Ashmolean Museum (April 26, 2023): ‘The Arab world’s most influential living artist’, Dia al-Azzawi is best known for monumental and colourful canvasses. His work spans many genres, including a type of artist books known in Arabic as ‘dafatir’.
Here Francesca Leoni, curator of Dia al-Azzawi: Painting Poetry at the Ashmolean, introduces us to the work of this important contemporary artist and takes us through the exhibition currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum.
Dia Al-Azzawi is an Iraqi painter and sculptor, now living and working in London, and one of the pioneers of modern Arab art. He is noted for incorporating Arabic script into his paintings.
Dia al-Azzawi: Painting Poetry is open and free to visit until 10 June 2023.
The Guardian Weekly (March 3, 2023) – A year on from the invasion of Ukraine and there seems little end in sight to a conflict that has, unquestionably, changed the world.The Guardian Weekly’s big story this week outlines five possible routes to peace (some more hopeful than others), but the main focus is a stunning collaboration from Guardian reporters detailing the fate of the port of Mariupol, the battle for which has perhaps been the bloodiest and most shocking chapter of the war to date.
It’s an extraordinary account of the devastation, partial reconstruction, and Russification of a thriving city. “You learn to only voice your opinions with those you know you can trust,” says Darya, a student opposed to the occupation. “Otherwise, you keep your thoughts to yourself.”
On Monday the UK government finally agreed a deal with the EU to end a long-running Brexit disputeover customs arrangements and legal oversight in Northern Ireland. Our Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll unpicks the key points of the new agreement and what it means for the region.
In 2003, when the US army occupied Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Guardian writer Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was aged 28 and living in Baghdad. He recounts his front-row view of the fall of the regime, the arrival of the so-called liberators and the unfolding of a sectarian war.
I spend the day exploring Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region of Iraq. I wander the Qaysari Bazaar, sampling some of the city’s best kebab, washing it down with some tea in an authentic old cafe. I head inside Erbil’s famous citadel, before finishing up with a stroll down the buzzing Iskan Street.
Erbil, also called Hawler and known in ancient history as Arbela, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It has around 1.5 million inhabitants, while Erbil Governorate has 2,932,800 inhabitants as of 2020.
We hear the latest as the migrant crisis escalates on the border between Poland and Belarus, and discuss the assassination attempt on Iraq’s prime minister. Plus: the Czech Republic’s coalition and the week’s music news.
Precast modular houses are used globally nowadays , with alot of advantages for their users , but their main problem is that the designs of modular units is too general than not specified to a certain environment. That’s why, they are often can’t be well adapted with their surrounding environment.
Project name The Dream Space
Architecture firm Hady Mirawdaly
Location Kurdistan, Iraq
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