Bait Al Zubair and the Austrian Embassy celebrate fifty years of diplomatic relations between Oman and Austria

Muscat: Bait Al Zubair and the Austrian Embassy in Muscat held on Wednesday evening, May 10th, 2023, at Bait Al Zubair Foundation, an event that included a classical music concert and the opening of a photography exhibition to celebrate fifty years of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Austria and the Sultanate of Oman. The event was under the auspices of His Excellency Azzan bin Qasim Al Busaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, for tourism.

In the beginning, the Auner Quartet performed a series of entertaining classical music pieces for about an hour. The Auner Quartet is a classical music group that has won several international awards during its career. They are also the first Austrian ensemble to be featured on the cover of the Performing Arts Yearbook of Europe.

Later, the sponsor of the ceremony inaugurated the exhibition (Austria-Oman Photographic Impressions) by the Austrian photographer Nikolaus Korab and the Omani photographer Qasim Alfarsi. The idea of the exhibition is for the Austrian photographer to take pictures of the Sultanate of Oman with his lens, while the Omani photographer takes pictures of the Republic of Austria, so that each photographer presents his impression of the other’s country. These images varied between nature, architecture, and faces, to reflect beauty through the lens of the other.

The Austrian artist Nikolaus Korab was born in Vienna in 1963. Between 1986-1989 he worked as a camera assistant for Walter Kindler and Wolfgang Hackl and a teacher at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna 1998-2005 and the Vienna Art School 2009-2014. He has also held and participated in many private and public exhibitions in Austria and abroad since 1983. He is also a member of the Vienna Artists Association (Künstlerhaus Wien) since 2020.

As for the Omani artist, Qasim Alfarsi, he was born in the Wilayat of Samail in 1982, is professional photographer of nature and architecture, a member of FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique) and an active member of the Omani Photographic Society. He also received many local as well as international awards, and he is also an international arbitrator in photography competitions and exhibitions locally and globally.

The exhibition includes 40 photographs, 20 from the Sultanate of Oman and 20 from the Republic of Austria and is a joint project between the Austrian Embassy in Muscat and the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman in Vienna. It is also supported by the Omani Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.

For those who wish to visit, the exhibition will continue until Thursday, May 25th, 2023, in Bait Al-Zubair every day from 09:00AM till 05:00PM, except Friday.