BROWNBOOK

Although Sharjah’s cosy proximity to Dubai makes it difficult to identify where the city actually starts, as you drive deeper into the emirate the signs become obvious. A visitor will first be greeted by the city’s infamous traffic jams, a reflection more of Sharjah’s head start in urban development than of antiquated transport links. The…

Reham Al Samerai lives gracefully between multiple worlds. She divides her time between Dubai and Kuwait, directs an environmental film festival and records her own music whenever she gets the chance. She takes inspiration from the traditions of her Kuwaiti-Iraqi heritage and she is driven by a desire to see the Gulf Arab world live…

Since the 1930s, Boulevard Mohamed V has been a central axis in the city that some say resembles an open-air museum. An emblem of the historic city centre, the two-kilometre tree lined avenue in the heart of Casablanca combines both art deco and traditional architecture as well as housing a plethora of shops and restaurants.…

Walk down any street in old Cairo and you will find at least one merchant who transports bread, vegetables and sometimes even small animals in traditional palm-fibre crates. Usually square or rectangular, these sturdy vessels come in many different sizes and are fabricated from the base of palm leaves known as the midrib or gireed.…

A small white leather pouch hangs from a band of small brass bangles. The purse opens up with the grace of a carefully folded origami sculpture. Admiring it from a profile view, the symmetry is startling; neither half of the bag could be a degree out of place. The makers insist that this accessory is…

They are amongst the most up and coming architectural firms in Europe and are renowned for marrying art and architecture for the production of innovative spaces. Therefore, it is not surprising that NaNA architects, were chosen to design the large-scale architectural installation for Bulgari at the recent Abu Dhabi Art fair.   Originally influenced by…

Inside the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), there is little space for respite. Although Sharjah Biennial, the Foundation’s main mission, starts this year, staff are zoned in, hunched over computers and chattering on phones under an eye-catching skylight. It underlines the huge amount of preparation and time that goes into making Sharjah’s leading artistic events a…

If I was standing here 30 years ago, I’d be dead. I’m in the belly of the beast, an industrial leviathan that snorts steam and eats coal.   This monster is Istanbul’s now defunct Silahtarağa Power Station. Its heart is an AEG generator the size of a bus and its lungs are a Siemens turbine…

So convincing was the opening chapter to Dr. Youssef Ziedan’s historical novel Azazeel that many believed it to be a work of non-fiction. Azazeel begins with a description of recently discovered scrolls in a Syrian monastery, followed by the contents of the artefact translated from Aramaic.   It details the life of Hypa, an Egyptian…

Five years ago, an anonymous brightly lit department store vied for the attention of a few curious passers-by in Amsterdam. The price tags were in Euros and the branding not dissimilar to dozens of other department stores. The only difference was that El Hema was an art experiment, set up in a gallery and the…