SATHAR AL KARAN INTERVIEW BY ANCA INSIDE FWD MAGAZINE

We are honored to interview Mr. Sathar Al Karan, the versatile man, a business consultant, art exhibitor, a prestigious figure in the entertainment market, with 20 years of experience as advisor to media houses, a representative of Royal private offices as an investment advisor, Founder of ART UAE, Founder of Yo.ae, Co-Founder of 1971 Events. Sathar’s entrepreneurial approach and eclectic spirit, have been recognized through the events he has organized, like Dubai Midnight Marathon, Dubai Art Exhibition, Emirates Awards, Global Luxury Council and so on.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: You have curated and organized many types of events within UAE market. Please tell us more about this particular role as a curator, as well organizer. 

Sathar Al Karan: It is a challenging process to be involved either as an  organizer or curator for different events, and being open to creating dialogues is the fundamental key for any success, rather than just be a keeper of talents and exposing them. I love art in different forms, and even organizing various events and promoting talents it is a form of ART for me. I am not interested in the concepts but as how poetic, evocative and intuitive art can be, how it can resonate with all of us. The most important thing for me is to come with new approaches and options and keep looking for new opportunities, trying to avoid sometimes being overly conventional and living room for freedom of expression and intuition. 

Anca Mihaela Bruma: How do you differentiate your approach from the rest? In other words, what do you feel makes your “work” unique and truly your own?

Sathar Al Karan: My way of work I shall “label” it as adventurous type and experimental. Since my childhood I had a creative soul. My “efforts” are like testimonies of my approaches and how I bridge between ART, Artists and Society. In a fast pacing society, many traditional approaches to businesses have somehow “devalued”, therefore to differentiate yourself, it is imperative to keep a wide open eye and practice flexibility and understanding all the time.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: You have been working with various artists within UAE market, local talents as well expatriates, exploring a wide array of mediums in terms of creativity as well collaborating with artists from various art fields. How do you share this span of responsibilities? 

Sathar Al Karan: In some projects I am the “custodian” of a particular practice, style or method in the creative process. However, it is imperative to be able to work in cooperation with everyone else, sometimes even jointly authored and meeting at the intersection where our “curiosities”, skills and desires are triangulated. In my projects I am very interested in “the sensation of thinking”, a space where everyone, the organizers, artists and even the audience is given a “space” to develop thinking and feeling, opening doors for conversations, making possible for all of us involved, to embrace the full spectrum of possibilities, latent in the work process. The final outcome is important indeed, but how to transform it into work of art, which “travels” the length and breadh of its own possibilities, is more crucial! The success is not only about that moment, but how impactful is that event over a longer span of time, how important and challenging was for the audience, what potential opens for the future and how can you bridge various temporal rhythms of different generations, as well nations. Everything is a dynamic process and each entrepreneurial activity shall be like an index of transformation. 

I personally enjoy the plurality of my roles, sometimes organizer of staged events, or business consultant, curator of arts, and even photographer and poet, it feels like “agent provocateur”. All these aspects of mine brought me a broader and in depth understanding as well an unique “empathy” towards art in all its forms of manifestation, from mundane to intellectual, from invisible to invisible aspects affecting how the audience experience art. 

Anca Mihaela Bruma: How would you describe your approach to each project? Any project.

Sathar Al Karan: There are some steps indeed involved, however they are not linear. What is critical in making the right choices and decisions is to stay open to challenges in such a fast changing market like UAE, being open to intuition, ideas and emotions. It is an organic process how you can transform all of these opportunities into something “fluid”.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: How do you organize yourself during the developing process of a staged event?

Sathar Al Karan: It is important to know the aim of your intended event, either it is an exibition or a staged event, let your creative intuition lead you and involve your  partners in this exploration, while imaging various opportunities and being opened to new venture ideas. Listen to everyone involved in the process, listen to the audience itself, be fully involved in the process and trust it. 

Anca Mihaela Bruma: You mentioned of the plurality of your roles and how versatile are your skills, being a business consultant, curator of art, photographer and poet during your spare time and an IT specialist. Do you feel that you are more one than another? 

Sathar Al Karan: All my “roles” belong together, are part of who I am. All these “roles” support me in my own experimentation and somehow differentiate me from the sheer density of the competitors. These helped me to create different context in such way to be meaningful and accessible to the public, a groundbreaking approach with new ways to be displayed. My style of working is multi layered, so the result shall exists temporally, regionally, artistically etc. 

Anca Mihaela Bruma: What is the process behind clarity of your vision?

