Arab Artists Organize Touring Exhibition in 3 Continents

The exhibition guide.
The exhibition guide.
TT

Arab Artists Organize Touring Exhibition in 3 Continents

The exhibition guide.
The exhibition guide.

In a first-of-its-kind event, the Jordanian capital is hosting a touring exhibition organized by three Arab artists: Salman Al Malik (Qatar), Mohammed Jaloos (Jordan), and Qasim al-Saadi (Iraq – The Netherlands).

The opening is scheduled for February 9. The exhibition is set to land in three other locations: the Cairo Amman Bank (CAB), Qatar’s Al-Markhiya Gallery, and The Netherlands’ Frank Welkenhuysen Gallery, in addition to two other countries in north and south Africa, according to the exhibition’s guide.

The three artists live and work thousands of kilometers apart, but this “didn’t prevent them from holding long talks, especially during a symposium organized by CAB Gallery two years ago, before the outbreak of the virus,” says the guide.

The three artists are looking forward to reconnecting and defying the isolation caused by the pandemic because they “believe art has an unlimited power, and beauty has courage as much as hope to face the hardships and challenges of the present,” writes CAB’s announcement of the exhibition. “Those artists stood to face loneliness with bravery and contributed to alleviate the impact of isolation and confinement on others,” said Al-Markhiya Gallery in its announcement of the exhibition.

“Art is an international language, a language with no boundaries. It’s filled with imagination and fineness. It’s the language of progress, society, cooperation, and friendship between cultures and people. It’s indeed the language of dream, astonishment, connection, and beauty…a language that is farther than any distance,” writes the announcement of Frank Welkenhuysen Gallery.



Worst Drought on Record Lowers Amazon Rivers to All-Time Lows 

An Aerial photograph showing a man walking on a sandbank formed by the historic low of the Madeira River, in Porto Velho, Brazil 10 September 2024. (EPA)
An Aerial photograph showing a man walking on a sandbank formed by the historic low of the Madeira River, in Porto Velho, Brazil 10 September 2024. (EPA)
TT

Worst Drought on Record Lowers Amazon Rivers to All-Time Lows 

An Aerial photograph showing a man walking on a sandbank formed by the historic low of the Madeira River, in Porto Velho, Brazil 10 September 2024. (EPA)
An Aerial photograph showing a man walking on a sandbank formed by the historic low of the Madeira River, in Porto Velho, Brazil 10 September 2024. (EPA)

The worst drought on record has lowered the water level of the rivers in the Amazon basin to historic lows, in some cases drying up riverbeds that were previously navigable waterways.

The Solimoes, one of the main tributaries of the mighty Amazon River whose waters originate in the Peruvian Andes, has fallen to its lowest level on record in Tabatinga, the Brazilian town on the border with Colombia.

Downriver in Tefé, a branch of the Solimoes has dried up completely, as seen by Reuters reporters who flew over the river on Sunday.

The nearby Lake Tefé, where more than 200 freshwater dolphins died in last year's drought, has also dried up, depriving the endangered pink mammals of a favorite habitat.

"We are going through a critical year," said Greenpeace spokesperson Romulo Batista, pointing to where the riverbed of the branch of the Solimoes had turned to mounds of sand. "This year, several months have broken last year's records."

The second-consecutive year of critical drought has parched much of Brazil's vegetation and caused wildfires across South American nations, cloaking cities in clouds of smoke.

"Climate change is no longer something to worry about in the future, 10 or 20 years from now. It's here and it's here with much more force than we expected," Batista added.

The Solimoes in Tabatinga was measured at 4.25 meters below average for the first half of September.

At Tefé, the river was 2.92 meters below the average level for the same two weeks last year and is expected to drop further to its lowest-ever.

In Manaus, the Amazon's largest city, where the Solimoes joins the Rio Negro to form the Amazon River proper, the level of the Rio Negro is approaching the record low reached in October last year.

"Last year, we were in this situation by October," said Indigenous leader Kambeba. "This year, the drought has gotten worse."