INTRODUCTION

Danish exhibition in Sharjah –
"Seven From Afar" and accompanying seminar.
April 13th – May 10th. 2004.

On April 13, 2004 an exhibition opened at the Art Museum in Sharjah presenting work by seven Danish graphic artists and photographers, namely Lars Grenaae, Rasmus Eckardt, Bertil Skov Jørgensen, Smike Käszner, Anne Marie Ploug, Erik Steffensen and Finn Naur Petersen.

The exhibition was inaugurated by the Sheikh. After the opening ceremony, the Sheikh made a speech that was broadcast on television and addressed to the exhibition’s participants as well as to the rest of those taking part in the cultural exchange projects. He called attention to the fact that the projects in the cultural exchange agreement serve as model examples of how a collaboration can elicit mutual inspiration and new insight. He emphasised the importance of being able to continue the collaboration for many years.

At the exhibition, the first preliminary sketch for one of the cultural exchange agreement’s prospective projects was presented. This was the Moonlight Garden, which is a present day interpretation of the classical, poetic, Arab moon garden carried into effect by the architect Jane Havshøj and the sculptor Mogens Møller, working in collaboration with lightartist and technical advisor Flemming Brandtbjerg, numerologist Nasser Moaedi Jorfi, astrophysicist and poet Salim Abdali, archaeologist Dr. Al Azzawi and poet Lars Bukdahl. In a television broadcast, the Sheikh expressed his great enthu-siasm for this project which, according to his point of view, constitutes one of the first modern European interpretations of a layout system that is central to Islam. He asked whether the project could be transformed into a model that would be so precise - on every level of its conception - that the Moonlight Garden could be constructed in Sharjah.

The exhibition was followed up by a seminar that was held at The American University in Sharjah and Sharjah University. The theme was "Science and Art" and "Art in the Public Space". People from Denmark and from the Gulf States took part in the seminar.

The manuscripts - translated into both English and Arabic - of most of the lectures were handed out to the participants. There is currently a plan to print these texts.