Sathar Al Karan: I have a clear position of how I see things, I am aware of many methodologies, yet not clinging strongly to one, but leaving “space” for new approach, being flexible when the parameters change. Commitment to your vision is imperative yet remaining flexible to others. In everything I do I try to adapt to the local context and strive for the people to come and feel something, make sure they can have an emotional and intellectual connections.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: You already made a name for yourself as a supporter and curator of different artists. Is your approach a traditional one when it comes to promote the artists?

Sathar Al Karan: The curating process has been changing over the years, and UAE is a very challenging market, very different than European or American market. The expectations are different, therefore the approach and the results shall be different. Curating itself is no more limited to just displays inside art exhibitions, but also producing publications, create new platforms for discussions or even festivals. Nowadays, there is a blurred distinction between the individual artwork and exhibition format. Curating such artists is my way to share my own passion and creative universe with the audience. Parameters like location, architecture, profile of the place are important in all these displays and producing events inside these places are part of the cultural advertisement by raising awareness, stimulating new critical or even analytical paths, enhancing the value of the existing heritage.  Nowadays, exhibitions became more “transversal”, a mix of various disciplines (like graphics, sculptures, designs, paintings) offering a more enhanced cultural and artistic experience to the public. Each projects starts with a concept and uncovering this “mystery" and sharing it to the public.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: What is the most challenging part about your work? 

Sathar Al Karan: To remain creative! Anything I do, either is a business consultancy project, a website, a staged event, an exhibition etc., it shall be moved at the level of artwork itself, to infuse a special spirit into it.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: Were you always interested in ART?

Sathar Al Kharan: Since I was a child I had this predisposition towards creative expressions, I was sculpturing at that time, contributing and volunteering at various art festivals back in India and of course sometimes expressing myself through written word, which is poetry.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: How do you see the art market and the art word changing? And how do you see art emerging from the tech space?

Sathar Al Karan: For the past decades the development of technology impacted tremendously on the art, leading to appearance of new markets, new styles, new artistic expressions. Internet and social media also impacted on this development, nowadays many artists promote themselves with the means of online media. The new technologies have been presenting a wellspring of possibilities and options.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: What is your life like?

Sathar Al Kharan: Pretty challenging and provoking. I am married with three children and I have been living in Dubai / UAE for more than two decades. Here it is a place full of challenging opportunities, so during this time I have to be really open to all these fast changes. I have found my own “voice” here, developing a broad spectrum of skills. I have found here my home and great support.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations” (Charles R. Swindoll). Have you faced such “impossible situations” when you located yourself in Dubai / UAE? And if yes, how did you overcome such challenges and convert the experiences into positive results in your own life, personal and professional?

Sathar Al Kharan: When I arrived in UAE of course it was not easy, I faced huge challenges and it took me some time to adjust. In the face of controversy I have received major support and empathy from the people residing here. I was young when I arrived here, of course full of ideals but experiences made me understand that each of our own life is like a journey, exactly like a metamorphosis, and each of us need to find the purpose and meaning of our own life. Everyone has his/her own dream, pain to experience, undesirable changes we need to go through. However, today my heart is at peace because I do what I enjoy doing it, always staying true to my heart calling. 

Anca Mihaela Bruma: What did you learn from these challenging experiences while trying to make a living here?

Sathar Al Karan: In the time when I was plunged in the deep abyss of hopelessness, I had learnt that what seem to be an impossible situation, in fact it is a great opportunity for me to grow, as a person, as family man, as specialist and of course as artist as well.

Anca Mihaela Bruma: Not everyone has the wisdom of transforming the “bad” into “good” and learn from such life exposures. What would be your advice for the ones who face such challenges?

Sathar Al Kharan: Trust Life! Trust yourself! Find your high calling and stay true to that calling, no matter what. Transform each life event into a blessing, something you can learn from, to evolve more! And share your own learnings and experiences with others! So they can be as well supported and transformed! Our inner reservoir is endless, be generous with others as well, cultivating empathy! 

Anca Mihala Bruma: We are thanking you for giving the chance to interview you and give a “slice” of your own life. What will be your last piece of advice to the readers and everyone as well?

Sathar Al Karan: Believe in yourself! Even if the whole world seems not to believe in you! Because if you do not, who will? Hold on tight what you believe in! Difficulties and challenges are inherently present during out span of life. When we chase our own dream we need to be prepared to overcome all types of challenges (including failures and disappointments). But… are they not part of our life? Making it truly meaningful!

