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Gala celebrations to mark Louvre opening: Feast for the art lovers

Abu Dhabi: Louvre Abu Dhabi will welcome the world with four days of celebrations to mark its historic opening on November 11. The museum’s galleries will open to the public alongside an exciting programme of multicultural music, arts and dance performances, workshops and an extraordinary light show.

Louvre Abu Dhabi is the first museum of its kind in the Arab world: a universal museum that focuses on shared human stories across civilisations and cultures. It’s important collection of artworks and artefacts spans the entirety of human existence, from the Palaeolithic era to the present day, highlighting universal themes and ideas, and will be supplemented by loans from leading French museums and regional cultural institutions.

The opening light show will be presented by French pyrotechnic wizards Groupe F.

Unique spectacle

The spectacular opening week programme really is a celebration of diversity, bringing together talented musicians, artists and performers from countries spanning the globe, and will offer a

Architect Jean Nouvel has designed Louvre Abu Dhabi as a museum city under a 180-metre dome, which filters sunlight and shade onto the buildings and waterfront promenades below in a cinematic ‘Rain of Light’ effect.

The opening week programme has been curated by Louvre Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Agence France Museums and Arwad Esber, Artistic and Programming Advisor.

Music galore

For music lovers, the opening week offers a number of exciting performances by Franco-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyên Lê who will partner with Korea’s Baraji Ensemble, the French-Indian duo formed by Drfloy (aka Floy Krouchi) and Sumathi, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, an internationally renowned master of the bansuri and the self-taught Emirati composer and musician Faisal Al Saari.

For those fascinated by cultural traditions, the Dogon Masks Dance, a ritual native to the ancient Dogon people of central Mali, will be performed by Mali’s Awa Troupe of Sangha. The Troupe of the Zhejiang Wu Opera Research Center will perform the Parade of Lions and Dragon. There will be a show of Al Ayala too, the UAE’s historic cultural dance besides Almasty, a dance choreographed by famed dancer and choreographer Myriam Gourfink.

There will also be performances by Lemi Ponifasio, a Samoan New Zealand choreographer, dancer, stage director, designer and artist and surprise choreographies by Lucinda Childs.

A series of workshops will be available to the public to introduce Louvre Abu Dhabi and its collection. Free guided tours around the galleries with mediators will be available to give visitors a flavour of what is on offer every week.

November 11: French superstar –M– (born Matthieu Chedid) with eight French Grammys promises an unmissable performance.

November 12: Seasoned performer Fatoumata Diawara will showcase her modern and personal take on the Wassoulou traditions of her native Mali mixed with a wide variety of influence such as jazz, funk, and pop.

November 13: Beirut-born Ibrahim Maalouf, one of France’s most popular instrumentalists, will wow audiences with his rich repertoire of music.

November 14: A performance by Colombian-Caribbean artist Totó La Momposina whose work is inspired by a rich cultural mix that combines elements from African, Native Indian and Spanish traditions.

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