A Passion for Reading and Love of Culture - Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa - Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2019

A Passion for Reading and Love of Culture - Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa - ِAsmaa Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2019

If you “actually read” fourty real books in twenty years, you can face the world... “Amin Maalouf.

Eleven years ago, precisely in 2008, we took part in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair for the

first time to experience new formats of reading as we had an accumulative cuitural literacy and a

notable taste for literature which we have fostered since the inception of Al Multaqa Literary Salon in

1998. This step offered us an open outreach to the Fair’s audience and organizers as it took us from an intimacy togetherness context to a cultural torrent that flows in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. From the first few sessions, we were fascinated by the debates, and it was wonderful to open our thoughts to others, and share their thoughts. In either cases, we end up learning from them as it is believed that a good reader is scarcer than a good book.

We were pleased and honored that in 2006 UNESCO recognized Al Multaqa Literary Salon as one of its reading clubs in recognition of our perseverance and seriousness. Our biggest catalyst though remains the attention and encouragement of the State’s institutions, as well as Al Multaqa friends and followers.

Al Multaqa Literary Salon continued with the same spark and enthusiasm its participation in the Book Fair, marking today it’s eleventh. We have selected the “Third Culture” as our theme for this 29th Edition of the Fair as we live in a time where the use of symbols, expressions and methods of narration beyond languages and cultures became synonymous of language, and where cross-border networking comes as a substitute to friends’ gatherings and meetings cafes and discussions arenas. Many changes are evident and obvious. For example, those networks i n their diverse forms sweep away the differe n t levels of social interaction, new types of jobs are emerging while others disappear, and the challenges arising from the gap between generations becomes wider in terms of moods, tastes, ideas as well as in the ways to express all of that.

In fact, our choice of “Third Culture” is not to grieve a traditional culture that is disappearing with its characters, symbols and tools, but rather an exercise in tolerance and adaptation to the rhythms

of the future. Isn’t 2019 the “Year of Tolerance”?

Our sessions on “Third Culture” will also explore the reasons for restoring the role of the intellectual in

a new way to match and harmonize young spirits imposed by the revolution of smart phones and artificial intelligence. In commemoration of the Father Founder of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, may he rest in peace, 2018 was proclaimed the “Year of Zayed”. And in that respect, Al Multaqa Literary Salon has dedicated all its 2018 sessions to reading Emirati Literature to honor UAE Authors.

Our program this year encompasses sessions to review and discuss UAE literature. The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair announcement of selecting “Ousha Bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi” known as Fatat Al-Arab (Girl of the Arabs) as the Personality of the Year for this year’s edition of the Fair had a positive impact on us, for what Fatat Al-Arab symbolizes in terms of a great creative figure and the lead of this educated lady of the Nabataean Gulf poetry. We find the Fair an opportunity to pay her tribute and to shed light on her and her poetry through our sessions.

Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa

Founder and Chairwoman

Al Multaqa Literary Salon

About The Third Culture - Abu dhabi Book Fair 2019

The Dean of the Faculty of Arts welcomed us at our first day by saying:
“The University is Arts, all others are professions and vocations ...    We used to repeat this phrase to our colleagues who were sworn in front of us with their white coats, proud of their study of medicine or chemistry, no one at that time argued with us about the huge gap between the two areas of human knowledge: applied sciences such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc., and human studies like philosophy, literature, history and theology. Snow launched the word culture for both fields and argued that “he who believed in a sole culture knew nothing,  or barely did, about the other culture. The title of the encyclopedic intellectual, as Snow sees it, has been shortened by the culture of human studies and became a domain, while the term should not be limited to incorporate knowledge of applied science culture only. Snow considered it shameful that an intellectual reading books of philosophy and social sciences lacks awareness of the simplest laws of physics and genetics. Snow was the harbinger of a third culture that will minimize this gap between the two cultures, and all members should adopt the principles and the
knowledge of each culture of the opposite team and make this knowledge a necessity rather than a luxury.
In the early 1990s, Brockman continued the dialectic of the “Third Culture”, taking Snow’s compilation to another definition of this culture. Brockman believes that it will not only reduce the gap between the two cultures but also will replace them and present a new alternative to both. In his argument, Brockman cited by mentioning the widespread of science and knowledge in addition to simplifying scientific language so that the vast majority
can understand and follow-up the purposes of applied sciences such as physical systems, genetic engineering and others. Brockman launched a new generation of humans on the third generation of culture. But most of his portrayals of such humans were scientists who belonged to the side of applied science culture and had the essentials of human studies, not vice versa. Today we have crossed the third millennium to wonder about the 3rd culture.

