash in and redevelop their old dwellings, making them part of a cookie-cutter modern skyline.

“If too many buildings get done in a totally different style, the World Heritage Site committee will say ‘what the hell is happening?’,” Kathpalia said.

“We are very, very clear that we have to protect that.”

Losing it could strip the city of its history and character, campaigners say.

Art Deco took the West by storm after emerging as a new wave of design in France before the First World War.

Architects used geometric patterns and streamlined structures to evoke the popular technologies of the time, including airplanes and ocean liners.

As a style, Art Deco can appear as an odd hodgepodge, borrowing everything from ancient Mayan to Japanese culture.

But the first generation of homegrown Indian architects who visited Europe in the 1920s and 1930s were inspired.

After returning home, they started designing Art Deco style buildings for rich Indian business families that had profited off the economic boom in the port city, said Atul Kumar, founder of a non-profit that seeks to conserve the heritage.

Art Deco “enabled a certain cosmopolitanism” and contributed to making Mumbai a “modern, open, friendly” city, Kumar added.

‘Bombay style’

While Kumar’s Art Deco Mumbai organisation has spent years painstakingly documenting buildings, it has also more recently started offering “repair and restoration” help.

“We go out, pro bono, and reach out to people,” he said, having supported the sensitive restoration of around nine buildings, including a couple in the core World Heritage area.

However, there are challenges, including stringent rent control laws which impose financial constraints on landlords.

Kumar also admits that residents in newer and northern parts of the city have less of a “desire” to conserve their buildings in their original Art Deco style.

A large part of this is due to a lack of awareness.

Many of the city’s inhabitants walk past the vivid tropical imagery, elongated turrets and jazzy typography without giving them a second glance.

Pranati Mehta, a 46-year-old school teacher, says most Indians only look at “temples as architecture”, as they “feel that is special”.

Some Mumbai residents don’t realise they “live amongst art”, she said.

But Mehta, who was on a weekend walking tour to learn more about the architectural style, quickly adds that Art Deco isn’t foreign to Indian sensibilities.

“We recognise it as a Bombay style,” she said. “We think Art Deco is also an Indian brand”.

Women like Ijja Benchri, who creates carpets on a wooden weaving loom outside her small home in the village of Taznakht, follows traditions going back many generations.

“I started when I was 11 or 12, imitating the women I saw weaving,” said Benchri, 60.

“Little by little, I learnt, and it became my life’s work.”

Known for their bold geometric patterns and vibrant colours, the handwoven rugs are a fixture in local markets and a favourite among tourists.

In 2022, traditional carpets accounted for nearly 22 percent of the kingdom’s artisan exports, according to government data.

The mountain villages around Taznakht are famous for their Ait Ouaouzguite carpets, named after a native Amazigh tribe, one among a grouping of several communities indigenous to North Africa long referred to as Berbers.

The carpets are woven by the women on small traditional looms, either at home or in specialised workshops.

They are then categorised into various styles, depending on their region of origin and their designs.

Some of Morocco’s finest rugs are crafted from high-quality sheep wool in Jbel Sirwa just south of the Atlas Mountains, and dyed using natural pigments from plants like henna, pomegranate peels, or indigo.

Though industrial dyes have replaced natural ones for most weavers because they are cheaper and can be produced more quickly.

“This tradition has been handed down for centuries, from mothers to daughters,” said Safia Imnoutres, who leads a local women’s weaving cooperative.

She was one of the women showcasing their creations at a recent festival in Taznakht dedicated to safeguarding the heritage.

‘Comes from within’

Creating a single carpet can take two to four weeks depending on its size, said Benchri, speaking in Tamazight, the community’s language recognised as an official language alongside Arabic in Morocco.

“I choose the colours as I go, according to my feelings,” she added.

Imnoutres also described the process as “instinctive”, guided by emotion rather than a predetermined design.

“Weaving is an expression of the women’s feelings, when they are joyful, when they are melancholic,” she added. “It’s an art that comes from within.”

But beyond its artistic value, weaving is a vital source of income.

Every Thursday, many travel to a weekly market to sell their rugs, often to middlemen who set the prices.

On average, a large rug sells for just 250 Moroccan dirhams (around $24), with its final price later raking astronomical profits.

In cities like Marrakech, some 250 kilometres (160 miles) north of Taznakht, they are sold in bazaars for up to ten times the original price.

Other rugs are listed at up to $6,000 on online platforms.

“We earn very little,” said Benchri. “The intermediaries decide the price, and we have no choice but to accept it because this is our livelihood.”

These diminishing returns, she added, have contributed to making the craft less attractive for younger women and jeopardising the handcraft tradition.

Additionally, the influx of cheaper, machine-made rugs has deepened competition.

To address these challenges, a new exhibition space in Taznakht allows some weavers to sell their work directly to buyers, cutting out middlemen.

The centre also tries to open new avenues for these women to sell their products independently through courses in digital marketing.

“If this heritage isn’t made financially viable, we risk losing it,” Imnoutres warned.

