BROWNBOOK

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…

Flanking the Seine on La Rive Gauche, the fifth arrondissement of Paris is one of its most historic areas. Also known as the Latin Quarter for its Roman past and home to some of the city’s famous universities including the Sorbonne, which in medieval times taught exclusively in Latin, the neighbourhood is steeped in history at…

Around a century ago, French administrators seeking to develop colonial Morocco decided to skip the city of Taroudant. They may have judged it too unimportant, too rebellious, or both. Either way, while other cities were modernised; Taroudant was left untouched.   Today a new structure at Taroudant reflects new thinking: a university campus whose spare,…

With its newly ordained contemporary art museum, the world’s second largest concentration of modernist architecture and one of only two public statues of the dictator Francisco Franco still on proud display, there is much to discover in the autonomous city of Melilla. Originally prime Phoenician real estate called Rusadir, this Spanish enclave has since been…

Photojournalists often walk a fine line in Palestine. For those shuttled through the territories in times of conflict, their exchanges with Palestinians are usually limited to a few fleeting questions and some rattled-off images snapped in the small time frame they are allowed. But Tanya Habjouqa, a Jordanian-American photographer in East Jerusalem, has a different…

With a porch overflowing with plants and populated by coloured flags and a front wall constructed from distinctive multi-coloured stones, the house is famous in the neighbourhood. Home to two slightly eccentric artists, the place is known not just for its appearance but for being the venue, every Thursday night, for an open-invite fancy dress…

Sitting in the LBC Television office in Beirut last year, Cyril Aris and Mounia Akl heard the words they had only thus far imagined hearing. The producers of Lebanon’s first private TV station were offering them the opportunity to create a web-series from a short film they made in 2009.   Considering themselves novices in…

In a bid to fuse fashion and art, contemporary Mexican artist Miguel Chevalier has joined hands with luxury brand Hermes to present a new capsule collection inspired by technological elements, which is currently on show at The Pavilion Downtown Dubai.   Having used the computer as his main tool of expression, Chevalier illustrates the new…

During a helicopter ride above Wadi Rum in 1989, the story goes that Jordan’s then Crown Prince Abdullah and director Steven Spielberg engaged in a lengthy discussion on cinema.This was during the filming of the third installment of the Indiana Jones franchise (the Last Crusade) and Spielberg was directing the finale at the iconic Nabataean…