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Four-day gala celebrations to mark Louvre Abu Dhabi opening

Abu Dhabi - While all events are free, the headline performances are not

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Louvre Abu Dhabi's public opening on November 11 will be a gala event that will transform Saadiyat Island into a city of festivals.
To welcome guests to the historic opening, the museum has prepared an exciting four days of celebration.
The museum will be alive with workshops, music, international performances, tours and a few surprises, which have yet to be revealed.
Watch: Inside the galleries of Louvre Abu Dhabi
The performances taking place during the afternoon and the evening from (Saturday) November 11 to (Tuesday) November 14, will be held in the auditorium under the electrifying dome
A spectacular light show will also take place during the massive four day celebration.
While all events are free and come with the museum entrance ticket, the headline performances are not.
Tickets for the headline performances can be purchased for Dh200 on the Louvre Abu Dhabi website, or at the museum.
The headline performances will take place at 9pm at the museum's plaza. The artists are:  -M-, Fatoumata Diawara, Ibrahim Maalouf and Toto Momposina.

Opening day

On the opening day, a traditional UAE performance, by Mubarak Al Otaiba's group, will take place at 10am.
Al Ayyala is one of the most popular cultural traditions of the UAE, and has been recognised by UNESCO as a Living Intangible Heritage since 2014.
From 11am-5am there will be a free surprise performance in the galleries, choreographed by Lucinda Childs, a major figure in contemporary dance. Her choreography is all about movement in time and space, which correlate beautifully with the universal museum.
At 3pm, a sumptuous parade showcasing traditional Doyon masks will take place at the museum's plaza - performed by Awa Troupe of Sangha.
At 4pm, Troupe of the Zhejiang Wu Opera Research Center will throw a vibrant Chinese parade of lions and dragons while Etihad Airways will fly-past of the dome.
At 5pm, the self-taught Emirati composer and musician, Faisal Al Saari will reveal a special performance filled with harmony and tradition, through oud.
There will also be a performances by Braiji, a Korean musical ensemble, and Nguyen Le, a French artist, with Vietnamese roots. The performances will be held for free at the auditorium plaza at 6pm.
At 7.30pm, an extravaganza of music, light, video and theatre, by French pyrotechnic wizards, Groupe F, will be held at the Louvre Abu Dhabi Park followed by the eight-time Grammy Award winner, -M-, perform at the plaza at 9pm.

Special exhibitions

Louvre Abu Dhabi will present four special exhibitions each year in collaboration with French partner institutions and Agence France-Museums.
- The inaugural special exhibition, 'From One Louvre to Another': Opening a Museum for Everyone, opens on December 21 2017, and traces the history of musee du Louvre in Paris in the 18th century. It will feature approximately 150 significant paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and other pieces, mainly from the collections of musee du Louvre, but also from the Chateau de Versailles.
- The second exhibition is 'Globe in Spheres', and will explore the representation of the world from antiquity to the present day through a collection of important globes. Some of the 125 celestial globes from the Islamic world that remains in existence today will be featured at this unique exhibition.

- 'Opening the Album of the World: Photographs, 1842-1896' will look at ancient photographs using the early techniques in different parts of the world. The exhibition will present the first images of the Arabian Gulf region: 1850s photographs of Yemen, and an image of the Hejaz from 1861.
- Louvre Abu Dhabi's fourth special exhibition will present remarkable decorative paintings that will highlight the dialogue between Eastern and Western traditions ad will demonstrate the fundamental contribution made by the Far-Eastern aesthetic to the development of modern decoration.