Art, music festival at the mall

A 10-day art and music festival at the BurJuman Centre brings together over 150 local and international artists who present a complete art and music experience covering the traditional, visual and performing arts.

Introduced two years ago by BurJuman, the concept is unique in a UAE mall, and helps artists to showcase their innovative works and exceptional talent. The displays will include all forms of paintings from around the world, sculptures, pottery, carving, Islamic calligraphy and handicrafts. The mall will also echo with the music of strolling players as they tour the mall dressed in period costumes. The ship artifacts from the Titanic exhibition will form a central part of this festival, and will continue until the end of Ramadan.

"It is nice to be back," says Ghassan Bashir, oud player, composer and singer. He is supervising the exhibition selling Arabic and Western musical instruments and related accessories. "Last time I played for BurJuman during the Ramadan festival. Some of the best oud made by renowned craftsmen from Iraq are on display here."

Virgin Megastore is a main partner with BurJuman and had arranged for a special visit to the mall by the World Class Rockers - a collection of international rock stars including former members of the Moody Blues, Steppenwolf, Foreigner, Toto and the Spencer Davis band.

Excerpts from the new television series Akhir Al Fursan will be broadcast during Ramadan with personal appearances put in by two of the stars of the production former Miss Lebanon Joelle Bouhlok and Jordanian actress Nadia Oud. Another star to be making a personal appearance during the festival will be Lebanese singer Nelly Makdessi.


Titanic exhibition

Ninety years after it sank, the legacy of the Titanic has lived on in quite a different form than that envisioned by its creators. It was built with three million steel rivets, three engines and three propellers, weighing 46,328 tons and had 16 watertight compartments, so that even if the first four compartments were flooded the ship would remain afloat. An iceberg hit the ship on the fourth day of sailing, taking down 1,503 victims with it.

"The BurJuman Centre is very proud to have secured this special exhibition of Titanic artifacts that will be the first of its kind ever to be held in the Middle East," says Eisa Adam Ibrahim, general manager, BurJuman Centre. "The exhibition, custom-built for BurJuman, tells both the story of the ship and human interest tales of passengers and crew by using exclusive underwater footage of the wreck, computer generated images of the accident and key artifacts salvaged from the disaster and will be of tremendous interest to our shoppers now and throughout Ramadan."

The exhibition about the fateful voyage of the giant steamship has been specially created and flown in from the United Kingdom. It is also believed to be the first time in the world that a Titanic exhibition has been held in a shopping mall outside North America.

"We are very proud to have been invited by the BurJuman Centre to bring this collection of Titanic artifacts to Dubai and the Middle East. The exhibition is designed to tell the story of the ship, the passengers and the crew who sailed on that fateful voyage 90 years ago," says Sir Rodney Walker, chairman of Titanic Exhibitions Ltd.

The exhibition will remain until the end of Ramadan. Entry to the exhibition is free and it will be in place for an initial period of just over six weeks. It takes visitors on a journey through the history and drama of the ship's ill-fated inaugural transatlantic crossing from Southampton in England to New York.

The exhibition features artifacts salvaged from the scene of the tragedy or those that belonged to some of the 703 people who survived. A number of items made especially for the Titanic, but never used, and exclusive new film footage from a recent dive to the wreck that lies 2.5 miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

Other displays show the luxury lifestyle enjoyed by Titanic guests; human interest stories of Titanic passengers and crew and a computer generated film that shows the devastating effects of the iceberg and how the Titanic broke up and sank.

It also features a replica of the Marconi radio room that sent out the desperate SOS message for help after the tragedy struck. This message reached a nearby ship allowing the rescue of the 703 survivors.

The Titanic was built to carry 3,547 passengers and crew (although 2,208 travelled on her maiden voyage) and provided with a total of 20 lifeboats with a capacity to carry 1,178 people.

Why is the interest in the Titanic so enduring and what lessons are to be learnt? "The Titanic tragedy is the triumph of adversity over hope," says Richard Trafford, events director of Titanic Exhibitions Ltd. "The Titanic represented a romantic notion of the safest and the biggest ship of its time. It shows human failure was enough to destroy a dream. And the lesson to be learnt is that no lengths can ever be enough when it comes to securing human lives and safety."


'Young artists' show

Prianka Verma, an interior decorator by profession, has given up her full time job of 15 years and her latest occupation is keeping track of young, emerging Indian artists. The Young Artist Exhibition is her attempt to encourage the struggling artists, mostly in their 30s and 40s, to establish themselves.

So why has she chosen this particular age group? "There are two kinds of buyers of art," says Prianka, "One is the serious investor and the other is the art lover. I belong to the latter group. These artists find themselves at a delicate threshold, any time they might just cross over and finally make it in the world of art."

Dibyendu Basu, a promising artist, is getting known for his realistically done charcoal crows, much like Sunil Das's charcoal horses and bulls. Mrinalendu Mondal's paintings capture moments of Bengal's landscape spontaneously, while Swapan K. Palley's work is in great demand. His women have a wonderfully dreamlike quality very reminiscent of the queens of Persia with their magnificent jewels.


Bengal art

Encouraged by the results of the last exhibition of Mumbai artists, Johnny Reejhsinghani, the managing director, Derby art gallery, at the Holiday Centre Shopping Mall on Sheikh Zayed Road, has put together an exhibition of Bengali artists.

"After all, Calcutta is the hub of Indian art and the city is renowned for its cultural heritage," says Reejhsinghani.

Sunil Das is one of India's important post-modernist painters renowned for his charcoal drawings of horses and bulls; he developed his passion for them at a sojourn in Spain.

Chandra Bhattacharjee's paintings tell a story in soft, languid images.

Influenced by his association with rural and tribal people, his art has a textural quality reminiscent of the traditional mud walls of villages.

Shipra Bhattacharya subjects are mostly women, of urban and non-urban settings, enacted with minor fantasies and lively gestures.

The figures and forms in them evoke meticulous filigree pen-and-ink hatchings, with strange, awesome elfin looks.

Most art works from the Derby art collection