The Arts Edit: Louvre Abu Dhabi's historic new addition

Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Edit, my weekly newsletter from The National's Abu Dhabi newsroom rounding up this week's most noteworthy arts and culture stories.

IN FOCUS

The lobby of Louvre Abu Dhabi has a new addition – a 3,000-year-old Olmec head. It is the first time one of the ancient artefacts has travelled to the Middle East and North Africa region, and, at six tonnes, it is the heaviest piece the museum has displayed to date.

Known officially as Colossal Head No 5, the artefact is one of 17 similar heads unearthed in the past century along the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico. The sculptures were crafted by the Olmecs, the earliest-known civilisation of the Mesoamerican region.

“Thanks to this great relationship with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, we were able to secure this incredible loan,” Manuel Rabate, director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, tells The National, adding that while Colossal Head No 5 is on loan for a year, its time at the museum may be extended.

While the sculpture is named only by number, what’s interesting about the Olmec heads is that each face is distinct, which has led experts to theorise that they were based on real people.

“We suppose that they were portraits of rulers,” says Guilhem Andre, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s acting director for scientific, curatorial and collections management. “We are not completely sure, because they don’t come with written sources.”

Bringing the head to the UAE’s capital was no easy task. It was carefully padded and put in a crate at the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa before beginning its 14-hour journey to Abu Dhabi on a chartered cargo flight, stopping off at Hamburg. Once it arrived at Louvre Abu Dhabi, it was left in the crate over the weekend to acclimatise.

Learn more about the ancient artefact’s incredible journey here.

Meanwhile, Louvre Abu Dhabi is also displaying the latest edition of Art Here, featuring works shortlisted for this year’s Richard Mille Art Prize.

Also in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati Comics Exhibition is now in full swing, with free workshops until October 12.

Elsewhere, Dubai’s major Andy Warhol exhibition is now on display at The Foundry, with more than 100 original works, and at the Tabari Artspace in DIFC, Syrian artist Randa Maddah’s solo show is an ode to her Golan Heights homeland.

Across the UAE, it feels like there are notable exhibitions opening on a daily basis. To make this easier to navigate, The National has launched a weekly guide, available every Thursday morning, highlighting events and shows. Find last week’s guide here and keep an eye out for the latest list later this week.

As the busy season for the world of arts and culture picks up, we look forward to sharing our exclusive insights into the best that our region has to offer.

What's it like to work at Venice Biennale?

Representing the UAE at the Venice Architecture Biennale can be a richly rewarding experience at the start of a career – just ask four budding artists who have done it.

From building contacts in the arts industry to getting further under the skin of Emirati history, joining the National Pavilion UAE can be an instrumental platform for emerging creatives. With applications now being accepted for next year's internship programme, four alumni shared their experiences with Razmig Bedirian.

One alumnus, Maha AlNahal, took part in this year's Venice Art Biennale with Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia, which was dedicated to the art of Abdullah Al Saadi. AlNahal travelled to Venice in April, taking part in the pre-opening preparations as well as maintaining the exhibition during the first month of the biennale.

“Before travelling to Venice, the National Pavilion hosted several training sessions,” she says. “It was a greatly crafted curriculum for interns to understand the history behind the UAE’s participation at the Venice Biennale. As a fresh graduate aiming to pursue a creative career, I gained insight and was not only prepared as an intern but also understood the UAE art scene more.”

AlNahal says that because her main creative outlets are photography and journaling, there was a lot to learn from Al Saadi’s creative process. “The experience changed the way I documented my story and how I wanted to tell it,” she says. “I saw the importance of observing and preserving your life and how to tell your story through different mediums.”

Find more here.

Coldplay's record-breaking return to Abu Dhabi

Coldplay will be returning to Abu Dhabi in January for three shows and fans in the UAE are racing to get tickets for what could end up being the biggest series of concerts in the country's history.

The British band will be performing at the 44,600-capacity Zayed Sports Stadium on January 11, 12 and 14 in their only Middle East stop as part of the Music of the Spheres World Tour, which has already taken them across the globe. Their last UAE show was at Expo 2020 Dubai, though the group has a long history of UAE shows.

These concerts will be different to any other in the tour, however, as Palestinian-Chilean artist Elyanna will be opening for the group. She has called it a dream come true.

The shows found fans waiting hours in online ticketing queues reaching nearly 200,000 people at the peak. Find out everything you need to know about the concerts here.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

· Carla Bruni at Dubai Opera – September 28

· Swan Lake on Ice at Culture Foundation, Abu Dhabi – October 11 and 12

· Kasabian at Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai – October 13