Within the remarkable current cultural and visual scene of Sharjah, and the great support and guidance of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, The Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah , the 7th edition of Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial come this year to assure its pioneer global status and its huge efforts in embracing and promoting arts of our Arabic and Islamic Heritage, moreover open to other influential foreign cultures.
The 7th edition of the biennial come this year under the theme "Dot". It features the artistic entity of the dot and the concepts related to it on the intellectual and visual levels. However, its visual concept tends to provide us a geometric or abstract form, or even unclear dimensions sometimes, it existed in Arabic calligraphy and since was taken by Ibn Muqlah as a basis in the construction of the letters, in order to create that systematic or visual balance in Arabic scripts, it became a significant to highlight it for being an element that indicate the linguistic and aesthetic being of the letter… The dot constituted a system based on extracting all letters from the shape of the circle to reach to the attributed letter, and according to Al Safa'a Brothers the dot represent an expression for the best proportion in visual or musical art, this proportion will appear to us as if it is derived from a long mathematical observation in the world of nature and universe and not just purely spontaneous guess. Ibn Waheed mentions in his commentary Resa'alt Ibn Al Bawab (In The Script & Pen) "Calligraphy is a form of painting, and the script is the inspiration of every making, and each word must be as the image symmetrical".
Al Hallaj describes the dot through his philosophical arguments that it is a divine sign, he said refereeing to the dot "It is the origin of the script, and the script in a whole consists of combined dots, for the dot is essential for the script and the script is essential for the dot, and every straight or oblique script is moving from the dot in particular, and all that is in the sight is a dot between two dots".
The theory of the dot as a project of a wide artistic program, abstract and diagnostic, highlights the art of painting through calligraphy art, hence the research in the aesthetic concept has led to reflections that set the features of an aesthetic theory in the art of calligraphy, sometimes described as fake that can only be achieved with evidence and cannot be identified only through experience, as orientalist Barrett emphasizes "The Calligrapher tend to control the letters that are written by him, as the musician controls completely his feelings trying to compose a certain tune", the dot remains a musical, visual and aesthetic necessity, wither present or absent.