The event brought together esteemed personalities, including Professor Salima Hashmi, Quddus Mirza, Nazish Ata, and other notable artists, to celebrate artistic expression and intellectual discourse.

Expertly moderated by Rabeya Jalil, the session spotlighted Resham Syed’s distinctive body of work, which masterfully addresses social, political, economic, and cultural themes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

Rather than the usual setting of a small town in Germany in the 1820s, ‘Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker in Havana’ still takes place on Christmas Eve but the backdrop is Cuba in the early 20th century.

With ballet at its heart, the style of dance is varied too and Acosta said it’s going down well with audiences and attracting a younger crowd.

“This show, by using the Cuban influence, the ballet, the Afro-Cuban movement and also the contemporary, is…reaching out to new audiences,” the acclaimed dancer said in an interview at the Southbank Centre where the show is currently on.

After pitching the idea a few years ago, Acosta choreographed and directed the show which stars Cuban dancers from his company Acosta Danza.

“I think it is so personal to Carlos in a way that some of his previous work perhaps doesn’t have that connection because it represents Cuba … and tells the story of a country that’s having a really tough time,” said Stephen Crocker, the show’s creative producer.

Acosta said the show, which includes visual touches linked to his childhood home in Havana, offers audiences a sense “of how wonderful and beautiful was Cuba in the 1920s and thirties”.

“Whereas ‘The Nutcracker’ normally is a period play where you have…the well-to-do family, for us…it is basically… the opposite. This piece plays in a very humble house.”

Reflecting on his own journey into dance, Acosta, who was born in Havana in 1973, said he first “hated ballet” as in the 1980s he was more into breakdancing. But once he saw professional ballet his opinion changed.

This 82-year-old takes on the rocky slopes of Rio de Janeiro

“I never considered myself a ballet dancer as such…I could dance salsa …and breakdancing as well. And then ballet was something that I did later on,” he said.

The annual exhibit is exhibiting 249 works, across the disciplines of architecture, interior design, communication design, fine art, textile design and fashion design.

The work is open for public viewing until Saturday, and a significant event in Karachi’s art scene, attracting collectors and art aficionados from across the country. It is also a prime place to discover future upcoming artists and designers.

The fine art department exhibition this year is displaying a variety of a modern, digital, surrealistic, kinetic, realistic, sculptural art works to experience first hand.

Students have delved into ideas that resonate with pressing societal issues and our current socio-economic and environmental circumstances: Associate Professor, Department of Fine Art, Seher Naveed

The work of Ariba Asif stood out – showcasing works particularly inspired by Karachi’s vibrant food culture. Through photographs, she has captured moments of hospitality and everyday life compiled into striking digital collages.

Associate Professor, Department of Fine Art, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Seher Naveed stated how “this year marks a remarkable blend of experimentation and individuality. Each project not only demonstrates innovative use of materials and methods but also reflects a strong social consciousness.”

“Students have delved into ideas that resonate with pressing societal issues and our current socio-economic and environmental circumstances.”

“In examining their research interests, emanating from the personal, yet crucially relevant to the wider public imagination, the students celebrate Karachi and demonstrate a critically honest perception of their position in the social fabric, as spectators as well as participants in a dynamic and ever-changing urban environment.”

At that, one student from Ibrahim Hyderi, Khadija Jamot, explored the vibrant ecologies and cultures of Bundal Island in her project. She highlighted the looming threat of exploitation under the guise of development, which aims to transform the island into a city.

Another student, Amnol Babar, critiques encroachments, land mafias, and exploitative practices of housing estates in Karachi. Her project sheds light on how these systems prey on citizens’ dreams of owning homes that promise comfort and security.

Ali Hameed draws attention to the indigenous crafts of Sindh through ceramic and fabric works.

“His research draws inspiration from the sacred crocodiles of Manghopir and the local mythology surrounding them. Through this lens, he has examined notions of power, hierarchies, and rituals, challenging humanity’s perceived dominance over nature,” Naveed added.

This year’s art was deeply personal, regionally relevant and a creative expression of experiences, brought to life through the exploration of technology and innovative mediums.

The historic item was purchased by a “European collector following intense bidding among eight online bidders” for more than 1.83 million Swiss francs ($2.09 million), the dealer said in a statement.

The coin was originally priced at more than 800,000 euros.

Weighing eight grams and similar in size to a euro, it is “a piece of history” marking the last chapters of the Roman Republic, Frank Baldacci, director of Numismatica Genevensis told AFP ahead of the sale.

The coin was minted in 43-42 BC by Brutus and his supporters who murdered Julius Caesar in March 44 BC, Baldacci explained.

It features the profile of Brutus surrounded by laurel wreath on the front and has war symbols on the reverse to celebrate his military victories.

The wreath in particular is a sign of “someone who wants to promote himself as emperor”, Baldacci said, adding its circulation offered “propaganda value” for Brutus.

It is one of only 17 known artefacts of its kind, the auction house said.

