Bringing Europe to Arabia

Prince Sattam, governor of Riyadh region, launched Wednesday night the Europe Month in Saudi Arabia by inaugurating a photo exhibition entitled “Europe seen through Saudi eyes.” The event was organized at King Abdulaziz Historical Center (national museum) at the heart of Riyadh.
Besides the opening of the photo exhibition, the event included a Saudi drum dance and an Italian middle-age folkloric flag dance performed in front of a large audience that included Vice Minister of Culture and Information Abdullah Al-Jasser and Ambassador Luigi Narbone, head of the European Union delegation to the GCC. Ambassadors of EU and other countries to the Kingdom, top officials, journalists and members of expatriate communities — mainly Europeans and their families — along with Saudi guests also attended the event.
“We timed the launch of the Europe Month in Saudi Arabia with the celebration of Europe Day to emphasize our increasing keenness on strengthening the cultural relations between the EU and the Kingdom to the level of excellent political relations between the two sides,” Ambassador Narbone said.
“In past years, we used to celebrate Europe Day at the Diplomatic Quarter with only a dinner party, but this year we did it here on the premises of the national museum and arranged it to mark the beginning of the Europe Month in the Kingdom. The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information welcomed this and participated with us in organizing the event,” he added.
The photo exhibition, which displays around 60 creative photos of different locations in Europe taken by Saudi photographers on different occasions, will stay open at the national museum show hall until May 11. “These photos were the best among over 400 photos that were submitted to us by Saudi photographers in a contest for the purpose of organizing an exhibition,” Narbone said.
Besides the exhibition, the Europe Month in Saudi Arabia will see a number of other activities. There will be an art exhibition entitled “Out of Britain" that will bring for the first time 52 key artworks selected from the British Council's collection spanning a period of 100 years of creativity by significant British artists.
The month will also include a European film festival that will show films chosen by EU ambassadors. Every week during the month, a film in one of the European languages accompanied by English or Arabic subtitles will be shown.
Furthermore, there will be a round-table discussion, according to a source at the Ministry of Culture and Information. “The impact of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah's call for interfaith and cultural dialogue on the relations between Europe and the Gulf could be the topic of discussion,” the source told Arab News.