• The Saudi is ambitious, sticks to his identity, and is open to the world
• The production of Saudi writers is remarkable, bold and profound
• We saw the fruits of the new Saudi cultural strategy
• Saudi artists are eligible to participate in the most important international forums
• What the residents of our countries produce… local cultural production by joining
It seems that the prosperity of Saudi-Emirati relations these days is not limited to politics and the economy, but rather goes to the cultural fields. The Emirati Minister of Culture and Youth, Noura Al-Kaabi, believes that the UAE and the Kingdom are in a constant pursuit of integration, noting that "the cultural sector is an integral part of this partnership."
And the Emirati Minister of Culture and Youth says, in a lengthy dialogue with "Saudi women", that culture and arts in the Kingdom are living in its "golden age", considering that her Saudi counterpart, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, "has made a remarkable boom in the cultural sector in The kingdom".
She added, "The Kingdom's Vision 2030 opened horizons for creators, which creates a deep cultural dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the countries of the world centered on creativity and art," stressing, "We began to see the fruits of the new Saudi cultural strategy in various cultural and artistic fields."
The Emirati minister does not hide her admiration for the Saudi cultural product, as she believes that Saudi artists “possesses distinctive creative capabilities and inspiring energies that qualify them to participate and be present in the most important international art forums.”
The Saudi book is always present in the Emirati minister’s library, as she considers it “one of my favorite reading agendas,” and indicates that the literary production of Saudi writers is characterized by “remarkable features of the boldness of the proposal and the depth of the idea.”
Regarding the controversy over the identity of the cultural product produced by non-national residents, Minister Al-Kaabi affirmed that all that is produced by all residents of our countries is “a local artistic and cultural production by joining, attributed to the environment in which it was produced, as a purely human product.” In her interview, she dealt with many From cultural issues and the presence of Arab Gulf art and literature, to the text of the dialogue:
* Her Excellency the Minister, why did the youth associate with culture in the Ministry?
** Youth are the backbone of culture, creativity, and the driving force for any cultural act that influences the local and international levels. The announcement of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, during the last ministerial formation in July 2020, came to merge the Ministry of Culture and Development Knowledge with the Federal Youth Foundation and the National Media Council to become the "Ministry of Culture and Youth" based on the UAE's directions to empower youth in the cultural and creative sector, as we are currently working on preparing an integrated national strategy to develop the cultural and creative industries sector in the Emirates, so that the cultural and creative product is one of the main economic tributaries .
The youth file occupies a government priority, and we see its impact in accelerating the pace of work on national initiatives that target youth. Her Excellency Sister Shamma Al Mazrouei, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, has made important achievements during the past years since she took over the youth file, and we will work together in our future plan to focus on projects and programs that invest In their talents and abilities, to enable them to contribute to the promising development sectors in the country.
Hence comes our role as the Ministry of Culture and Youth. Within our new strategy, we have a place for creative centers and business incubators. Their responsibility will be to train, qualify and guide national talents. In the end, we want to succeed in creating a creative national product that is capable of spreading and competing globally, and for this we will not hesitate to employ The national capabilities and local resources available to mobilize the cultural and creative product in our endeavor to make it one of the tributaries of our national economy, all of this will be in parallel with preserving the national heritage and enhancing its presence among the young segments, we aim from this to sustain its transmission to future generations internally, and to promote it globally as an authentic national feature.
I would like to point out that the system of data and studies will work on the development of the country's knowledge data in the youth sector, which will allow us to design programs, policies and legislation that suit their sector, and return positively to investing in their capabilities, and in addition to the youth councils that will be subject to continuous development, another segment of creative centers will join them And youthful. We trust the capabilities of our youth and we want them to be a vital interface for the state by representing it in regional and international forums, exhibitions and conferences.
* It struck me that there is a service of registering borrowed cultural objects among the services provided in your ministry. What is this service and how many pieces have you provided immunity and protection for the period of their presence in the country?
** In the year 2017, the UAE issued a special law regarding the immunity of foreign cultural objects from seizure or confiscation. The law covers every cultural piece borrowed by a museum or exhibition in the country, and through it the Ministry of Culture and Youth provides the service of registering these pieces in order to provide immunity and protection for them throughout the period displayed in the state.
Classifying and documenting artifacts in state museums is part of our basic tasks in preserving and protecting human heritage. Each piece has a certificate of origin that includes comprehensive information about it, and an overview of its historical, human and cultural importance, and each piece has an international number.
In a simple approach to realize the importance of this law, the number of artifacts that entered the country in 2019 reached approximately 1,225 cultural and archaeological pieces distributed in 8 exhibitions, while the number of artifacts that entered the country in 2020 reached 377 pieces that were displayed in 3 exhibitions. These numbers reveal On the importance of serving and protecting the borrowed artifacts in order to preserve them and ensure their return to their original destination after the completion of their display in the country.
* Saudi-Emirati cooperation in the cultural fields is intense. What are the most prominent of these cultural files?