It resurfaced in the 1950s, published in a private collector’s catalogue and later appeared in a 2006 auction in Zurich where it was sold to another private collector for 360,000 Swiss francs.

On his first visit to Britain since Keir Starmer’s Labour government came to power in July, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says he’s “firmly convinced” that the priceless sculptures will return to Athens more than two centuries after their departure for London.

“I am firmly convinced that the friezes will be returned. Discussions with the British Museum are continuing,” Mitsotakis told ANT1 TV on Saturday.

But he stressed that the talks in search of a solution to a historical dispute that has poisoned bilateral relations for over 50 years “do not concern the British government, but the British Museum”.

Greece to ‘persist’ with UK over Parthenon Marbles

UK officials say that the government’s position on the Marbles has not changed and that they remain a matter for the British Museum.

A spokesman for Starmer said the prime minister “looks forward to welcoming Mitsotakis to Downing Street, “where he’ll underline the importance of a strong UK-Greece bilateral relationship.

“He will discuss recent joint work on tackling the shared challenge of illegal migration and other priorities, including support for Ukraine, (and) a ceasefire in Gaza for regional stability in the Middle East,” the spokesman told reporters.

‘Private meetings’ -

Britain’s Sky News on Monday reported that Mitsotakis and his foreign minister George Gerapetritis had held “private meetings” with British Museum officials, including museum chairman George Osborne, on “two or three occasions” this year.

Mitsotakis’ spokesman later in the day denied that the Greek leader had taken part in private meetings, but said the issue would “obviously” come up in the meeting with Starmer.

According to British media, Starmer is much more open to the return of the ancient masterpieces to Athens than his predecessor, Rishi Sunak.

The latter had dealt a diplomatic slap in the face to Mitsotakis a year ago by cancelling a planned meeting between them at the last minute.

The move came after Mitsotakis made comments that apparently upset Downing Street. The Greek, an ardent campaigner for the return of the Marbles, had told the BBC ahead the Sunak meeting that keeping part of the Parthenon friezes outside Greece was tantamount to “cut(ting) the Mona Lisa in half”.

Starmer, then head of the opposition, later told the House of Commons that Sunak had “obviously lost his marbles” in cancelling the meeting with Mitsotakis.

Athens has for decades demanded the return of the 75-metre-long friezes, a campaign revived in the 1980s by Greek singer and actress Melina Mercouri during her stint as minister for culture.

The Greek authorities maintain that the sculptures were looted in 1802 by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

But London claims that the sculptures were “legally acquired” by Elgin, who sold them to the British Museum.

A 1963 British law prevents the museum from giving away treasures.

UK, Greece in ‘secret talks’ on Parthenon Marbles: report

In the UK, where according to a YouGov poll in 2023, a majority of Britons are in favour of restitution, opponents fear a domino effect, with claims from several countries piling up.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens is a temple built in the 5th century BCE in homage to the goddess Athena.

In the course of its long history, it has been transformed into a church, a mosque and a munitions depot under the Ottoman Empire.

The new Acropolis Museum, inaugurated in 2009, has reserved a space for the Parthenon friezes on the first floor of the building, where the four sides of the temple have been faithfully recreated to scale.

The missing friezes have been replaced by casts.

The Acropolis is the most visited archaeological site in Greece. Its popularity with tourists has soared in recent years to the extent that Greek authorities have had to introduce reservation slots to contain summer crowds.

In 2023, almost four million people visited the site known to most Greeks as the Sacred Rock, up 31.1 percent year-on-year.

From January to the end of July, compared with the same period in 2023, the increase was 25.9 percent, or 2.8 million visitors.

Founded in 1753, the British Museum houses a collection of eight million objects, including the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon friezes.

Its creator, who spent almost 20 years making the distinctive four-storey Arimaston Building, thinks his slow approach to construction can be an example to the world.

“It used to be that there weren’t enough things in the world, but now there are too many,” 59-year-old Keisuke Oka told AFP inside the building’s curved grey walls.

“We need to stop mass-producing things and find another way, otherwise we’ll be in trouble.”

With its wobbly lines and weird, wonderful ornamentation, Oka’s building has been compared to the animated Studio Ghibli movie “Howl’s Moving Castle”.

The architect himself has been dubbed the Gaudi of Mita, referencing the famed Spanish architect and the Tokyo area where Arimaston Building is located.

Inspired by Japan’s avant-garde butoh dance, Oka made up the design as he went along.

Growing up, he felt buildings in Japan’s towns and cities looked “very sad and devoid of life”, as if they were “all designed on a computer”.

“The person who constructs a building and the person who designs a building are very far apart,” he said.

“In order to give the building some life, I thought I would try to think and build together at the same time.”

High-rise contrast

Oka started construction in 2005. Apart from the help of a few friends, he made the entire building himself by hand.

He claims the concrete – which he mixed himself – is of such high quality that it will last for over 200 years.

Oka says the structure is basically finished. He plans to live in the top three storeys and use the ground and basement floors as a studio and exhibition space.

When he started, he had no idea the project would take almost two decades.

