Thirty artists from all over the world will transform humanitarian tweets by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, into works of art for the second annual Dubai International Art Symposium.
The exhibition, titled Coloured Tweets, will be held at the Rashid Centre for the Disabled next month. The line-up of artists includes Fatma Lootah, a well-known Emirati painter who lives and works in Italy but is constantly contributing to the art scene here; and Salma Al Merri, another Emirati artist, who graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo and is a member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society.
Mariam Othman, the centre’s director, says that Sheikh Mohammed’s tweets – which will be compiled into a book that will be released later this year – exemplify the UAE’s spirit of charity and togetherness.
“The main goal is to highlight the humanitarian message,” says Othman. “And this message is extremely clear through the words of His Highness’s humanitarian tweets. It will affect society in a lot of a positive ways.”
Other artists involved in the project include Ahmed Haylouz from Palestine; Bahram Hajo, a Syrian mixed-media artist who lives and works in Germany; and Mohammed Al Ameri, a Jordanian artist and poet who is the director of the arts department of Jordan's ministry of culture and the editor-in-chief of its Al Funun magazine.
As well as producing the canvases for display, the artists will conduct workshops in the centre to help the students with special needs.
• The Dubai International Art Symposium will be held from April 13 to 20 at Rashid Centre for the Disabled in Al Barsha, Dubai
aseaman@thenational.ae
