Jersey City, U.S.A. — The Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA) is pleased to present Conversations Rough Cut, a new exhibition by Israeli artist David Wakstein, featuring video interviews with contemporary visual artists living and working in Israel.

For over ten years, David Wakstein has documented his friends, colleagues, and students as they reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings about art, politics, Arab-Jewish relations, and the ubiquity of Middle Eastern culture. The artists are captured against a simple backdrop with little to no objects or artworks to distract the viewer from their poignant words. Unless he is interviewed himself, Wakstein is not seen on screen. Yet, his voice is often heard ‘behind the scenes’ asking questions and probing deeper into his subjects’ psyches.

The show offers a purview of talent ranging in age, religion, and cultural backgrounds. These include Anisa Ashkar, Yaacov Dorchin, Yair Garbuz, Farid Abu Shakra, and Chen Shish, to highlight a few. Taken together, their words create a resounding statement about the nature of life in one of the world’s most complicated regions.

Conversations Rough Cut opens to the public on Sunday, November 4, 2012, 1:00 to 5:00 PM. MECA is located on the third floor of Mana Contemporary at 888 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ. Free transportation will be provided from and to Manhattan. For more details please visit www.themeca.org/exhibitions/conversations

MECA is a nonprofit exhibition space providing an equal-opportunity platform for artists, curators, scholars, and institutions –– based in the Middle East and its Diasporas –– to showcase new and influential works of art. MECA’s core mission is to broaden the perception and educate the greater public about the Middle East. With a yearlong program of events, exhibitions, film screenings, and lectures, MECA creates an exciting forum for cultural exchange by combining divergent philosophies that would otherwise not meet.

Image Courtesy of  arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com

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‘Eco Future’ is a yearlong exhibition opened recently in Manarat Al Saadiyat. The exhibition aims to urge the society and especially young generations to live a sustainable life style. It focuses on increasing the awareness of global warming, pollution and the green lifestyle.

Manarat Al Saadiyat literally means “the place of Enlightenment.” It is a 15,400 square meter arts and culture center located in Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

The exhibition is organized by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority with other governmental organizations such as Masdar, Abu Dhabi Education Council, Urban Planning Council, Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Emirates Wildlife Society and Tourism Development and Investment Company.

The main teaching method in the exhibition is done by lectures, workshops, games, videos, trips with the illustrated paintings and distributed brochures. The exhibition uses interactive cartoon characters, which are taken from the local community of the UAE. The characters Ali, Moza, Yas and Sara are used to attract a younger audience, especially kids between 8 to 12 years old. It includes a large number of interactive games to teach the kids green lifestyle choices from eating and drinking to how to make eco-friendly cars.

The exhibition contains six different areas including Drinking, Eating, Enjoying, Moving, Building and Future City. In each area are environmental oriented artistic workshops. Also, they organize  kayaking trips for both kids and adults.

The 7days newspaper has published some environmental facts taught during the exhibition:

• The UAE’s energy use is seven times the global average.
• The UAE is the world’s largest generator of waste.
• At current rates, the UAE’s fresh water supply will be unusable in 50 years.
• One computer left on all day releases over 680 kg of carbon dioxide a year. It would take 100 to 500 trees to absorb that amount.
• It takes roughly 25 bathtubs of water to grow enough cotton to make a T-shirt.
• One per cent of the earth’s water is fresh. All the rest is salty sea water or frozen ice caps.

The exhibition is open daily from 10am – 8pm from September 27, 2012 to September 26, 2013. The admission to  Manarat Al Saadiyat is free , while the entrance ticket of the exhibition is  for  30 dirhams for adults and 25 dirhams for kids. Families of 4 members can enter the exhibition for 80 dirhams only. The exhibition can be reached by public buses, taxis and cars.

Image Courtesy of  Saadiyat Cultural District

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