“I thought with the ability I had, I could do it in three years,” he said, explaining that the improvised nature of his design brought constant challenges.

Oka grew up in rural Japan and was an exceptional architecture student who was told by his teachers he would go a long way.

He suffered a physical breakdown in his 30s and gave up architecture for a while, before his wife persuaded him to buy a small plot and build a house.

He says making Arimaston Building has restored his confidence, and he enjoys the amazed reaction of people walking past.

“It’s very easy to understand the contrast with the high-rise buildings right behind it,” he said.

“I think there is some value that the city can take from it.”

Throw-away society

Arimaston Building stands alone on a sloped street, making it all the more striking.

The area is undergoing large-scale redevelopment, and the apartments that once stood next door have been demolished.

As part of the changes, Oka’s building is scheduled to be moved 10 metres backwards in a process that involves transporting the entire structure on rails.

Once that is complete, he intends to move in and continue working on the finishing touches, alongside his university teaching jobs.

Amid all the upheaval in the area, Oka hopes people will be able to see the value of making something by hand.

He says he was inspired by his upbringing, when his mother made clothes for the family because they couldn’t afford to buy them.

“More than half of the clothes we make now, we throw away, he said, describing a world “overflowing with things”.

“We need to start making things at a slower pace,” Oka said.

Oasis and BTS comebacks

On the one side, the grisly bad boys of Britpop, on the other the fresh-faced darlings of K-Pop.

Both Oasis and BTS are set to return in 2025, much to the delight of their fans, after stints off the stage for very different reasons.

Led by the Gallagher brothers Liam and Noel, Oasis will return after a high-profile bust-up in 2009 – one of many – led to a 15-year split.

The band behind ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’, songs that achieved anthem-like status in the 1990s, go on a world tour kicking off in Britain and Ireland then heading to North and South America.

In the initial scramble to buy tickets from official sites, many fans who missed out sought alternative sources – leading to a landslide of ticket scams.

It will be a very different vibe in South Korea, where wildly popular K-Pop boy band BTS promises to reunite in June after its members finish their mandatory military service.

It is the comeback millions of fans and an entire multibillion dollar industry has been waiting for.

Experts say the megastars’ return to performance and public life could lift South Korea’s cultural exports juggernaut even higher.

Trump 2.0

In the days after his convincing win in the US presidential election, Donald Trump named several of his nominees to form his future cabinet at the White House, ahead of his inauguration on January 20.

With a list including vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Elon Musk co-heading a department of government efficiency, there is concern at what a second Trump term could mean for the United States, and the world.

His swearing-in ceremony in front of the US Capitol in Washington will see Joe Biden, 82, passing the mantle to Trump, who at two years his junior would become the oldest US president in history by the end of his four-year term.

Climate

Could 2025 be the year when our greenhouse gas emissions stop their steady climb around the world?

Researchers are pointing to signs from the world’s biggest polluter China, responsible for 30 percent of global emissions, where fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions are projected to tick up only marginally this year.

Glen Peters, of the Global Carbon Project, says overall CO2 emitted by burning coal, oil and gas across the world could peak in the next few years.

This carbon pollution is the main driver of increasingly dangerous climate change.

But even if there is a peak, Ignacio Arróniz Velasco, of the E3G think tank, said countries cannot afford to “relax”, and should then quickly decrease their emissions to aim for carbon neutrality.

Developing nations blast $300bn COP29 climate deal as insufficient

Football frenzy

Can there be too much of a good thing? In 2025 the question of football overkill and player burnout will likely dominate amid a supercharged calendar.

There is the expanded 32-club Club World Cup awaiting players in the summer, when usually they would have had time to recover from national leagues.

And this coming after a particularly busy season that sees a much-anticipated extended Champions League – the leading European club competition – in a new format.

All this is part of a trend in football to ramp up the number of high-profile matches – the next World Cup in 2026 will welcome a whopping 16 more countries, resulting in 104 games rather than 64.

The spectre of Saudi Arabia will also loom large as the host of the 2034 World Cup pumps more money into the game, with potentially transformative consequences.

Other controversies likely to cause sparks include the continued use of VAR technology, currently locked in a love-hate relationship with players, fans and pundits.

Kumbh Mela

The largest gathering of humanity on the planet will take place from January 13 to late February with tens of millions showered in rose petals and holy ash at a spectacular Hindu festival on India’s sacred riverbanks.

Classified by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, the mega-festival known as the Kumbh Mela takes place every three years.

The venue alternates between four holy places, in the waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, considered among Hinduism’s most sacred.

In 2025 it will happen in the northern city of Prayagraj. The last time the festival took place there, in 2013, it drew 120 million people.

“After the French, the Americans have been the biggest donors by far,” Michel Picaud, president of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, told AFP, ahead of the cathedral’s reopening next month.

Founded in 2017, the group saw donations soar two years later, following the devastating fire that tore through the cathedral on April 15, 2019.

To date, the organization, headquartered in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire, has raised a total of $57 million from 45,000 donors, with Americans leading the way.