About The Silk Road

Human beings have always moved from place to place and traded with their neighbors, exchanging

goods, skills and ideas. Throughout history, Eurasia was crisscrossed with communication routes and paths of trade, which gradually linked up to form what are known

today as the Silk Roads; routes across both land and sea, along which silk and many other goods

were exchanged between people from across the world. Maritime routes were an important part of this network, linking East and West by sea, and were used for the trade of spices in particular, thus becoming known as the Spice Routes.

These vast networks carried more than just merchandise and precious commodities however: the constant movement and mixing of populations also brought about the transmission of knowledge,

ideas, cultures and beliefs, which had a profound impact on the history and civilizations of the Eurasian peoples. Travelers along the Silk Roads were attracted not only by trade but also by the intellectual and cultural exchange that was taking place in cities along the Silk Roads, many of which developed into hubs of culture and learning. Science, arts and literature, as well as crafts and technologies were thus shared and disseminated into societies along the lengths of these routes, and in this way, languages, religions and cultures developed and influenced each other.

‘Silk Road’ is in fact a relatively recent term, and for the majority of their long history, these ancient roads had no particular name. In the mi nineteenth century, the German geologist, Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, named the trade and communication network Die Seidenstrasse (the Silk Road), and the term, also used in the plural, continues to stir imaginations with its evocative mystery.

Kabsoula Adabiya (Literary Capsule) by Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa

Keen on us in the Salon of Literary Forum to participate in the year of reading and the month of reading, we thought to present the summaries of our multiple readings for the meaning and interested in a “capsule”, drawing inspiration from our principle “We Read” from our leadership that you wanted 2016 a year for everyone to read.
After almost a quarter of a century with the novels, it is almost the age of the salon, we lived in moments of learning, moments of self-development, and moments of brainstorming, raising the slogan "I read, therefore I am," we wanted to go out to people not to say what they know, but to tell them what Do not wait for him, it was the idea of ​​«capsule. »
What is the capsule ?? The “literary capsule” presents the novel or the book intensively in its meaning and centered in its ideas in a few minutes / minutes, in which we tried to make a historic reconciliation between the elaboration of literature and its etiquette and the accelerated reality of events, and an era in which young people express themselves with short tweets.
We did not see in the “capsule” purely a new idea, as we also wanted it to communicate with our literary history, which defined the art of the short literary eloquent messages that the writers had previously circulated among themselves, commenting and explaining their creative product, until the messages exceeded the aesthetics of their abbreviation the original literary product that I meant Comment on it. We go out "by capsule" from the optional isolation in which intellectuals live, so we bring to you today what we read briefly in a capsule, to double the reading of your life as we filled our days, and to roam with us in the groves of creativity, knowledge and thought.
We also wanted the "capsule" to provide a metaphorical meaning for treatment. Just as a capsule treats the sickness of the body, the capsule of culture can stimulate anxiety and strengthen the immunity of society, not the science of medication by reading "bibliotherapy" about this soon. We are also pleased and honored that our friends have shared with us the diversity of their backgrounds and interests in an effective manner, each driven by a sincere desire to be part of the “Year of Reading” initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him, which was supported and activated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Friends today share with us all what he read, and everyone with what he chooses, and all with what he wants to convey to you from the creativity experience.

Message of the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, on the occasion of the World Book and Copyright

A book is a link between the past and the future. It is a bridge between generations and across cultures. It is a force for creating and sharing wisdom and knowledge.

Message of the Director General

of UNESCO

Irina Bokova, on the occasion of

the World Book and Copyright

Day, 23 April 2016

Frank Kafka once said, “a book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.”

A window onto our inner lives, books are also the doorway to mutual respect and understanding between people, across all boundaries and differences.

