Emaar International Art Symposium to be part of DSF 2005

The overwhelming global success of the region's first-ever creative art forum last year has prompted the property major to incorporate the event as part of the 2005 Dubai Shopping Festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year.

Participants from 50 countries have already submitted their intention of being part of the Symposium which received acclaim from creative communities in the UAE and the whole world.

This year's Symposium includes painting and sculpting competition. The sculpting competition with 40 entries will be held from January 12 - February 7 in a specially created area next to the Dubai World Trade Centre. The painting event, with 30 participants, will take place at the Dubai Marina Promenade and Al Rigga street from January 24 to February 7. Winners stand to win cash prizes totaling USD 90,000.

Ibrahim Al Hashemi, Executive Director, Emaar Properties and Chairman of the Symposium Organising Committee, said: "In bringing the Emaar International Art Symposium and the Dubai Shopping Festival together, we aim to provide a much larger canvas for participants while providing thousands of global visitors into our city a creative interlude.

"The Symposium is a celebration of the symbiotic relationship between art and architecture. It has helped give rise to creative and civilised dialogue between different nations, which in turn has helped deepen the dialogue between regional artists and artists from all over the world.

"Emaar's role is not merely to create recognition of distinguished works of art that will raise the profile of the artists as well as provide acknowledgement for Dubai as a fine art destination, but also to create an educational platform to help develop cultural appreciation for the arts and deepen the relationship with society."

Last year's Symposium saw Dubai transformed into a hub of artistic and cultural activity as more than 80 international painters and sculptors from all corners participated in the event.

Appropriately enough, the sculpting event was held at the site where construction activity for the Burj Dubai Development is currently on in full swing. The painting competition took place at the scenic Dubai Marina lake, part of Emaar's stunning Dubai Marina waterfront development.

Last year's winners of the inaugural event were presented awards and cash prizes worth US$ 90,000 by Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties.

Winners in the painting competition included Wu Hao-China and Nizar Sabour-Syria, (1st prize winners), Jamal Alsgaiar-Tunis and Chu The-Taiwan (2nd prize winners), Yousif Ahmad-Qatar and Abdulaziz Ashour -KSA (3rd prize winners.

Winners in the sculpting competition included Mitsunori Koike- Japan and Assem Bacha-France (1st prize winners); Ahmed Al-Bahrani-Iraq and Essam Darwish-Egypt (2nd prize winners); Monica Gonzalez Tobon-Colombia) and Ton Kale-Netherlands (3rd prize winners).

An international panel of judges comprising painters and sculptors from Italy, Greece, Brazil, Egypt, France and Syria judged the creative works in both categories.