From Joan of Arc to wine cellar: Notre Dame in five dates

The top donations included $10 million each from the Starr Foundation, one of the largest American foundations, and the Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis Foundation.

When one adds donations made to other Notre Dame-supporting groups, including New York’s French Heritage Society – which received a $2 million check from the family of cosmetics icon Estee Lauder – Picaud estimates that Americans have contributed $62 million for the restoration fund.

Built more than 600 years before the Eiffel Tower, the cathedral on Paris’s Ile de la Cite is “one of the world’s great treasures,” as former US president Barack Obama, who visited in June 2009 with his wife and daughters, said on Twitter.

Obama was, of course, one in a long line of American presidents to visit the cathedral. Future president Thomas Jefferson visited in the 1780s while serving as ambassador to France.

Medieval art

Though the United States is a relatively young nation, its museums are full of medieval masterpieces. The Metropolitan Museum of Art even reassembled cloisters from four French abbeys on a Manhattan hill now known as The Cloisters.

“For Americans, Notre Dame of Paris is a physical symbol of a premodern European history that does not exist on American soil; as a potent ‘lieu de memoire,’ it evokes an imagined nostalgia for a rich and complex culture of the past,” Meredith Cohen, a professor of medieval art and architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), told AFP.

“Americans also love Victor Hugo, who made Notre Dame famous through his books and writings on it, as well as in his vivid description of Revolutionary Paris in ‘Les Miserables,’” which was hugely successful on Broadway and film versions, she added.

References to the cathedral run deep through American culture, from the first black-and-white films to recent animations.

Quasimodo superstar

Hugo’s 1831 novel ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ was adapted to the big screen in 1923, becoming a silent-film classic. Other versions followed, notably a 1956 film that had Anthony Quinn playing Quasimodo and Disney’s 1996 animation.

The cathedral also appears in numerous Hollywood full-length films, including Vincent Minnelli’s ‘An American in Paris’ with Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen’s ‘Charade’ starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn; the Woody Allen film ‘Midnight in Paris’ featuring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni and Marion Cotillard; and even popular Pixar animation ‘Ratatouille.’

For professor Michael Davis, a specialist in French Gothic art, “First and foremost, its facade offers an instantly recognizable image, not only of the cathedral itself, but one that evokes the city of Paris, the nation of France, the Middle Ages, the Catholic faith.”

A deep affinity

The ferocious fire that tore through the cathedral five years ago sparked a worldwide wave of shock and concern. Major TV networks interrupted their programming and sent their star reporters to Paris.

As the flames were devouring the structure’s wooden framework, then-president Donald Trump became so alarmed that he suggested to French authorities in a tweet that they should consider deploying “flying water tankers” like those used to fight wildfires. The French Civil Security agency said that was a bad idea.

France in one-year ‘battle’ to reopen Notre-Dame

The emotions were shared by many Americans.

“If the millions of visitors to Paris and France have seen one Gothic cathedral, it is probably Notre Dame, and the fire of April 15, 2019, no doubt activated the memory of that encounter and the bond to the cathedral,” said Davis, a board member of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris.

Former World Bank managing director Bertrand Badre, another board member, paid tribute to the “generous and immediate” response of American donors.

“They spoke from their hearts, and we received some very touching testimonies,” he told AFP. UCLA’s Cohen agreed.

“Americans generally have a great affinity for Paris and France’s extensive culture… for its philosophers, artists and fashion houses, as well as the food and wine culture made famous in America by Julia Child,” she said.

“All of this gets attached to Notre Dame.”

Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, was a master of the chiaroscuro technique of lighting to make his subjects seem to come alive. He died in 1610 in his late thirties after a turbulent life.

His portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, who would go on to become 17th century Pope Urban VIII - a great patron of the arts who had sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini among his proteges - was attributed to him in 1963.

“Since that moment it has never been seen in any museum, it has never been lent to an exhibition, so it’s the first time,” Thomas Clement Salomon, Director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art, said on Friday.

It is one of just a handful of surviving Caravaggio portraits, since most have been lost or destroyed, and it goes on display from Nov. 23 until Feb. 23, 2025, the museum said.

“Only very few specialists since the 1960s have had the opportunity to see it in person, and it is one thing to know the painting from photographs, and another to see it in person and realise its quality, its almost magnetic power”, curator Paola Nicita said.

Barberini’s portrait is believed to have been painted at the turn of the 17th century and shows the future pope, who took office in 1623, seated and seemingly giving orders with his right hand.

The museum showing the artwork is housed in Palazzo Barberini, built during Urban VIII’s papacy by Bernini and fellow baroque architect Carlo Maderno, and which remained in family hands until after World War Two

‘Comedian’ by Maurizio Cattelan, was snapped up on Wednesday at auction at Sotheby’s in New York by Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun. It first rocked the art world in 2019 on its debut at Miami’s Art Basel.