Coming in all forms, books embody the diversity of human ingenuity, giving shape to the wealth of human experience, expressing the search for meaning and expression that all women and men share, that drive all societies forward.

Books help weave humanity together as a single family, holding a past in common, a history and heritage, to craft

a destiny that is shared, where all voices are heard in the great chorus of human aspiration.

This is what we celebrate on World Book and Copyright Day, in partnership with the International Publishers Association, the International Booksellers Federation and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions -- the power of books to nurture creativity and advance dialogue between women and men of all cultures. I thank Wroclaw, Poland, as the 2016 World Book Capital, for its commitment to spreading this message across the globe.

This has never been so important at a time when culture is under attack, when freedom of expression is threatened, when diversity is challenged by rising intolerance. In turbulent times, books embody the human capacity to conjure up worlds of reality and imagination and express them in voices of understanding, dialogue and tolerance.

They are symbols of hope and dialogue that we must cherish and defend.

William Shakespeare died on 23 April, 1616, preceded by only one day by Cervantes. On this day, I call upon all of UNESCO’s partners to share the message that books are a force to counter, what Shakespeare called, “the common curse of mankind -- folly and ignorance.”

Talween Al Riwaya - Asma Seddiq Al Mutawaa - ADBF 2011

When I once thought about the various levels of reading the written text, I said to myself, to do it with the novel, which is the creative gender that has the most presence and influence on the cultural scene, so we write it visually.

It was an idea that came up quickly, but it is not as easy as it seems. Rather, it requires perseverance and working with specialists. This is what I did after my perceptions of the topic matured and I immediately began studying the possibility of implementing them and turning them into a reality that we can closely examine its results.

The meanings and ideas are presented in the streets and markets, as Al-Jahiz says, but discovering and apprehending them and choosing the appropriate ones requires a lot of insight. You deserve.

She also received a letter from UNESCO, which strongly supports and supports her, and finds in it an abundance of the aesthetic of the written text and its inclusion in a solution that gives it the possibility of reading it at a new level.

I called the friend Karima Al Shomali, who is keen in this introduction to thank her and praise her for communicating with a group of Emirati plastic artists and doing the necessary to facilitate the stages of the work.

Believing in me the necessity of defining and praising projects that contain some similarities with our project (coloring the novel), I would like to refer to a group of experiences common between the blogging side of the creative process and the visual aspect, such as the experiences of artist Dia Al-Azzawi in his books in which he visually codified a group of poets such as Adonis, Muhammad Bennis and Qasim Haddad,

Al-Muallaqat, and the experiences of Rafe Al-Nasiri with the poet Mai Muzaffar, or the experiences of Muhammad Al Qasimi, Amr Hiba and Atil Adnan, but they were nonetheless individual in their general climate and are often limited to poetic texts and not to other literary genres.

The project would not have been complete if it had not been for the quick and noble response of the plastic artists and their willingness to participate, because they believed in the necessity of diversifying the cultural act and making it lawful in front of new options for expression.

It is an experience that I hope the forum will contribute to replicating and making it a cultural tradition that brings great positiveness between creative and written citizens: the blogger and the visual.

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2019

The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, is a major business initiative of KITAB, a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Frankfurt Book Fair. KITAB’s aim is to develop the book and publishing industry and promote reading in Abu Dhabi and the neighbouring Arab Emirates. KITAB will focus on making the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair truly international and developing a long-term networking opportunity between the Arabic and international publishing communities.

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Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2017

Why you should visit

ADIBF is the marketplace for the publishing industry in the Middle East and North Africa. Over the years, exhibitors have benefitted from venues such as the eZone, which showcases the latest in electronic media and digital content. The Illustrators’ Corner has offered a platform for local and international talent to display their work and learn from market specialists.

The Spotlight on Rights subsidy continues to gain momentum and received 287 letters of intent this year. Our greatly enhanced professional programmes allow more exhibitors to network with new business partners in this part of the world while exploring business-to-business opportunities.

New and intellectual cultural programmes attracted an overwhelming number of visitors from the UAE, giving international exhibitors an indication of the potential of this market and the opportunities waiting to be tapped.