the limping messenger

First published on my Flickr site on April 17. 2014. it had 4.536 views.

DJINN: ART MADE BY SMOKELESS FIRE (1)

giant metal plate sculptures in Qatar desert designed by the American artist Richard Serra, commissioned by the Qatar Museum Authority, were unveiled by Sheikha Al-Mayassa, April the 9th 2014. (2) It brings the genius that fulfils wishes from the Aladdin tale into mind.

Once the magic lamp has been rubbed the being “made of smokeless fire”, the djinn (jinn, الجني al-jinnī) appears in the form of natural gas from the subsoil of the Qatar desert and sea, dissipating milliards of cash. Cash generated by the export of this ‘smokeless fire’ in a liquid form, by huge steel plated tankers, to an energy hungry world.

It seems like a fairy tale, though it lacks any moral, as countless poor Aladdins flocking from the poor nations in the wide region around the small state of Qatar, do in no way benefit from this wonder. Even worse they run the risk of not receiving their promised humble wages or die, because of the endemic lack of safety measures during the construction of this new fairy land, circumstances which the art loving Sheikha Al-Mayassa, who seems to have no limits when it comes to buying or commissioning art, refuses to face and act upon.

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(1) “The jinn (also djinn or genies, Arabic: الجن‎ al-jinn, singular الجني al-jinnī) are supernatural creatures in Islamic and Arabic folklore. They are mentioned frequently in the Qur’an (the 72nd sura is titled Sūrat al-Jinn) and other Islamic texts and inhabit an unseen world in dimensions beyond the visible universe of humans. The Qur’an mentions that the jinn are made of a smokeless and “scorching fire”,but are also physical in nature, being able to interfere physically with people and objects and likewise be acted upon.
(…)
The word genie in English is derived from Latin genius, meant a sort of tutelary or guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at their birth. English borrowed the French descendant of this word, génie; its earliest written attestation in English, in 1655, is a plural spelled “genyes.” The French translators of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights used génie as a translation of jinnī because it was similar to the Arabic word in sound and in meaning. This use was also adopted in English and has since become dominant.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djinn

“Aladdin (Arabic: علاء الدين‎, ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn, IPA: [ʕalaːʔ adˈdiːn]) is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (“The Arabian Nights”), and one of the best known, although it was actually added to the collection in the 18th century by Frenchman Antoine Galland.
(…)
Aladdin is an impoverished young ne’er-do-well in a Chinese town. He is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin’s late father Mustapha the tailor, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his goodwill by apparently making arrangements to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer’s real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer as protection. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring, and a jinn, or “genie”, appears, who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still carrying the lamp, and when his mother tries to clean it, a second, far more powerful genie appears, who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp.
With the aid of the genie of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries Princess Badroulbadour, the Emperor’s daughter (after magically foiling her marriage to the vizier’s son). The genie builds Aladdin a wonderful palace – a far more magnificent one than that of the Emperor himself.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin

(2) “The unveiling of ‘East-West/West-East’ by American artist Richard Serra in Qatar’s Brouq Nature Reserve. Under the patronage of H. E. Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Al Thani QMA Chairperson, Qatar Museums Authority is proud to announce the unveiling of a major landscape commission,East-West/West-East, by American artist Richard Serra for the Brouq Nature Reserve, near Zekreet in western Qatar, approximately 60 kilometres from the capital Doha,GPS: N25o 31.019’E050o51.948’”
www.qma.com.qa/en/slide-show/903-the-unveiling-of-east-we…