Issue 9-1

We look back at a year where, as Manal Al-Dowayan wrote in an email dialogue, “The Middle East went to the world … and the world came to us.” We review the groundbreaking exhibition Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at The British Museum and visit an array of Modern Arab art shows at the Beirut Exhibition Center. In Doha renowned Chinese artist Yan Pei-Ming exhibited his portraits of some of the Middle East’s key cultural figures and in Dubai more galleries and art spaces have opened and even branched out to London. Looking at the wealth of content this ‘Year in Review’ issue confirms just how much ‘soft power’ the Middle East has – a term the Tate’s Chris Dercon highlighted at last January’s Art and Patronage Summit: The Middle East in London.