Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2010 (ANSAmed) - ROME - Signs and refined ornaments, decorative inserts, soft or broken lines expressing love, pain, religious faith, landscapes. Arab calligraphy is an antique art that continues to live in a continuous renovation of its forms, colours, styles and significance, an incessant dialogue between different countries and cultures that finds attention and international resonance at the Sharjah Arab Calligraphy Biennial, in the United Arab Emirates, which opens today. The event, one of the world's most important dedicated to the art of ornamental scripture (from the Greek ''kalos'' - beautiful - and ''graphia'' - writing -) will spend the next two months travelling around various parts of the country, beginning in Sharjah's Al Shumwaiheen calligraphy museum, and moving on to Kalba, Khor Fakkan and Dibba Al Hisn, with a programme rich in initiatives, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, both by individuals and groups. The show is an international one, ''in which artists from all over the world take part, from Iran to Germany and Morocco,'' says Abdullah Mohammad Al Owais, director of the local government's Department of Culture and Information. Figures say that 333 participants from 28 countries will feature, with a total of 821 works presented, an imposing spectacle whose ''objective is to bring together the techniques of the past and those of the present, and to build the reputation of calligraphy on a worldwide level.'' The planning of seminars and workshops, Al Owais told local newspaper Gulf News, ''aims to encourage the coming together of cultures in a way that contributes to the development of calligraphy'', while also allowing people to admire this art form ''in a way that is not traditional''. Famous artists will take part in the event, including the Qatar's Ali Hassan and Tunisian Naja Al Mahdaoui, while Emirati photographer Saif Al Zari will present an exhibition of images entitled ''Desert on the Edge of Light''. A stylish tribute to an art of such great importance in the Arab world, born on the Prophet Mohamed's ban on depicting man, instead leaving to scripture the task of telling the story of the surrounding and inside world. (ANSAmed).
A calligraphy in Tibetan script meaning prosperity by Tashi Mannox. One of three exhibited in The Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2010. If I had the dosh I would visit.
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