May 22-Sept. 7, Montreal—Photographer Robert Polidori seems to look for beauty in all the wrong places—the aftermaths of Chernobyl and Hurricane Katrina have served as his subjects—but he ends up finding it, anyway. The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MACM) is holding a survey exhibition featuring over 60 of Polidori’s photographs.
Posts Tagged ‘Culture’
Four days in Dubai:
Day 4, Open Sunday
Dubai, 10.00am of a Sunday. The corporate headquarters of the Emirates Group becomes the latest in a long line of visited buildings that are truly impressive to behold. Glassed, girdered and decidedly open-air, it’s a wonderful “junior” complement to Emirates’ spectacular Terminal 3, just on the other side of the highway. (“Junior” is no denigration; in matters of size, there are airports and then there is everything else.)
In fact, one of Emirates’ senior V.P.’s, Richard Vaughan, explains that so busy has Terminal 3 proven in the half-year since its opening, flights are already spilling over into Terminal 2. Nice work, if you can get it.
Four days in Dubai:
Day 3, “Deserted” Saturday
Dubai, 9.00am of a Saturday. To market, to market, to market: the morning agenda involves textiles, spices and jewellery. If the construction of the souks themselves looks just a little too rigid, too clean, too straight to be authentic (or at least old), the kiosks at least have hints of individuality.
Finally, though: throngs! I never thought I’d miss people at their most swarming, and these markets are definitely abuzz. Such a welcome change from the comparably deserted super-malls.
Four days in Dubai:
Day 2, Hospitable Friday
Dubai, 11.00am of a Friday. I find myself wondering if the second-largest city in the United Arab Emirates isn’t also the…emptiest? Later in the day, our tour guide runs the numbers for us (incidentally, he’s a Sri Lankan stat machine non pareil, who, we joke among ourselves, could probably address us in binary): 3,900 square km, and 300 people per square km.
Sure, those numbers mean as little to you as they do to me, but regardless of the population density, this much is true: I am staying in the hub of Dubai — the cutting-edge of “new,” here — yet wherever I turn, there is nothing but elbow room. Arguably too much of it. Read More
Four days in Dubai:
Day 1, Definitive Thursday
Dubai, second-largest city in the United Arab Emirates and home of countless exquisite waterfalls, 6.00pm of a Thursday. I arrive very well-rested. So well-rested that I am feeling a vague mental peace as my group exits the capacious airport, which makes departure-hub Toronto’s own Terminal 1 seem a comparative Greyhound depot.
The relaxed feeling is no doubt to do with the fact that the flight, on the Emirates airline, was beyond pleasant: business class to one of the world’s most opulent destinations, as one might imagine, leaves little to be desired that cannot be fulfilled at the press of a button. Whether the service solution involves a beverage-bearing attendant or a self-activated massage or full-bed function for the multi-position recliner, every contingent need is considered.
Still, it’s only as I am exiting the airport that I realize why I feel particularly comfortable: it’s the breathing room. My earlier comparison to Toronto Terminal 1 is apt, because both of these buildings are engineered to emphasize space, ambience. Dubai’s is bigger, of course, but surely this is the city’s raison d’être. I will soon see if bigger means better.
