< Previous130 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 The COLLECTOR he art-fi lled home of collector and Minister of State, Zaki Nusseibeh forms a visual register which chronicles the shifting social and political landscape of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA). In the context of his home, his artworks take on lifelike form, fl owing out from every cranny amidst the cultural advisor’s extensive library of several thousand texts which span the seven languages that he has mastered. H.E. has been central to culture and the arts in the UAE since the 70s; holding a series of high-ranking positions in government, leading up to his current role in the UAE Cabinet, but he has been a passionate collector of art since his youth. The art of the region has often been portrayed as monolithic yet H.E. Zaki’s collection overturns this notion, providing a nuanced and eclectic insight into the perspectives of artists spanning generations and cultures. Walking through it you’re struck by the early work of pioneering Syrian expressionist Louay Kayali, before being confronted by the searching meditations on power and memory of contemporary Palestinian visual artist, Hazem Harb. Moving on through the hallways the fusion of Western pop art with the Egyptian-Armenian cultural heritage of Chant Avedissian is displayed, followed by giant hanging prayer beads by Saudi feminist artist Manal Al Dowayan. It’s an environment which compels cultural contemplation. Over the last half-century, H.E. Zaki has amassed a signifi cant collection of modern and contemporary works, stimulated by family, friendships and cross-cultural exchange but always selected through intuition. During the 50s the walls of his childhood home in Jerusalem were populated with Orientalist pieces by the likes of 19th century Scottish artist David Roberts. At the same time, however, his exploration of the churches and temples within the Old City walls formed a lasting imprint. In the 60s H.E. Zaki moved to England to attend boarding school and whilst there, paid a visit to his sister, Munira, who was studying painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Together they t An interior view of the art-fi lled TV room downstairs which features works by Ismail Al Rifai, Rokni Haerizadeh, Ahmad Amin Nazar and more A sculpture by Alaa Edris HBI_048_128-135_Collector_Zaki Anwar_11445171.indd 13029/11/2020 04:50:23 PMThe ARTIST 131 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 An interior view of the library corridor with works by Kamal Boullata HBI_048_128-135_Collector_Zaki Anwar_11445171.indd 13129/11/2020 04:50:37 PM132 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 The COLLECTOR An interior view of the living room featuring works by Farhad Moshiri, Samir Rafi , Louay Kayali, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Vessela Farid and more HBI_048_128-135_Collector_Zaki Anwar_11445171.indd 13229/11/2020 04:50:48 PM133 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 HBI_048_128-135_Collector_Zaki Anwar_11445171.indd 13329/11/2020 04:50:59 PM134 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 navigated the capital’s cultural hubs, moving from the Louvre to the Parisian gardens which enclosed Rodin’s sculptures: “I remember the Jeu De Paume Museum in particular, which in those days held major Impressionist artworks now housed in the Musée d’Orsay,” recalls H.E. Zaki. “This was really an awakening - to look at Impressionist art in the museums, to start seeing the galleries and visit the Latin Quarter in Paris. It went on from there - when I returned to England, visiting the National Gallery soon afterwards, was a mind-blowing experience.” While studying economics at Cambridge University, H.E. Zaki was immersed in the Fitzwilliam Museum's remarkable collection of classical and post-classical art as well as the quirky and idiosyncratic world of Jim Ede’s Kettle’s Yard - the latter evincing a refreshing open door philosophy. As a student H.E. Zaki began collecting Orientalist pieces but when he left England to return to Abu Dhabi he shifted direction and sold these works to begin a collection with a much more radical focus: one dedicated to modern and contemporary MENASA art. Today, his collection is estimated at 400 works; collectively they form a lens through which complex insights into his region can be framed. Its visual language is for him “sublime” and art itself is a transformative universal language which knits humanity together. “It speaks to you; it makes you think of the sublime,” he expresses. “Art is important for one’s personal development. Every artwork has a message, it tries to tell you its story. A story can make us rise above ourselves, whether it’s found in literature, poetry or novels, music and especially art. People who are impacted or moved by the art that they see, cannot but feel some sort of empathy toward other human beings.” The UAE, in the 70s, lacked formal galleries yet H.E. Zaki decided to carve out his own cultural space. He became involved in organising exhibitions as President of Alliance Française and became a friend to the artists he admired, who were mostly drawn from the ever-shifting communities of the Emirates: Iraqi, Syrian, “ A RT C A N S U B L I M A T E O U R T H O U GH TS A N D E N A B L E U S TO F O C U S O N T H E T H I N G S T H A T D E F I N E U S , T H A T M A K E U S H U M A N B E I N G S ” H.E. Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh sits in his home offi ce amidst his vast book collection A work by Roland Van Meerbeeck displayed in the downstairs hallway HBI_048_128-135_Collector_Zaki Anwar_11445171.indd 13429/11/2020 04:51:23 PM135 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 Jordanian and Lebanese. “One of the fi rst MENASA works that I bought was in 1968, after I attended a gallery exhibition in Beirut,” he recalls. “I remember carrying the painting by hand on the aeroplane back to Abu Dhabi! I still have that painting at home.” He supported both established and emerging artists. His fi rst work by Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri, for example, was a jar purchased at one of the earliest Abu Dhabi Art fairs in 2009. “I met Moshiri through one of the participating galleries at the fair and he became a friend,” recounts H.E. Zaki. “I remember going to The Flying House and seeing Hassan Sharif who also became a friend. The artists who were there would introduce me to other artists - the community was a small