Jean-Yves Le Drian says Louvre Abu Dhabi fills him with admiration
French foreign minister’s visit coincides with announcement of museum’s new programme
The French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Louvre Abu Dhabi yesterday as the museum announced a programme of events for the coming year.
“I have followed the temporary exhibition programming of Louvre Abu Dhabi with surprise and admiration,” Mr Le Drian said at the museum.
The minister then continued his tour of Abu Dhabi with a visit to Masdar City and an audience with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
A year of French-Emirati cultural dialogue was announced last February in parallel with the Year of Zayed. It involves events exploring the two cultures, in the UAE and in France.
The initiative included the introduction of French-language subjects into UAE schools. Notable events include Bizet’s
Carmen now showing at Dubai Opera, George Balanchine’s
Joyaux by the Ballet de l’Opera National de Paris at the Abu Dhabi Festival in March; and a retrospective this month of Emirati artist Abdul Qader Al Rais at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.
Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, was also at Louvre Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Ms Al Kaabi said the two focuses for the second phase of the French-Emirati cultural dialogue were arts and artificial intelligence and protecting endangered cultural heritage around the world.
“Louvre Abu Dhabi’s new season, A World of Exchanges, will offer visitors an opportunity to engage with a diverse programme and new conversations about different civilisations and their connecting points,” said Mohammed Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s culture department.
The current show, Japanese Connections: The Birth of Modern Decor, shows the influence of Japanese print-making on a group of artists working in France in the late 19th century.
As part of the programme, the museum will host Roads of Arabia this November, which looks at the archaeological heritage of the Arabian Peninsula.
First focused on Saudi Arabia, this version will integrate artefacts from the UAE, marking the countries’ shared history.
The exhibition originated at the Musee du Louvre in 2010, and this time Souraya Noujaim, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s scientific, curatorial and collections management director, and Noemi Dauce, chief curator of archaeology, take the lead.
Other exhibitions include Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: The Leiden Collection and the Musee du Louvre, opening in February.
In April, a show looking at the invention of photography, drawing on early photographs from the collections of the Musee du quai Branly, will open.
Photography emerged in France in the 1800s and was adopted for uses including science and police work.
During European colonial expansion, it also helped disparate societies to understand each other, and became a documentary tool.
There will also be music and academic events, such as a conference on museum studies organised in collaboration with the Ecole du Louvre, the university-level institution affiliated with the Musee du Louvre in Paris.
A year of French-Emirati cultural dialogue was announced last February in parallel with the Year of Zayed