“It’s a provocation that invites us to reflect on the value of art and the dynamics of (this) market, pushing us to question what this work says about us as viewers,” Cattelan told Italian daily La Repubblica.

The $6.2 mn banana: Sotheby’s auctions controversial artwork

The piece of art, whose first version was made with a banana that cost 25 cents, on Wednesday went from a starting price of $800,000 to $5.2 million, plus a buyer’s fee.

“It’s the market that has decided to take a banana stuck on the wall so seriously. If the system is so frail to slip on a banana skin, maybe it was already slippery,” Cattelan added.

The artist, 64, is known for his hyper-realistic installations and sculptures, which include a fake horse dangling from a ceiling, the late pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite and a marble hand with a raised middle finger outside Milan’s Stock Exchange.

Cattelan also said he was fast asleep when his banana piece went under the hammer, dreaming that his favourite soccer team Atalanta would beat AC Milan at an upcoming Serie A home game.

“‘Comedian’ is a laugh against a tired system, an invitation to rediscover the power of irony and simplicity,” the artist said.

‘Comedian,’ by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, first rocked the art world upon its debut at Miami’s Art Basel in 2019, drawing such large crowds that the exhibit had to be taken down for public safety and to protect other works on display.

At Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday, it went from a starting price of $800,000 to $5.2 million when the hammer fell about five minutes later, plus a buyer’s premium, or fee.

Bidding soared past the pre-sale high estimate of $1.5 million, Sotheby’s said, with bidders in the room, on the phone and online.

Sun, the Chinese collector and founder of the cryptocurrency Tron, placed the winning bid over the phone. He paid in crypto and it will be the buyer’s responsibility to replace the banana as it rots, according to Artnet.com.

“This is not just an artwork,” Sun said in a statement to Sotheby’s. “It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community. I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”

Sun said he would eat the banana, as at least two spectators have done in other galleries on the piece’s trip around the world.

Stolen Banksy ‘Girl with Balloon’ painting found

Cattelan is known for other bold works such as a golden toilet and a sculpture of the pope struck down by a meteorite.

Art experts said in a Sotheby’s video about the work that it was funny, absurd and a symbol of the excess of the art market, likening it to the Banksy work ‘Girl with Balloon’ that shredded itself during a Sotheby’s auction in London in 2018.

Some 38 people were placed under investigation in Italy, Spain, France and Belgium on suspicion of conspiracy to handle stolen goods, forgery and illegal sale of artworks, the paramilitary Carabinieri art squad and the Pisa prosecutors’ office said in a joint statement on Monday.

The chief prosecutor of Pisa, Teresa Angela Camelio, said experts from the Banksy archive who assisted with the investigation considered Monday’s operation as “the biggest act of protection of Banksy’s work”.

Banksy artwork showing drones on a STOP sign stolen in London

Pest Control, the office that represents the artist, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On its website, it says forgery is common and urges people who want to buy any Banksy pieces to watch out for “expensive fakes”.

Other allegedly forged artists included giants of 19th- and 20th-century art such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian.

Investigators said they had seized more than 2,100 fake pieces, with a potential market value of about 200 million euros ($215 million) and discovered six forgery workshops including two in Tuscany, one in Venice and the rest elsewhere in Europe.

The Vatican - along with Microsoft - has launched a digital replica of St Peter’s Basilica and two artificial intelligence-enabled exhibitions.

New Banksy mural depicting tree foliage appears in north London

They said their probe started in 2023 when they seized about 200 fake pieces from the collection of a businessman in Pisa including a copy of a drawing by Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani.

That led them to forgeries sold by auction houses across Italy, and to connect them to a known group believed to specialise in forgeries of Banksy and Warhol.

To boost their credentials, the unnamed suspects organised two Banksy exhibitions with a published catalogue in prestigious locations in Mestre near Venice and Cortona in Tuscany, investigators said.

This year’s festival was bigger than ever, with over 500 exhibitors and creative leaders from more than 40 countries, embodying the UAE’s embrace of global talent and artistic exchange.

By bringing together diverse voices and aesthetics, Dubai Design Week plays a critical role in strengthening Dubai’s cultural identity within the Middle East.

One of the unique features of this week was its emphasis on multicultural representation. By hosting artists and designers from countries like Palestine, Iran, India, and the UAE, the event fostered a deeper appreciation for the region’s cultural diversity.

Dutch artist Linda Nieuwstad, known for her large-scale, vibrantly coloured flower sculptures, shared how she finds Dubai to be an inspiring backdrop for cultural exchange. “In a world of negativity, you have to use colours to bring out positives,” Nieuwstad said, emphasising the importance of cultural sharing and positivity through her work.

Welsh designer Ross Lovegrove, founder of the Lovegrove Foundation and a globally renowned figure in industrial design, highlighted the immersive, community-driven nature of the event.

“The best art galleries are not organic ones; it’s the experience enveloped in one’s cultural influences that makes it serene,” Lovegrove noted.