SATHAR AL KARAN EVENTS

It was 6:30 in the morning in Dubai; I had been working for an hour busy preparing notes for my next encounter. I was gazed by the morning hues and am all set to go, now.
I shaved, took a shower and had a bite on my day’s start-up meal. Miles to go before

I sleep. Now my car is speeding up towards Dubai’s finest building, the world’s tallest Burj Khalifa. With my car parked, I head for the Atmosphere on the 123^rd floor. What a feeling to be up there in the sky and it reminds me of one thing – the sky is no limit. My tools for the meeting with Mr. Sathar Al Karan have been set . At 11 am, Mr. Al Karan was seated opposite me with a very confident and assuring smile.

As we progress our conversation, I  shifted my mode and infiltrated further
to explore this special man’s journey which started 20 years ago. A B-Tech student who moved to Dubai for the passion of photography and later did various glamour events like, South Indian mega star Mammootty’s Hit Parade, Mohan Lal’s Lalsalam to mark the triumph of his 30 years excellence, world famous Indian dancer Shobana’s “Maya Ravan”, International Malayalam Film Awards, and was also associated with many projects like Dubai Spring Carnival 2010, Kiddies Fashionista, Jashan Saif and Kareena show, etc.

Mr. Al Karan being a multitalented individual whose management style has a touch of humanity. You have always been a visionary and have excelled in online innovation.
Would please share your experience?

The proof is in the pudding and the proof here is that I have launched more than hundred web sites and own more than 1600 domain names. That shows the enthusiasm and commitment in what I do! Wish my websites to be an initial intermediary or an initial liaison between any kind of business activity and interests between UAE and India.

Being a sheer event management marketing spike, what are your plans for art based events in the near future?

We are all set to provide you with some scintillating shows in the near future. Entertainment programs, classical dance performances, plays by national and international groups, eastern and western music concerts, theme shows, beauty pageants, fusion evenings and a lot of other things are on the cards. And we know how to plan them because of networking with groups across the country and abroad. We also plan to bring in a series of multi-city musical road shows with some of the biggest maestros in the art scene.

Is it true that you that you have currently registered 1600 domains and 800 YouTube Channels under your name or activities? What is that one thing that drives you to become so much passionate about online portal activities?

Yes it is true that I am very passionate about internet and activities related to it.
For me this is just like a hobby. And I would love to thank prominent personalities in my own way as an appreciation for their efforts - like giving them a special domain
or a website.

There are many events which you have initiated and nurtured but somebody else has taken the glory? Do you think that some sort of lobbying or plagiarism happened? Examples like Mammotty’s Hit Parade and Hit Jet etc.

Plagiarism and lobbying has always been there, ever since the world began. First of all it never bothers me, my ideas are unique and I am the only source of these ideas and I strongly believe that ideas cannot belong  they are just sparks that  initiating .i don’t want to take ownership just because it is my brain child. People can copy me and they can become undeserved beneficiaries of my ideas. I always remember the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President of United Arab Emirates that we should always be practical, realistic and optimistic.  So you know although I don’t mention names of people who have claimed, on different media interviews, about their fake patronage, but Mr. Ajith Menon of Arabian Radio Network has been very supportive and we have together initiated many projects.

So, what are your current projects?

There are many projects coming up and a few projects are in pipeline. International Malayalam Film Awards which will be held in Burj Khalifa Armani Pavilion on the 2^nd of December, is a supportive event to join and to partake in the celebration to mark the 42^nd UAE National Day. The second one is Dubai Midnight Marathon to proclaim and tell the world that Dubai is the only safest city in the world you can walk in any Dubai street without having a sense of fear. Dubai Midnight Marathon is under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and supported by Dubai Tourism Department, Dubai Sports Council. Dubai Midnight Marathon will kick-off at 12-12-12 at 12:12 am. The day is very special for me. Another project currently in progress for Dubai Tourism is “Muwaya”. It is a campaign to educate and enrich the young generation about the traditional Emirati nose to nose greeting.

That sounds like there is more in the pipeline? So, what are the future plans?

I am planning to do two events which will be biggest of their kind. Me and my team are aiming for Guiness World Records. And I have plans to promote new talent, who are financially backward. It is part of our CSR program. I love to dream big -
if there is a big event like Olympics and it comes to UAE, I would love to be a part of it.

Why do you choose Dubai as your base?  You are a South Indian but why Dubai?

Dubai is unique in its own way. It is deep-rooted to its tradition and culture; we have more than 140 nationalities residing in this city. It has room for everyone. Choosing Dubai
as my base is because of the freedom, changing patterns, hues the country offers me. I am inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
and his leadership qualities. Recently Dubai was enlisted as City of Events; it is such happenings that give me reasons for choosing Dubai as my home. So this city has made me who I am now, this is my way of saying thanks to this glorious land and its people.

I said thanks to Mr. Al Karan for spending time with me and sharing his thoughts, ideas and work plan. Now its 1:30 pm we are splitting.

Back to the busyness of life.