** The UAE and Saudi Arabia are in constant pursuit of integration, and the cultural sector, as one of the most important bridges that bridge distances, is an integral part of this partnership. This explains the strategic leaps that have characterized cultural relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia over the past decade.
Our signing of the memorandum of cooperation in the cultural field in 2019 came as a culmination of this cultural partnership, and it aimed to develop its horizons in the creative and cultural fields, and covers large areas of joint strategic projects, regulations, regulations and policies concerned with the cultural aspect, and works to coordinate efforts between the two parties in the cultural fields with international organizations. Cooperation in the fields of cultures, literature, arts and heritage, preserving archaeological and natural cultural areas, hosting national cultural festivals, developing cultural sectors, developing artistic residency programs between governmental and private institutions, facilitating procedures that would enhance cultural affairs in the two countries, and exchanging performances, official delegations and experts. Specialists in various cultural fields, holding training programs, working sessions, capacity development and holding seminars for specialists, intellectuals and artists.
Last year, it also witnessed a remarkable event that translates the intensity of Saudi-Emirati cooperation on the ground, as the Louvre Abu Dhabi hosted the fifteenth leg of the exhibition “Roads of Arabia – Masterpieces of Antiquities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Through the Ages”, which reflected an aspect of the lifestyles in Common civilizations in the Arabian Peninsula, especially those related to the desert, horsemanship, camels, and falconry.
* It seems that the Saudi-Emirati cultural cooperation is witnessing its brightest era?
** True, there are many stations of cultural events and initiatives that were held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which we had an active presence, including the Emirates Pavilion participating in the Souk Okaz Festival, which received a great turnout of visitors amounting to more than 50 thousand visitors, during which we presented our successful experience in Registering a number of the pillars of the Emirati heritage in the representative list of intangible cultural heritage at UNESCO, represented by falconry, Al-Sadu, Al-Taghrooda, Al-Ayala, Arabic coffee, councils, Al-Razfa and Al-Azi, in addition to highlighting the various forms of the cultural and popular heritage of the UAE, and we had our presence in celebrating the Saudi National Day, as well We organized a joint poetry evening with the participation of poets from the Kingdom and the UAE, in addition to the Ministry’s participation in the Riyadh International Book Fair in its 2018 edition, a participation that contributed to highlighting the culture of the UAE as it included literary seminars and workshops specialized in issues of publishing, the book industry and reading, in addition to organizing sessions with Book authors, and we also made an official visit to the 2019 edition with the participation of a number of writers and writers from the Emirates.
Last year, we visited the Red Palace of the artist Prince Sultan bin Fahd bin Nasser Al Saud, which is considered one of the most important and prominent Saudi urban heritage, then the exhibition moved to its next stop in the Abu Dhabi Cultural Complex, which is now available virtually.
We also participated in the Misk Art Exhibition in 2018, which reflected to us the high level of Saudi artists and creators, their remarkable talents and creative potential, and their ability to diversify between different schools and artistic styles, including plastic art, Arabic calligraphy, Islamic motifs, and contemporary arts.
* It seems that the cultural movement in the Kingdom is different from previous years, how do you see it?
** Culture and arts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are living their golden age under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his trustworthy Crown Prince. Since assuming the Ministry of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud has created a remarkable boom in the cultural sector in the Kingdom.
The Kingdom's Vision 2030 opened promising horizons for Saudi youth, aiming to build promising human capacities that transform talent into successful national projects that serve the Kingdom and its lofty goals, and open horizons for creators, thus creating a deep cultural dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the countries of the world centered on creativity and art. The Saudi cultural vision stems from making culture and the arts a way of life and an important tributary in the national economy, stimulating tourism, and providing a distinctive cultural and artistic product.
The establishment of 11 cultural bodies under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture constituted a major turning point in the development and management of the Saudi cultural sector in its various disciplines and directions, in a way that contributes to supporting and encouraging practitioners in the disciplines that fall within the jurisdiction of the bodies. We began to see the fruits of the new Saudi cultural strategy in various cultural and artistic fields. , even at the international level after Saudi Arabia won membership in the Executive Council of UNESCO.
* Saudi Arabia is leading the Arabic calligraphy file in UNESCO, with the participation of many countries. How do you see this step in documenting this intangible heritage?
** The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s adoption of the Arabic calligraphy file in UNESCO, with the participation of 16 Arab countries, is a positive and important move towards preparing a joint Arab file to register Arabic calligraphy on the representative list of intangible cultural heritage, through which it seeks to protect the Arab identity from a cultural point of view, and to promote The presence of Arabic calligraphy in local and international forums and conferences.
Arabic calligraphy is not only a style of writing, but it is the depth of our Arab culture and civilization, and it is a carrier of knowledge, and one of the means of building human civilizations through cultural exchange and translation for centuries, and from here we highly appreciate the effort of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a sponsor of the Arabic calligraphy file, which is a step that has beyond in terms of Stimulating the practices of Arabic calligraphy, spreading its arts to specialists and talented people, highlighting its aesthetics, and encouraging young people to use it.