‘Milestone edition’: Dubai Design Week begins today

The variety of displays at Dubai Design Week also underscores this emphasis on cultural identity. Togo-born Dr. Gnanli Landrou, who showcased his innovative, sustainable concrete made from local materials, spoke about how his work is deeply inspired by his heritage.

“Being here in Dubai, a cultural hub, I can exchange ideas and even gain inspiration from others,” said Dr. Landrou. His participation reflects Dubai Design Week’s commitment to environmentally conscious design and represents a movement toward sustainable innovation in the region.

Dubai as a cultural leader

Dubai Design Week’s growth over the years has not only attracted global talent but also solidified the city’s reputation as a major business and creative hub. Key players in the design world, including Kartell and Cosentino, are showcasing their collections alongside local and emerging talents.

Dubai Design Week provides a valuable networking platform where designers can explore new markets and seek business collaborations across the GCC and beyond.

The event’s anchor, Downtown Design, is the region’s leading trade fair for contemporary design and has expanded its roster this year to include top-tier international brands and designers. With over 25 Italian architectural firms participating, Downtown Design highlights innovative products, contemporary furniture, and lighting trends, all tailored to an evolving and diverse consumer base.

This expanding participation also points to Dubai’s role in bringing together regional and global creative forces, a factor that plays a significant role in attracting investments and strengthening the local design economy.

‘Beacon of innovation’: Dubai Design Week brings together global creative community

In recent years, these initiatives have played a key role in helping Dubai Design Week grow into one of the most influential cultural events in the region, creating opportunities for regional creatives to showcase their work on an international platform.

A significant trend emerging from this year’s event is the representation of culturally driven designs that reflect Dubai’s multicultural society.

For instance, Editions, the Middle East’s first limited-edition art and design fair, allows attendees to access exclusive, high-quality pieces that carry unique regional influences.

Exhibitors from the Gulf region presented designs inspired by traditional architecture and local motifs, which have captured the interest of collectors and global audiences alike.

This theme of regional influence extends to the annual Urban Commissions competition, where Gulf designers present innovative solutions inspired by community-driven design. Omani studio Altqadum’s piece, TukTukDum Table, was particularly notable for its interactive design rooted in Gulf cultural practices.

This kind of representation adds a unique flavour to Dubai Design Week, showing its role in shaping and redefining Dubai’s cultural landscape in the design industry.

As Dubai Design Week continues to expand its scope, it signals a promising future for the city’s creative and economic growth. By bringing together talent from a broad spectrum of cultural backgrounds, the event fosters a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect among artists, designers, and businesses alike.

“Dubai is becoming a central location for events like this in the design industry,” said an attendee, Fatima Khalid, highlighting the city’s strategic role in the global creative economy.

Beyond the immediate impact on the art and design sector, Dubai Design Week is influencing a broader narrative.

The UAE’s focus on cultural representation and sustainability within design is positioning it as a forward-thinking destination for global talent, offering a unique blend of tradition and innovation.

Dubai has demonstrated a commitment to supporting artists from various backgrounds and driving creative industry growth within the Middle East.

The impact of Dubai Design Week will continue to resonate, both as a platform for cultural exchange and as a vital component in Dubai’s evolving role as a global centre for design and creativity.

For six months, they handed over paintings and other artworks to people leaving Gaza through its Rafah border crossing with Egypt until Israeli ground forces closed it in May when they took control of the frontier.

“The paintings document the brutality of war and massacres… carrying pain and sorrow, but also embodying an unwavering resolve,” said Mohammad Shaqdih.

He is deputy director of Darat al-Funun, an art gallery in the Jordanian capital Amman exhibiting pieces that were smuggled out in a show entitled “Under Fire”.

While the works themselves managed to escape the war-torn territory, the four artists who created them – Basel al-Maqousi, Raed Issa, Majed Shala and Suhail Salem – were not so lucky.

Israeli fire kills 11 Palestinians as tanks roll into central Gaza camp

They remain trapped within the narrow coastal strip where Israel’s military aggression has killed more than 43,500 people, mostly civilians, and created a humanitarian disaster.

The artworks “depict the daily realities of war and the hardship these artists endure, who have been displaced and lost their homes”, said Shaqdih.

He said the gallery was already familiar with the artists on display before the war broke out on October 7, 2023.

‘Nightmares’

“The language of art is universal. Through these paintings, we are trying to convey our voices, our cries, our tears and the nightmares we witness daily to the outside world,” said Maqousi, 53, speaking to AFP by phone from Gaza.

The exhibition features 79 artworks crafted from improvised materials including medicine wrappers, and using natural pigments made from hibiscus, pomegranate and tea.

The drawings show people under bombardment, displaced families on donkey-drawn carts, makeshift tents, weary and frightened faces, emaciated children clinging to their mothers and blindfolded men surrounded by military vehicles.

Saudi crown prince says Israel must respect Iran’s sovereignty, not attack its territory

“I can’t paint with colours and expensive pigments because there are more pressing priorities here in Gaza, like food, drink and finding safety for myself and my family” reads a text by Suhail Salem next to his sketches drawn in school notebooks with ballpoint pens.

