Born in Damascus in 1935, where he stills lives and works, Elias Zayat is one of the founders of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, where he taught until his retirement in 2000. As a painter and icon restorer, his art is influenced by religious and popular iconography. Zayat’s oeuvre remains intimately concerned with the history, terrain and psyche of his homeland. His parallel life as an art restorer and historian is evident in his rich vocabulary drawn from Byzantine, early Christian, Sufist, and popular iconography. He has published several studies in the history of art, iconography and art criticism. Despite emerging at the height of Pan-Arabist fervour that culminated in the Naksa of 1967, Elias Zayat managed to resist this sweeping aesthetic hegemony to develop his own inimitable visual language. His works are often emotionally charged, with symbols and pleas for peace caught within seemingly impossible struggles to flee human chaos in order to arrive at a better world. His works on paper form a crucial backbone of his practice and philosophical stance, depicting the movements of birds and new lines of flight.
This represents the first publication covering the practice of Toronto-based artist Abbas Akhavan, examining a large body of his work over the course of his career, ranging from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video and performance. The domestic sphere, as a forked space between hospitality and hostility, has been an ongoing area of research in Akhavan’s work. More recent works have shifted focus, wandering onto spaces just outside the home – the garden, the backyard, and other domesticated landscapes. This title, co-produced with Skira, reflects the conceptual aesthetics of Akhavan’s practice and includes essays by leading curators and professors of art, including, among others, Omar Kholeif and Marina Roy.
This collection of essays and conversations sheds light on and discusses how images in films and animation have influenced identity portrayals in the Arab context. Published to accompany the first exhibition at the new Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar, this beautifully crafted book discusses a spectrum of impressions and visual cues in film, both of and from the Arab world, that often unwittingly create distortions, in turn inspiring confidence or promoting stereotypes and even prejudices that have led to war or inter-regional conflicts of many kinds.
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This is the first publication in the Voices and Conversations series of the Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar. With contributions from leading analysts and academics, this series explores and cross-examines the effects, opportunities and threats in a diverse number of areas.
Second of the series
Third of the series
Featuring extraordinary, documentary-style photography, this beautiful and engaging coffee table book follows the remarkable journey of the Scimitar-horned Oryx as it is reintroduced into Chad’s Sahelian heartland. Considered the world’s most ambitious large mammal reintroduction project and a milestone for future species conservation efforts, the book charts the collaborative efforts of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, Government of Chad and Sahara Conservation Fund, along with some of the world’s leading zoological societies and research institutions, as this iconic species sets foot on its native soil nearly three decades after it was declared ‘extinct in the wild’.
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Also available in separate Arabic and French editions
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Globes: Visions of the World uses remarkable works of cartography, art, science and technology to tell the fascinating story of how humanity has understood our planet and the cosmos across two and a half millennia. This work, in English, French and Arabic, has been published to accompany the second temporary exhibition at the new Louvre Abu Dhabi. It seeks to recreate the links between this long search for knowledge and today’s science and comprehension by paying tribute to the visionary scholars whose goal was to model – in spheres, circles and ellipses – our fascinating cosmos.
This book has been published to accompany the first temporary exhibition at the new Louvre Abu Dhabi. Tracing the birth of the Musée du Louvre in Paris in the 18th century, this beautifully crafted trilingual work sheds light on the way a public collection is formed, drawing mainly on the collections of the Musée du Louvre and the Château de Versailles. The exhibition evokes the creation of the Musée du Louvre from the time of Louis XIV, when the royal collections were presented in the gardens and Grand Apartments at Versailles, through to the opening of the Muséum in the Palais du Louvre in 1793. It examines the question of the origins and role of the museum, born of royal will, and the evolution of artistic practices, enhanced by a reflection on the transmission and teaching of art.
The Qatar Manual for Tour Guiding has been produced within the framework of the Qatar National Tourism Sector, which seeks to diversify the country’s tourism offering and increase the sector’s contribution to Qatar’s economy by 2030. Presented as a valuable compendium of all relevant information on Qatar, this title in separate English and Arabic editions provides all the material and training that a tour guide in Qatar requires to promote the country.
Arabic edition
Using UNEP’s science-based information to describe the conditions and trends of the environmental system, the Abu Dhabi State of Environment Report informs sustainable development decision-making by providing scientifically credible environmental information and knowledge about key interactions between society and the natural environment in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This invaluable resource is available in separate English and Arabic editions and has a dedicated bilingual website. A separate print version of the Executive Summary is also available.
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Elegant, culturally accessible and beautiful, this work of original aphorisms in Russian and English from the perspective of a very successful business magnate features exceptional design and production values to ensure a striking, relevant and truly high-quality book. The text of Maxims of a Man of Schemes is balanced throughout by fine-art illustrations, including a number supplied by contemporary painters of the author’s acquaintance.
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This is the catalogue of the ground-breaking exhibition Hajj: Memories of a Journey, which opened to the public in September 2017. Through a combination of beautiful historic objects, this work represents a powerful and moving narrative of the faith and tenets of Islam, and the reverence for Mecca and Medina. In addition to the dual-language English and Arabic catalogue, there are separate brochures in five language editions: Arabic, English, Chinese, Russian and Urdu.