Perhaps your question prompts me to shed light on the Al-Burda Prize organized by the Ministry of Culture and Youth and its keenness to empower young people with the arts of Arabic calligraphy, both traditional and modern. The award, which was launched in 2004, honored more than 300 winners in recognition of their distinguished work in the field of Islamic art, and the outcome of the artworks was about 300 He worked in various forms of Islamic art, and served as a global Emirati platform that celebrates the diversity of Islamic culture and its aesthetic practices, honoring the outstanding creativity of Islamic artistic styles, and appreciating the Arabic language and its aesthetics.
* It seems that there are joint efforts between the Saudis and Emiratis in preserving heritage. What are the most prominent of these files?
** The UAE cooperated with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in registering a number of common elements on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO, such as the arts of Al-Taghrooda in 2012, Al-Ayyala in 2014, and Al-Razfa in 2015, as well as the Arab councils and coffee. Inclusion of the date palm on the UNESCO Representative List as a joint Arab element led by the UAE and with the participation of 13 Arab countries.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia succeeded in registering individual files on the list of intangible cultural heritage, which included Al-Ardah Al-Najdiyyah, Al-Mizmar, and Al-Qat Al-Asiri.
During the next year 2021, we are working to hold meetings to discuss new files to be included in the list, most notably the camel racing file, and the camel shoe art file, which came as an initiative of the brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
* From your position as Minister of Culture, can literature and art in our region be called “Gulf”? What are its features that distinguish it from what Arab writers and artists produce?
** Literature, culture and art are human products derived from identity and the environment in which a person lives. The Gulf Cooperation Council countries are full of a group of writers and artists who enriched the literary movement with a literary production that will remain present in the memory of generations. Gulf literature and art combines one identity with diverse features, which he prepared as a reservoir of beauty and an element that distinguishes him. Each country has its own literature and its own literary flavour.
Gulf literature is part of Arabic literature, and it has a remarkable presence in the Arab cultural scene, but it is characterized by a feature of privacy and uniqueness that resulted from our close inclusive environment, with all its heritage and common culture accumulated over the years, as is the literary specificity of other Arab countries.
* Is it possible to consider what is produced by the residents of the Gulf of culture in its various manifestations as literature and art affiliated with the Gulf culture?
** The Arab Gulf region throughout the ages has been a station for the convergence and crossing of cultures and civilizations, and today our countries embrace hundreds of nationalities from diverse cultural backgrounds and different languages, but the understanding of the concept of art and the extent of its impact on the lives of our societies is unquestionable, and there is no doubt that this diversity is one of the sources of enriching local creative production . I believe that all that is produced by all residents of our countries is a local artistic and cultural production by joining, attributed to the environment in which it was produced, as a purely human product, aesthetically affecting its social environment and enhancing its members' artistic taste.
* Do your Excellency read Saudi literature? What are the most prominent Saudi works that caught your Excellency's attention?
** Saudi literature books are permanently present in my library and within my favorite agenda for reading, and the literary production of Saudi writers is characterized by remarkable features of the boldness of the proposal and the depth of the idea. A Life in Management », in which Asara presents an experience full of giving in various positions and fields, and can be a source of inspiration for the Arab generations.
I stopped at the novel “A Small Death,” where the brilliant imagination of Muhammad Hassan Alwan succeeded in marrying the deep biography in its questions and the extended march along the map of the East for that character that his imagination spurred, and that flowing, light-hearted poetic language that excelled in containing the tyranny and crowding of all those feelings Anxiety of the imagined character.
* It is noticeable that your Excellency is interested in visual arts in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia in particular. How do you see the artistic movement? Among the most prominent artists who draw your Excellency's attention?
** The artistic movement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries in general is witnessing an upward growth in terms of the momentum of creative production and the strength of its presence and influence, especially from the young generation and its renewed modern outlook, a momentum that can attract and employ young capabilities in enhancing the quality of the artistic product.
Last year, I visited the “Jeddah Art 39,21” initiative organized by the Saudi Art Council led by Princess Jawaher bint Majid, and I saw works of art from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Bahrain by promising artists that reflect their creative maturity and ability to exist and compete globally.
We believe that Saudi artists have distinctive creative capabilities and inspiring energies that qualify them to participate and be present in the most important international art forums. The Misk Art Initiative, for example, worked to bring together Saudi creators to express themselves, their society and their culture through art, and also highlighted the civilized role of art in showing the personality of the Saudi youth. The ambition that adheres to its identity and is open to the cultures and arts of the world.
There is a large group of Saudi artists who draw my attention and I believe that they present a creative production that is different from others in terms of idea, content and content, among them, for example, the artist Ahmed Mater, the artist Nasser Al-Salem, the artist Dana Awartani, the artist Marwa Al-Muqit, the artist Faris Al-Osaimi, and the artist Manal Al-Dawyan, the artist Lolwa Al-Hamoud, the artist Maha Mallouh, and the artist Abdel Nasser Gharem.
Interview: Arwa Al Mohanna (Abu Dhabi) @arwa_almohanna