JEDDAH, 17 September — Leading Saudi artist Mahdi Al-Jeraibi was selected by the UNESCO to participate in the project "30 Artists Against Alzheimer’s."
In a unique venture, UNESCO and "Drouot" Foundation for International Auctions, the French equivalent of Christie’s and Sotheby’s and the French ministries of health and culture have teamed up to organize this project which was launched on Sept. 5 in Paris and will continue for two weeks.
Leading international artists participating in the movement will present their works which will culminate with an auction on Sept. 21. Proceeds of the auction will fund research aimed at finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
Al-Jeraibi’s work in "Dialectics," adopted and presented by Al-Mansouria Foundation for Culture and Creativity and classified among the best works of international standards in October 2001 in Paris, caught the attention of specialists and was commended by critics.
Princess Jawaher bint Majed, president of Al-Mansouria Foundation, stressed the importance of supporting creative excellence by maintaining the highest standards of presentation in order to intensify the impact of Saudi artists on the international scene.
"Only then can we ensure that its influence is felt by all. By fostering the genuine and the exceptional, we can help to place the Saudi creative movement within an international cultural perspective," she said.
This movement aims at relating art and memory, and reaffirms that art is both a support of the spirit and means of expression. Since art is a manifestation of the artist’s memory, his epoch, and tomorrow’s memory, the artists teamed up to help combat Alzheimer’s, which attacks human memory.
In his work "Dialectics," Al-Jeraibi attempts to recapture the collective human memory, as was highlighted in an Al-Mansouria statement:"The transcription of memory, which by definition refers to the past, in an art form expressing the present, allows the correlation of past and present. The past becomes the basis for the present. This process requires a constant revival of memory to prevent experiencing the present as a memory of the past."
