Artists Against Hunger This initiative to support the UN World Food Programme was curated by Mr. Omar Donia as part of Contemporary Practices Art Journal mandate to support the WFP Hunger, the world's number one health risk, kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Around one billion people are affected by hunger; every night one in seven people in the world goes to bed hungry. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) targets people who are most vulnerable to hunger especially women and children. Undernutrition causes a third of all deaths in children under five each year in developing countries, where one in four children under the age of five is underweight. As a result of inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy, up to 17 million children are born underweight annually. Studies show that malnutrition at an early age leads to reduced physical and mental development during childhood, affecting school performance and often leading to a lower income as an adult. Because the first 1000 days of a child's life - from the womb to two years of age - are crucial to preventing early childhood undernutrition that causes largely irreversible damage, WFP focuses on pregnant and nursing mothers and children by providing them with food enriched with essential nutrients including vitamins and minerals. Women are the world's primary food producers, often designated to labour in the fields in many countries. Traditions and social structures often mean that women have less decision-making power and unequal access to resources, education and income, which makes them much more vulnerable to hunger and affected by poverty than men. A mother who is stunted or underweight due to an inadequate diet often gives birth to low birth weight children. Because providing food assistance to a family through the mother generally guarantees a sound redistribution, women are considered by WFP as the 'secret weapon to fight hunger'. WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency, feeding 90 million people in more than 70 countries on average each year. Founded fifty years ago, WFP pursues a vision of the world where every man, woman and child has access to the food they need for an active and healthy life. Around 10,000 people work for the organization, 90 percent of whom work in the field delivering food and making sure it reaches the right people at the right time. In emergencies, WFP delivers food to people who need it the most, saving the lives of mothers and children as well as victims of conflict and natural disasters. As the lead UN agency for logistics and telecommunications, WFP helps the broader humanitarian community respond to emergencies quickly, efficiently and effectively. After the initial emergency period passes in a crisis, WFP uses food to help communities rebuild their lives. WFP aims to prevent hunger through programmes that use food as a tool to build stronger, more food-secure communities. Through its school meals programme for instance, which benefits over 20 million children around the world each year, WFP provides students with daily meals that encourage them to attend school regularly and help them to better focus on their studies. WFP is also committed to advancing local employment, especially among women, by providing food in exchange for professional training and community work. The UN agency assists local farmers by offering them technical assistance and training to increase their opportunities to access markets and also uses its purchasing power to boost their businesses through buying locally when and where it can. By providing food in conjunction with medical treatments, WFP supports health programmes that treat illnesses such as HIV and tuberculosis. The primary targets of WFP's food assistance programmes also include refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), who have been hit by poverty and hunger and had to leave their homes, lifelong belongings and land to escape conflicts or natural disasters. Moving food assistance thousands of miles at a moment's notice, often into some of the world's most inhospitable places, is a skill which WFP has turned into a fine art. This explains why WFP also acts as the 'logistician of the humanitarian sector', moving goods on behalf of other UN agencies and international NGOs. Ocean transport forms the backbone of WFP's transportation system, with some 90 percent of its food moved by ship. As complex as shipping arrangements can be, getting the food from the ships to the people who need it is the real challenge. WFP's transport officers stretch a logistical lifeline across deserts, mountains and rivers deep into the heart of the world's poorest countries. If there are no roads or bridges, WFP builds them. Where there is no landing space for aircrafts, WFP airdrops assistance and sometimes even rehabilitates entire ports and railways. Once supply lines are secured, WFP brings its emergency food supplies via wing, wheel and wagon. It uses whatever means available: ships, barges, dug-out canoes; trucks and trains; planes, helicopters and airdrops; even the backs of donkeys, yaks and elephants. WFP relies entirely on voluntary contributions to run its programmes. Contributions are made either as cash, food or basic items necessary to grow, store and cook food. Cash contributions are always preferred to enable WFP to purchase food locally and in bulk; WFP purchases 78 percent of the food it distributes from developing countries. In the United Arab Emirates, WFP manages the world's largest UN logistical hub, with warehouses and procurement services in Dubai and an aviation unit in Sharjah. It serves as a base for the Fast Information Technology Intervention Team (FITTEST), in charge of setting up IT and telecom infrastructure in crisis zones. Dubai is also home to the regional team of the WFP Private Partnership division. WFP runs programmes all across the Middle East and North Africa through its country offices in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territories, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia. WFP provides school meals to more than two million children in need throughout the region. While Hunger is the 'world's greatest solvable problem', WFP cannot end it alone. This is why the organization is leading the way in the UN to create innovative and flexible partnerships with the private sector to support humanitarian work and save lives. With a nutritious meal served to a schoolchild for only US$0.25 a day, every individual donor and company has the capacity to make a real difference in the lives of children in need. WFP and Arts WFP's relationship with the Middle East's art community began one year ago when Syrian Painter Sara Shamma and the agency's celebrity partner created a special painting inspired by WFP's work in Syria. WFP also collaborates with a number of galleries in Iran and has forged partnerships with selected art institutions, galleries and consultants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As a key beneficiary of the Tomorrow/Bokra charity album co-produced by legendary music producer Quincy Jones and Emirati social entrepreneur Badr Jaffar, WFP acts as a facilitator for setting-up innovative art programmes for vulnerable children across the Middle East in schools benefiting from its school meals scheme. WFP has also joined forces recently with renowned recording artist Sami Yusuf through the 'LiveFeed' fundraising campaign that benefits drought-hit populations in the Horn of Africa. Christie's joins forces with Contemporary Practices Art Journal to support WFP Since early 2011, as part of its mandate to support humanitarian efforts and an expression of its Corporate Social Responsibility, "The Red Crown Foundation", through its sister concern Contemporary Practices Art Journal (CP ART), has been working hand in hand with WFP to bring out a set of lots to be auctioned by Christie's Dubai, with all proceeds going to support the organization's aid programmes around the world. Please note: WFP does not endorse any product or service. DONATED BY THE ARTISTS TO SUPPORT THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

Athier Mousawi (Iraqi, b. 1982)

Our Wounded King

Details

Athier Mousawi (Iraqi, b. 1982)
Our Wounded King
signed in Arabic, titled and dated '2011 OUR WOUNDED KING' (lower left)
graphite and coloured pencil on paper
19 5/8 x 25¼in. (50 x 64cm.)
Executed in 2011

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Lot Essay

Athier has created an instantly recognizable style through an innovative combination of geometric Islamic shapes and Arabic calligraphy. The presence of words in Athier's paintings is not immediately apparent; the embedded script becomes pronounced to the viewer only after the context is taken in. Athier's words and letters are truncated by line, color and aesthetic distortion. The result is neither the stylized script of traditional scribes nor the entwined graffiti-like productions of contemporary masters, rather a technique that is novel in its visual appeal.

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