From February 18 to February 20, with her unconditional love and passion for art, artist Ebtisam AlHouti brought to the Albanian public her second exhibition titled “Golden Hands” at the Tirana International Hotel premises.
Ebtisam Al-Houti is a Kuwaiti artist who got introduced to Albania due to her husband’s position as the Ambassador of Kuwait to Tirana, but who fell in love with the country, its nature and its traditions completely on her own.
Having been living in Albania for years now, she aims through her latest photography exhibition to shed light on her cultural exposure to the Kuwaiti and Albanian people.
Artist Ebtisam Al-Houti enjoys a personality that naturally looks for beauty and demands it. She has always been drawn to the similarities between the different nations she has visited during her travels. In particular, she has sought the truth on how women can fully understand each other, regardless of cultural background.
Focusing on 18 women artists from both peoples, the pictures highlight the tremendous value of various crafts that at all times remain treasured and irreplaceable assets.
These artists include students, employed, retirees, and housewives; as well as single, married, mothers, grandmothers, and widows. In an effort to enrich this project, a range of different crafts were selected for a more dignified presentation of golden hands, reflecting the language and culture of each country.
“The woman is able to crystallize everything that circulates in her mind and soul in works that quietly speak almost entirely of her creativity, which is understood only by creative people. Nine golden-handed female artists from the State of Kuwait and the Republic of Albania, all specializing in various craft fields, have been selected to participate in this project. They come from different ages and backgrounds. Attention has also been paid to the diversification in the arts of manual skills, with the aim of enriching and presenting creative art in their wonderful works created by their golden hands to speak separately about the language and culture of each country,” the artist described.
With her tireless work, Ebtisam wants to shed light on the splendor and value of this particular art to help somehow in transmitting it to future generations. Amid the excitement involved in opening the exhibit last night, she says she has the main thanks to her relatives and to all the ladies who agreed to be photographed and become part of the exhibition.
“Through this project I wanted to highlight the greatness and value of this fine art, by raising awareness among the young and to draw attention to the importance of this type of art,” she added.
From left to right: President Ilir Meta, the artist Ebtisam Al-Houti and her husband and Kuwaiti Ambassador to Albania Fayez Mishari M. Al-Jassim
Among the classical music and special guests, particularly significant was the presence of President Ilir Meta, who received the first copy of the photographic book prepared by the artist. Meta thanked, among other things, the Ambassador’s wife for the continuous promotion she is giving to our country and for her artistic spirit. He also praised the relations between the two peoples, which continue to be even better every day.
Attending the event were ambassadors from different countries, as well as some of the ladies who were the main actors of the exhibition.
They expressed their gratitude to the artist who, besides photographing them, spent time with them visiting their workplaces all over Albania and Kuwait.
Last year’s exhibition was titled ‘Bread, salt and heart’ and aimed to capture one of the most trademark, yet hardly understood, traits of Albanian custom – that of hospitality.
Born in Kuwait in 1958, Ebtisam Al-Houti is an artist mainly fond of photography. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Kuwait University. Soon thereafter, Al-Houti was assigned to the position of senior psychologist and deputy head of the Psychological Counseling Unit at the Faculty of Education at Kuwait University from 1995 to date.
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