Louis Vuitton is proud to bring for the first time Louis Vuitton Art Talks to Dubai, an intimate discussion between Makkah artists, sisters Shadia and Raja Alem, and the Director of the Venice Biennale, Bice Curiger, to celebrate contemporary art and its vivid life in the Region. Taking place on September 20th and coinciding with the current installation of Alem’s art piece, , at Louis Vuitton Mall of the Emirates, the Art Talks will offer an intimate journey into the Makkah art scene and allow Louis Vuitton to share its passion for art and creativity with friends of the House.
Just a few months after the special collaboration with the Lebanese artist Nadim Karam and the installation of Alem’s arwork in the atrium of the Mall of the Emirates, the House is honoured to continue and reinforce once again Louis Vuitton and Dubai’s links to the Arabic contemporary art scene with the introduction of the Art Talks.
To further contribute to Louis Vuitton’s established position within the Arts, Louis Vuitton has developed “Talks”, Art Talks” and “Art Walks”, intimate gatherings while celebrating and conversing with renowned artists or culture experts. These initiatives lay down Louis Vuitton’s active and unique engagement in the world of art, sharing its passion for creation with “friends and family” of our House.
Launched in 2006 in the UK, Louis Vuitton Art Talks is an ongoing cultural program designed to provide friends of the House, opinion-formers and art aficionados with a unique and exclusive personal insight into the life and work of the artist. Previous talks in the series have featured Dinos and Jake Chapman, Sam Taylor-Wood, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili and Antony Gormley.
says Damien Vernet, General Manager, Middle East and India.
Shadia and Raja Alem were born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia and are members of the House of Artists, Jeddah. Shadia Alem is also a member of the House of Photographers, Jeddah.They have been part of various group exhibitions in Saudi Arabia and abroad from 1992 to 2009. In 2011 they represent Saudi Arabia at the first Saudi Pavilion during the 54 Venice Biennale, Italy with “The Black Arch”.
“”, says Raja Alem.
The eye has the ability to reveal the Unseen only when the doors of perception are clear in the mind; if people dare to look beyond the surface of the eye, they can discover deeper layers of thoughts and worlds. Transparency can be reached through intensity as intensity can be reached through transparency. The revelation is that it is possible to free both the painter and the viewer and also the eye itself, to transfigure them into a pure new idea, into something approaching the Absolute.
At Edge of Arabia, 2009 Alem suspended a series of large transparent panels from the ceiling on which details of the eye were painted in black and white, much enlarged, with her sister's writing dancing lines around the pupil. meaning the “beautiful eye”.
The artwork is made of different parts: magnified glimpses and sections of an idealized eye, the eye is explored from different angles, from the surface right to its depths, it is not the eye but the insight that is explored and brought to visibility here in the transparent sheets.
