The first photo of Dubai that I found in my iPhone gallery dates back to November 2011, almost 10 years ago. I had also been there in 2009, but that was before iOs backups.
If you happen to go there, compare the view around the Emirates Towers with what you see 10 years later.
(Or check out the area “by night” in my short #vlog https://youtu.be/XmoZzdK10eg – the upcoming Future Museum is very close by)
Dubai, the city of the future
The city of the future, born between the desert and the sea, has always fascinated me greatly.
Perhaps because in the first part of my career I was lucky enough to travel around Europe, but the discovery of the Middle East was the bridge that allowed me to venture further.
I immediately found appreciation there, I always felt the stimulus of a place where you can play for people from different worlds during the same evening, meet cultures and ethnic groups at the antipodes. There I learned the “Arabic scales” and that my violin could speak different languages.
I have constantly returned to that land and have never seen it halt its race, with its strengths and weaknesses, it just never stopped. And whoever wants to race over there feels welcomed.
Currently it’s the headquarters of Expo 2020, 6 months in which to welcome the world in one place and act as a “portal” towards it. I have been there, played there, and will give you 3 reasons to go and visit it by March 31st, when it ends:
1. As Italians, Europeans and, more generally, children of the West, we aren’t used to looking at ourselves from the outside: this is an excellent opportunity to exchange outside our “home”;
2. Our country (and increasingly the West in general) seems to struggle to leap into the future; Expo 2020 Dubai is a great synthesis of projects for the future, and for this reason it deserves to ‘contaminate’ us with its visions;
3. In the “digitization” of life that we’re all living, an event like this one celebrates the value of experience: we could enjoy the best photos and videos of pavilions, architectural ideas and performances, but living them in person is totally different experience, even though paradoxically they are all full of digital content.
I spent 3 of the 7 days of this short trip to the UAE at the Expo, and thanks to Filmmaster Events I performed for the inauguration of CasAgusta, a project by Leonardo aimed at relaunching the historic Italian helicopter brand. It was a fantastic experience that also marks my own “relaunch” on the international circuit (here’s the summary in another #vlog https://youtu.be/XtdBn2LtUo0) followed by an evening at the Armani Privè and much more that I’ll tell you about in the next page of my blog.