but accessible one. By going to the fairs and visiting artists you ended up meeting most of the community.” It was an emerging movement which quite quickly gave birth to the present international dynamism of MENASA art. Through his immersion in this scene H.E. Zaki has been infl uential in extending this culture to a broader public. In 2019, he opened his personal collection up to student curators at NYU Abu Dhabi. Their exhibition of his works entitled Go Back to Move Forward saw H.E. Zaki’s artworks take on a new social context, forming a starting point through which to explore the sociopolitical landscapes of the Arab world. These endeavours, which connect the creative expressions of one generation of artists to the next, are part of a lifetime’s mission to make art central to the ramifying debate about meaning and existence across MENASA societies. “It’s important to have art in our lives and to introduce it to children early on,” he professes. “Children should be able to look at beauty, to look sometimes even at pain as expressed through a painting that tells you a story. Art can sublimate our thoughts and enable us to focus on the things that defi ne us, that make us human beings.” H.E. Zaki Nusseibeh’s home features works by various artists including Adel Abidin, Farideh Lashai, Fadi Yazigi, Laila Shawa and more The COLLECTOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY MOHAMMAD ADEL RASHID HBI_048_128-135_Collector_Zaki Anwar_11445171.indd 13529/11/2020 04:51:45 PM136 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Interiors Winter 2020 HBI_048_136-139_La photographie_Maimouna_11423684.indd 13629/11/2020 06:12:32 PM137 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 La PHOTOGRAPHIE SPI RIT UAL MAÏ MOUNA GUERRESI’S Italian multimedia artist Maï mouna Guerresi talks to Iman Vakil about Sufism, her timeless subjects and the continuous search for inner equilibrium Facing page: Maï mouna Guerresi. Yaye Fall. 2019. This page: Faluka. 2010. Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and the artist BO DI ES HBI_048_136-139_La photographie_Maimouna_11423684.indd 13729/11/2020 06:12:38 PMINTER VIEW BY IMAN V AKIL, IMAGES COUR TESY OF MAÏ MOUNA GUERRESI AND MARIANE IBRAHIM GALLER Y 138 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture Winter 2020 La PHOTOGRAPHIE triggering fears. In my works, there is a search for a continuous inner equilibrium that is confronted with the daily fears of life. IV: Unlike your photographs, in your sculptures, fi gures are bound and restricted. How did the medium facilitate a shift in the composition of your subjects? MG: The relationship with sculpture is different from that with photography, mainly for a reason of three-dimensionality and tactility. In sculpture, volumes should caress the eye. I model my fi gures in full relief, as if to concentrate their energy and create a balance in all their parts. Also, with sculpture I can deal with different materials. Even with photography I look for a fi nished and architectural form, but the compositional relationship is always frontal. So, I work with a different concept for the disposition of the subjects, even though the themes might be similar. In some installations I use both photography and sculpture, creating a dialogue between the two media. marianeibrahim.com IV: Can you tell us more about the Sufi principles that impact your work? MG: Sufi sm is an inner journey. It is a knowing, a religious and life philosophy, which does not follow a logical speculation but a mystical path. This path crosses various spiritual states and arrives at ecstatic visions: sublime forms of life and art that are beyond any geographical and phenomenal boundary. My desire is to lead the viewer into this inner fl uid universe. A universe that represents a continuous spiritual and physical evolution, a refl ection that goes beyond the image itself. In Sufi sm, humanity and nature are intimately interconnected. It follows that the fate of our planet is infl uenced by our own individual actions. This interdependence between humanity and nature, which infl uences the outer life as well as the inner one, is one of the themes that emerge in my art. IV: How does the decorated and statuesque body, adorned with paint, richly hued drapes and hats, play into an exploration of Islamic spirituality? MG: The statuesque bodies portrayed in my works represent metaphysical visions. They are spiritual bodies that symbolise the quietude of an aesthetic and inner balance. Their costumes have architectural forms and, in reciprocity with the body, form a new space, a new world (consider, for example, The Giants series). The elongated headdresses worn by the subjects in my works, inspired by Dogon masks, are both fortresses that protect the head and an extension of the same body. The headdresses are receptive antennas that transmit and receive spiritual energy. They represent an aesthetic that can be conceived as a political and spiritual refl ection. Returning to the architectural aesthetics of the costumes, I’d like to remember the Taliby triptych. They are blindfolded and hold a lectern in their hands. At the centre of the triptych stands a structure made up of gasoline gallons, a reminder of the exploitation of oil, whose violence (symbolised by the vivid red) disfi gures the external world as much as the inner world. IV: A lot of your subjects levitate, and seem to lose their physicality under heavy draping. Can you tell us more about your use of empty space? MG: Many of my subjects, especially the female subjects, have special faculties. They fl oat in the air, walk on trampolines, blend in with nature, and seek communication even through a closed megaphone. They are placed in a metaphysical dimension of suspension, a cosmic space, not characterised by time. They are the protagonists of a regenerative nature that goes beyond all geographical boundaries and becomes the expression of a new generation. The void can be compared to the unknown, to the moments of uncertainty in which we are living, an uncertainty capable of From top: Maï mouna Guerresi. Aisha’s Stories 1. 2016. Lambda print; Taliby. 2010. Triptych, lambda print HBI_048_136-139_La photographie_Maimouna_11423684.indd 13829/11/2020 06:12:50 PMCREDIT HERE 139 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Interiors Winter 2020 The BOOKS Maï mouna Guerresi. Blue Trampoline. 2016. Lambda print HBI_048_136-139_La photographie_Maimouna_11423684.indd 13929/11/2020 06:12:58 PMNext >