The Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation has hosted a webinar under the title of “Art Triumphs in the Time of Corona” on Wednesday evening, June 17, 2020. The webinar, which was moderated by artist Ihsan Al Khateeb, featured Dr. Najat Makki, Dr. Farid Fadel and Mr. Ahmed Hailouz.

The webinar, which was hosted on Zoom online platform, shed light on the local, Arab and international artistic scenes and discussed a number of current issues such as forced isolation and its impact on artists, exhibitions, auctions, symposiums and artistic dialogue.

Commenting on such challenges, Dr. Najat Makki pointed out that despite the fact that the artistic scene has experienced a pause throughout the past few months, nonetheless the interaction between artists never stopped and there were many initiatives to share artworks over social media platforms. Moreover, online auctions have gained popularity, as if isolation has spurred more artistic creativity, she explained.

Moreover, Palestinian artist Ahmed Hailoz gave an overview of the Arab artistic scene and discussed how it has been impacted by the pandemic that has afflicted mankind. He also talked about a number of Arab artists and how their recent artworks have reflected feelings of isolation and solitude currently experienced by humanity.

On the other hand, artist Farid Fadel explored the concept of isolation and how it affects humanity and people’s behavior, highlighting how artists capture these transformations and translate them into the art we see in paintings, graffiti artworks etc. He also cited examples of how famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Scream have served as vehicles to spread public awareness about the pandemic.

The audience attending the webinar also asked the participants a number of questions about the future of online auctions, in light of the closure of galleries and art events, and whether it is possible to have an online biennial. There was another question about whether repainting famous paintings to deliver awareness messages has a negative impact on their artistic value. The answers of the participating artists helped enrich the discussion, which lasted for more than an hour and received positive responses from the audience.

It is worth mentioning that the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation has recently hosted a number of webinars through its online platform, including a webinar on poet Saeed Bin Ateej Al Hamli; which featured Mu’ayad Al Shaybani and Ibrahim Al Hashemi, a webinar on late poet Ahmed Amin Al Madani; which saw the participation of Bilal Al Budoor, Dr. Mariam Al Hashemi, Dr. Haytham Yahya Al Khawaja and poet and researcher Ibrahim Al Hashemi, and a webinar on “Writing and Isolation in the Time of Coronavirus”; which featured authors Dr. Shoukri Al Mabkhout, Abdo Wazen and Dr. Taleb Al Rifai.

In addition, the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation will be uploading all these webinars on its official website and its Facebook page; making them available to the public free of charge so that they may be a reference for researchers, writers and whoever is interested in gaining knowledge about these topics.