ROME - Shamira is a beautiful Venetian, and an artist who decided many years ago to aspire to a prestigious goal: to be, with her art, a vehicle for openness and dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

  Her works are today admired and exhibited in many countries, not only in the Arab world and her success is growing day after day.

  Enthusiastic as she always is, she tells us that one of her works has been recently acquired and strongly desired by the King Abdulaziz Public Library in Saudi Arabia.

  Insisting for this to be done was Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muaammar, the General Supervisor of the King Abdulaziz Public Library and the founding secretary general of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interrelectual and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) and advisor to the Custdian of the two sacred mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

  His senior positions in the administration of Saudi Arabia have led him to hold the positions of Deputy Minister of Education and Counsellor of the Royal Court and Deputy of the National Guard for cultural and educational affairs. And it is he who wanted and acquired for the prestigious library a work of hers made in Islamic calligraphy, inspired by the coat of arms of Saudi Arabia.

  For Shamira Minozzi it is an immense honour. It is a testimony of a concrete dialogue and cultural exchange: her commitment as a Western, Italian and Christian woman, which is artistically expressed by interpreting elements belonging to a culture foreign to her own, bringing calligraphic innovations and techniques, is recognised and appreciated, thus demonstrating a real openness to the new and to the different. This is a true message of peace.

  Shamira tells me that when there is mutual respect, culture and knowledge, there can be a profitable exchange, the mind opens and defeats all prejudice and ignorance.

  The King Abdulaziz Public Library is located in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It holds impressive collections of rare artistic, historical and cultural value, which include books, coins, paintings, photographs, ancient maps and various other elements that make it a leading institution in the world cultural panorama. The library often shares its important and unique collections with other organisations around the world, including the British Museum and the British Library.

  It is therefore in a very prestigious place that a work by Shamira will be exhibited and admired!

  A pride for the Venetian artist who is more and more convinced that in times so difficult for everyone, art and beauty can give us hope for a better world!

mr-ol