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Abu Dhabi / WAM
The ‘EU-UAE: Sheikh Zayed & Europe’ exhibition will tour Europe, introducing European youth to Sheikh Zayed and his lasting legacy, the exhibition curator has said.
“One of the main reasons behind holding this exhibition is to introduce the EU to the new generation of Emiratis,” said Rym Tina Ghazal to the Emirates News Agency (WAM). “It is an effort to reintroduce the history and bringing it to present, and how the relations continue,” she added.
A part of the tour will also see Belgian comics work together with European, Emirati students to draw Sheikh Zayed, Ghazal explained.
The exhibition currently being held at the memorial showcases the memorabilia of the Founding Father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s visits to Europe. It includes rare photographs, footage and some of Sheikh Zayed’s items which he purchased in Europe, along with other artefacts related to the cultural and historical exchange between the UAE and Europe, some of which were never displayed before.
Ghazal said that this a first-of-its-kind EU exhibition in the UAE, which tells the story of Europe and its history with the UAE, as well as Sheikh Zayed’s personal relationship with European leaders.
She said the exhibition unveils another aspect of Sheikh Zayed’s personality, “We have some beautiful items related to him such as his favourite perfumes and sunglasses, we just get to know a different side of the Sheikh Zayed, he was a diplomat, he was beloved by Europe, he was beloved by many international figures.”
“So you will get to see the international face of Sheikh Zayed,” Ghazal, the Press, Information and Culture representative of the delegation of the EU in UAE, said.
Rym went on to say, that the UAE is a successful union, so is the EU. Sheikh Zayed went to Europe for the first time in 1951, the time when Europe was uniting, she said, quoting H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, who said that one of the things that Sheikh Zayed loved was the idea of the EU as an united entity that works together towards a united vision.