2 Writers Win Yousef Bakkar Award for Oriental Studies

A general view of the skyline as seen from Jordan's first "Air Taxi", in Amman, Jordan, January 4, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
A general view of the skyline as seen from Jordan's first "Air Taxi", in Amman, Jordan, January 4, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
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2 Writers Win Yousef Bakkar Award for Oriental Studies

A general view of the skyline as seen from Jordan's first "Air Taxi", in Amman, Jordan, January 4, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
A general view of the skyline as seen from Jordan's first "Air Taxi", in Amman, Jordan, January 4, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

Two writers from Jordan and Iran have won the "Yousef Bakkar Award for Oriental Studies," which is organized by the Jordanian Writers Association, with the support of Dr. Youssef Bakkar, Petra News Agency reported.

The $3,000 award was announced Saturday by the General Secretariat of the "Yousef Bakkar Prize for Oriental Studies.”

According to an Association statement, the award was jointly won by: Dr. Abbas Abdel Halim Abbas, from Jordan, for his book "Abdul Wahhab Azzam, A Civilizational Project, a Study of His Literary Efforts and Comparative Eastern Cultures", and Dr. Yadallah Malayri, from Iran, for his book "The Neighbors in the Eastern Mediterranean, the political novel between Persian and Arabic, Ahmed Mahmoud and Abd al-Rahman Munif as a model.”

The "Yousef Bakkar Award for Oriental Studies,” the first of its kind on the Arab and Islamic levels, constitutes a quantum leap in supporting and encouraging specialists in oriental studies, and aims to contribute positively in serving Islamic civilization by reviving literary and cultural relations between oriental languages, especially Arabic, Persian and Turkish, Petra said.

The President of the Jordanian Writers Association, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Award and its Secretary General, lawyer and poet Akram Al-Zoubi, said that the association will soon hold a special ceremony to honor the award winners, expressing appreciation for the support of the Award’s Board of Trustees and its arbitrators.



Abu Dhabi Art Announces Artists, curator Selected for 'Beyond Emerging Artists' Program

Co-Founder of GALLERIA CONTINUA Lorenzo Fiaschi. WAM
Co-Founder of GALLERIA CONTINUA Lorenzo Fiaschi. WAM
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Abu Dhabi Art Announces Artists, curator Selected for 'Beyond Emerging Artists' Program

Co-Founder of GALLERIA CONTINUA Lorenzo Fiaschi. WAM
Co-Founder of GALLERIA CONTINUA Lorenzo Fiaschi. WAM

Abu Dhabi Art has announced details around its Beyond: Emerging Artists program, which commissions new work by up-and-coming UAE-based artists each year, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.

Beyond: Emerging Artists 2024 will be curated by Lorenzo Fiaschi, Co-Founder of GALLERIA CONTINUA, who has selected the artists Fatma Al Ali, Dina Nazmi Khorchid and Simrin Mehra Agarwal to produce commissioned works to be exhibited at Abu Dhabi Art this year, WAM said.

The works will be on exhibition at Manarat Al Saadiyat on November 20-24, after which the exhibition will travel internationally to a new location.

"As we embark on this new journey with Abu Dhabi Art's Beyond Emerging Artists program, we are excited to contribute to the region’s vibrant contemporary art scene,” said Fiaschi.

“Celebrating 18 years of collaboration with Abu Dhabi Art, GALLERIA CONTINUA is eager to witness and support the dynamic evolution of the art world. We are committed to embracing diversity, which enriches our collective artistic experience. We look forward to guiding the selected artists—Dina Nazmi Khorchid, Simrin Mehra Agarwal, and Fatma Al Ali—and helping them develop exceptional projects of international caliber that showcase the creativity and potential of today’s artistic landscape,” he added.

The three selected artists were chosen from over 100 proposals reviewed by the Abu Dhabi Art organizing committee and GALLERIA CONTINUA, and in consultation with Friends of Abu Dhabi Art, a group of individuals who are actively committed to supporting art and culture in the emirate and who support the Beyond Emerging Artists program each year, WAM said.

Abu Dhabi Art Director Dyala Nusseibeh said: “During the selection process we were struck by how analytical and thoughtful each of the chosen proposals were, across diverse practices, unpicking issues that ranged from conflict and war to our relationship with the environment and the impact of colonialism on indigenous plant life in the Gulf. Together the commissioned artists navigate utopian or dystopian imagined landscapes, in often playful, often piercing ways, creating the space for new histories of the region to emerge.”