I was really delighted to be asked to participate in the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, UAE. The festival brings together authors from around the world to discuss new ideas, promote conversation, and build bridges across cultures, so was the perfect setting to discuss my book Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue. I was privileged to discuss my work with my dear friend Saeb Eigner, author of Art of the Middle East. . We explored the social history and meaning of my Encounters Series in the context of the global history of art and religion with a particular focus on modern and contemporary art from the MENA region. Saeb shared his expert insight on some of my favourite artists, including Shirin Neshat, Susan Hefuna and Ayman Baalbaki. We wove together the themes of scriptural traditions, gender and veiling, and the cultural exchange of the silk route. We focused on how the visual image can help us to overcome religious and cultural differences and how art can facilitate greater understanding, allowing us to really see one another.
Encounters is the first and only artwork in the history of global art to portray all of the world's major religions together and without hierarchy. It ultimately creates a space in which we can transcend politics and prejudice. It encourages viewers to reflect on the slow and quiet progress we have made towards peaceful coexistence and tolerance, and imagine an optimistic future.
The festival also provided a fantastic opportunity to learn about Arabic poetry, Islamic tradition and Emirati heritage. It was a tremendous honour to be able to bring some of my Encounters artworks to the Middle East, as the cradle of civilisation and the spiritual home of the Abrahamic religions. The UAE is uniquely cosmopolitan, home to 200 nationalities, it has one of the highest immigrant populations in the world, with only 20% of the demographic being Emirati. It was really wonderful to be immersed in a culture that takes so much pride in diversity, tolerance, and coexistence.
Preparing for my talk gave me a chance to really reflect on the complex history and the legacy of the silk route on the Arab Peninsula; and the cultural exchange that informed so many of the traditional mediums and techniques that inspired the complex backgrounds seen in the Encounters Series. I have discussed this, and the shared human history of pattern making, in more detail in the fourth part of this series of blogs.