In a letter displayed alongside his work, Majed Shala describes how he was displaced to the southern city of Deir al-Balah. His house, studio and 30 years of artworks were completely destroyed.

“When the war first started, I felt completely paralysed, unable to create or even think about making art,” he wrote.

‘Far more devastating’

As time passed, “I started to document the real-life scenes of displacement and exile that have affected every part of our daily lives,” he added.

His words are displayed next to a painting of a man embracing his wife amid a scene of destruction.

“These scenes remind me of the stories our elders told us about the 1948 Nakba,” or “catastrophe”, he wrote, referring to the exodus of around 760,000 Palestinians during the war that led to the creation of Israel.

“But what we’re living through now feels far more devastating, far worse than what people endured back then.”

Exhibition visitor Victoria Dabdoub, a 37-year-old engineer, said she was moved by the artwork.

“It is important that works like these are shared worldwide so that people can feel the pain, sorrow, and suffering of the people of Gaza,” she told AFP.

On the wall nearby is posted a message from artist Raed Issa: “We assure you: if you’re asking how we are, we are far from all right! Constant bombing and terror, day and night! Gaza is in mourning, waiting for relief from God!”

1160: first stones laid

Building the world-famous cathedral in the heart of the French capital began in 1160 and was not completed until almost a century later.

The project was spearheaded by the ambitious Bishop of Paris Maurice de Sully and had several striking features including vaults that reached up to 32 metres (105 feet), according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2023.

But some elements of the gothic building’s construction remain unknown, centuries later.

It is not clear, for example, how the builders “dared – and succeeded – in putting up such thin walls to such a height,” Maxime L’Heritier, an archaeologist at University Paris 8 told AFP in an interview in 2023.

1455: Joan of Arc

Burnt on a stake in a public square after being accused of heresy, the case of Joan of Arc has become legend in France.

In 1455, 24 years after her dramatic death at the age of around 19, a fresh trial opened to reconsider her case, taking place at Notre Dame.

It concluded the verdict of Joan as a heretic had been arbitrary, paving the way for a second trial in Rouen, the original site of her public execution.

In 1456 her sentence was ruled null and void, elevating her to the status of French heroine – and centuries later, a saint.

1790s: one-time wine cellar

During the French Revolution, the cathedral was plundered and seized as public property.

Anti-clerical radicals attacked the facade, removing biblical statues and decapitating them in the cathedral’s square, in acts reminiscent of the guillotining of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.

Over a few years in the 1790s, Notre Dame was used for a variety of purposes, including storing barrels of wine for the Revolutionary Army.

1831: Victor Hugo novel

Published in 1831, Victor Hugo’s novel ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ featured a host of colourful characters from the gypsy Esmeralda to Quasimodo, but at the centre was the cathedral.

The book was a huge hit and triggered an outpouring of emotion among Parisians over the state of disrepair into which the cathedral had fallen.

This popular enthusiasm contributed to an ambitious restoration project launched in 1844 and led by the architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc.

Lasting till 1865, it included the construction of a new spire, which had been dismantled during the Revolution.

2019: inferno on the Seine

The spire was among the features of the cathedral that collapsed in the blaze that shocked the world on April 15, 2019.

Onlookers on the banks of the Seine watched in horror as the fire ravaged not only the spire, which crashed down, but also caused the central frame to collapse, engulfed the clock and part of the vault.

The cause of the blaze is not known, with an electrical fault or a cigarette among the theories.

It took 400 firefighters several hours to control the flames; stained glass windows, towers, bells and most artworks and relics survived.

The renovated Notre-Dame is set to reopen on December 8, 2024.

The 2.2 metre (7.5 feet) portrait by “Ai-Da”, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, smashed pre-sale expectations of $180,000 when it went under the hammer at London auction house Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale.

“Today’s record-breaking sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist to go up for auction marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intersection between A.I. technology and the global art market,” said the auction house.

Ai-Da Robot, which uses AI to speak, said: “The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies.”

Portrait by humanoid robot to sell at auction in art world first

Ai-Da added that a “portrait of pioneer Alan Turing invites viewers to reflect on the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements.”

The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig.

Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer and was devised by Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art.

“The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, and both celebrated and questioned society’s shifts,” said Meller.

“Ai-Da Robot as technology, is the perfect artist today to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy,” he added.

Ai-Da generates ideas through conversations with members of the studio, and suggested creating an image of Turing during a discussion about “A.I. for good”.

The robot was then asked what style, colour, content, tone and texture to use, before using cameras in its eyes to look at a picture of Turing and create the painting.

Meller led the team that created Ai-Da with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham in England.

Meller said Turing, who made his name as a World War II codebreaker, mathematician and early computer scientist, had raised concerns about the use of AI in the 1950s.

The artwork’s “muted tones and broken facial planes” seemingly suggested “the struggles Turing warned we will face when it comes to managing AI”, he said.

Ai-Da’s works were “ethereal and haunting” and “continue to question where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power”, he added.