This week’s editorial musings from magpie’s nest
The quote Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing James Tate
Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale Nora Razian, head of exhibitions and programs at Art Jameel in Dubai and Jeddah, and Sabih Ahmed, project adviser for Dubai’s Ishara Art Foundation, have been named as the artistic directors of the third Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (due Jan–April 2026). Both have experience of curating large-scale exhibitions, with particular strengths around climate change and contested histories …
Bubbling over Bloomberg says Dubai’s job market is being overwhelmed by an influx of foreigners – more than 400,000 expats have arrived since the pandemic – dragging down salaries and benefits and leading to a surge in population, rents, and traffic. Dubai is now the Middle East’s most expensive city for international employees, and the 15th globally, according to consultancy Mercer (Abu Dhabi is a much more attractive No.43 out of the 276 cities listed) …
China leads art market slippage Artprice has just released its 2024 global art market report, and at first sight it’s pretty gloomy – total value of sales was $9.9 billion, the lowest since 2009. The biggest fall was in the Chinese market, down 63%. But there’s good news for buyers (nearly half the works sold were priced below $600) and for new/young artists (the number of artists figuring in sales increased 6% year on year). We’ll have more details in our upcoming feature, but you can read it for yourself here …
More public art in Dubai Dubai Culture has signed an extended agreement with Dubai Municipality on public artworks. There are no specifics, but it looks as though Dubai will be getting more public art and on a set schedule; the MoU says Dubai Culture will decide how many works will be installed, the Municipality will propose sites and arrange the necessary approvals …
Architecture awards for AUS The World Architecture Community Awards announced a few weeks ago had two American University of Sharjah teams among the ten winners for Student Awards – Abdul Mateen and Rouqaya Al-Mufti for a proposed research centre in Nizwa, Oman; Lamya Ahmed and Rawan Khedr for a similar project in Old Cairo. We’ll be writing more about these, but there are good reasons why AUS has the top architecture school in the region …
Not in The National Sudan has filed a case at the International Court of Justice claiming the UAE has been arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the country’s vicious civil war and by extension is “complicit in genocide” of the Masalit community in West Darfur. The UAE is of course seeking the dismissal of the case, calling it a “cynical publicity stunt” …
Driving revenues Looks like Dubai’s love affair with the car can be good business. Salik saw 2024 revenues of AED 2.3bn (fines were up 15% to contribute AED 62m of that); and Parkin, the city’s parking monopoly, made AED 249m – up by a third (and Parkin reckons there will be another 25% of parking violations this year, accounting for nearly half its total projected revenue for 2025) …
Something for the weekend With Bracket City you start typing words to solve crossword-like clues in brackets that are nested within other clues (and often nested within nests). Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 One in three cats is not affected by catnip (that sometimes euphoric reaction is hereditary).
Earworm of the week Les Négresses Vertes : Face à la mer (Massive Attack Remix)
Be the first to comment