Entertainment | Celebrity

Daily Deuce: Art with Ana

tabloid! has an exclusive afternoon of art viewing with Ana Ivanovic

By Natalie Long, tabloid! Editor
Published: 07:37 February 18, 2013

Image Credit: Atiq Ur Rehman/Gulf News
Ana Ivanovic, a Dubai Duty Free brand ambassador, at Jumeriah Creekside Hotel

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Camels, falcons and henna — when it comes to exploring Dubai, many of the players at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship have seen it all, many times over. 2013’s tournament brings with it a chance to explore a different side of the region through the contemporary Middle Eastern art that’s at the heart of the hotel they are staying at, the new Jumeirah Creekside.

French Open champ Ana Ivanovic was one of the first top players to get a tour of the works, guided on Saturday by the hotel’s dedicated arts and culture programme manager Yasmeen Abu Amer.

Ivanovic, a Dubai Duty Free brand ambassador, is one of several female players who’ll be shooting a tourism film about Dubai around town this week. The player, currently ranked 13th in the world, started the series with a camera crew following her and Yasmeen around the works of art installed all over the hotel, which was built with art in mind and has 482 contemporary pieces in its collection.

“Around 90 per cent of the art was commissioned for the hotel,” said Yasmeen, pointing out pieces such as a gigantic red display called Flying Carpet, by Halim Al Karim, displayed in the cavernous lobby. The style is “contemporary Middle Eastern,” she added. “All the artists have Middle Eastern roots, but don’t necessarily live in the region. They are all renowned artists who are part of museum collections worldwide — it’s all museum quality. It’s like staying in an art gallery with rooms.”

Ivanovic proved herself a seasoned presenter as well as player as the crew filmed her reeling off her script, no teleprompter needed.

“They feed me the script, line by line,” she told me with a smile as she waited for a scene to be set up on a balcony overlooking the lobby. “But it’s not that hard.”