In Entertainment today, we visit the largest art event in the Arab world - the

Sharjah Art Biennial in the United Arab Emirates. (A biennial is an event that

happens every 2 years.)

Artists from all over the world have come to the Emirates to create new work

especially for this event, and the theme this year is a big, important issue - the

environment. The Sharjah Art Biennial is focussing on how art can create a

better understanding of our relationship with nature and on the challenges the

world is facing due to excessive urban development and pollution. Now the

United Arab Emirates is one of the most rapidly developing man-made

environments on the planet – think of the gleaming rows of newly-built hotels

and skyscrapers in the city of Dubai, for example. So how does an art event

with an ecological theme fit in?

BBC reporter Tim Marlow went to investigate. He describes a piece of work

which certainly makes you think about the pollution from car exhausts! As you

listen, try to image what the art work looks like.

Tim Marlow

‘It sounds, I’m sure, as if I’m standing in a car park! But, in fact, this is an art work. It’s by

the German-born, London-based artist, Gustav Metzger, and it was a proposal called

‘Stockholm, June 1972’ and it was never realised until now. And it involves 120 cars, each

with their exhaust pipes hosed up into a central construction which is right in front of me -

which is covered in polythene - and all the pollution, all the exhaust fumes are mingling

inside. I can see a certain amount of condensation, I can see a certain amount of darkness, and

this, I suppose, is the emblematic piece for the 8th Sharjah Biennial, whose themes, you’ll be

amazed to discover, are ecology and the politics of change.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

Page 2 of 3

bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Can you picture the piece in your mind? There are 120 cars, each with their

exhaust pipes ‘hosed up’, joined together by hoses or pipes, into ‘a central

construction’, and all the pollution, all the exhaust fumes, are ‘mingling’ (or

mixing) as they collect inside.

Tim calls it ‘the emblematic’ piece for the exhibition – it’s symbolic, it

suggests the themes of the whole exhibition.

Listen again and try to catch the two compound words Tim uses to describe the

artist who created the piece.

Tim Marlow

‘It sounds, I’m sure, as if I’m standing in a car park! But, in fact, this is an art work. It’s by

the German-born, London-based artist, Gustav Metzger, and it was a proposal called

‘Stockholm, June 1972’ and it was never realised until now. And it involves 120 cars, each

with their exhaust pipes hosed up into a central construction which is right in front of me -

which is covered in polythene - and all the pollution, all the exhaust fumes are mingling

inside. I can see a certain amount of condensation, I can see a certain amount of darkness, and

this, I suppose, is the emblematic piece for the 8th Sharjah Biennial, whose themes, you’ll be

amazed to discover, are ecology and the politics of change.’

Amber: Tim describes Gustav Metzger as a ‘German-born, London-based’ artist.

Next, Tim met the director of the Sharjah Biennial and asked him why he

thinks artists are willing to create work on themes like the environment and

the politics of change.

As you listen, try to catch the adjective we hear to describe the crucially

important ‘issues’ facing societies and ‘the world in general’.

Director of Sharjah Biennial

‘Artists are intellectuals and they have their role in society. Their role is to be at the forefront

of the pressing issues of the societies that they live in, or the world in general. And they have

to kind of participate, or in this situation, initiate the discussion.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

Page 3 of 3

bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Did you catch it? We heard that the role or work of artists is to be at the

forefront (the very front) of the ‘pressing’ issues of the societies in which they

live. They should ‘initiate’ (begin) discussion.

Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

 

biennial, the Sharjah Art Biennial

hosed up

mingling

emblematic

German-born

London-based

pressing issues