The TNN team has picked some of the most interesting cultural events scheduled to take place in Cairene cultural centres during the upcoming week. Here is our list of recommendations:
1. ‘Juxtaposition’: Hazem Al-Mestikawy’s first solo exhibition
Egyptian artist living in Austria, Hazem Al-Mestikawy opened his solo exhibition at Arts Talks Gallery yesterday. Al-Mestikawy’s sculptural creations are grounded in the artist’s Arabic heritage, offering abstracted forms alluding to the Sufi principle of unity in multiplicity.
In 2011, Al-Mistekawy was shortlisted in #Jameel Art Prize (The Victoria and Albert Museum in London) for his work titled ‘Bridge’ (2009), a sculptural installation made from recycled cardboard and newspapers; a notable accomplishment, as only 10 artists were shortlisted out of 200 applicants. The prize goes to contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition.
Location: Art Talks Gallery
Address: 8 Al-Kamel Mohamed Street, Zamalek, Cairo
Date: Tuesday 10 March to 9 April, starting 6pm
(Alexandria: 16 April to 15 May at Gudran Association for Art and Development)
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
2. Cairo Observer – Documenting Cairo on Film @ Zawya
The final day for Zawya’s screening of documentary films that are set in and that tell various stories about the city of Cairo. ‘Forbidden’ by Amal Ramsis and ‘Electro Chaabi’ by the French-Tunisian filmmaker Hind Meddeb will be screened today.
Location: Zawya, Cinema Odeon
Address: 4 Abdel-Hamid Said Street, off Talaat Harb Street, downtown Cairo
Date: Wednesday 11 March 6.30pm and 9.30pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
3. Egyptian Mawlawiya Ensemble, Al-Mawlawiya Al-Misriyya
The Egyptian Mawlawiya group, headed by Amer Al-Touni, will perform at Cairo Opera House tomorrow. The show will consist of whirling dervishes and Sufi-themed songs and music.
Location: Al-Gumhuriyya Theatre, Cairo Opera House
Address: 12 Al-Gumhuriyya Street, Abdeen Square, Cairo
Date: Thursday 12 March, 7pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
4. Thursday lecture: Lara Ayad, ‘Caricature and Quotation: Ragheb Ayad and Hamed Oweis in the Legacy of Modern Egyptian Art’
The lectures discourse about the artworks of Egyptian painters active between the 1930s and 1960s by focussing on the works of Ragheb Ayad and Hamed Oweis.
Ragheb Ayad’s paintings and watercolours of Nubians, Coptic monks, and Upper Egyptian villages are recognised as “charming caricatures of rural Egyptian life”, while Hamed Oweis’s “social realist” scenes of middle and working class Egyptians of Cairo and Alexandria are described as “nationalist” contributions to the development of painting during the height of Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s presidency.
“Instead of neatly fitting under ‘folk’ and ‘social’ realist schools of painting, Ayad’s and Oweis’s artworks play with the legacy of Egyptian fine art painting and magazine caricatures. What’s more, their scenes of religious ceremonies and urban female workers demonstrate the complex role of ethnic minorities and women in artistic representations of home and “nation”, as is described on the event’s Facebook page.
Location: NVIC – Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo
Address: 1 Dr Mahmoud Azmi Street, Zamalek, Cairo
Dates: 12 March, 6pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
5. India: Snapshots of Odisha
An exhibition titled ‘India: Snapshots of Odisha’ by Dr Hassnaa Hassan, assistant professor of Photographic Art, University of Alexandria, will be inaugurated by Navdeep Suri, ambassador of India, tomorrow.
“The exhibition will provide a glimpse of Odisha, an Indian state (governorate) located on the eastern coast of India that provides a combination of beautiful locations, exotic cultures and classical dance. The State of Odisha has a 480-kilometre-long coastline, mountains, serene lakes and frolicking rivers,” as is described on the event’s Facebook page.
Location: Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC), Embassy of India
Address: 3 Abu Al-Feda Street, Zamalek, Cairo
Dates: 12 to 18 March, 9.30am – 3pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
6. The Riff Band – Frank Sinatra Night
A tribute concert to the legendary Frank Sinatra will be delivered by the Riff Band.
The Riff Band is a seven-piece band performing since 2002. The band’s musical arrangements “interpret tunes ranging from traditional jazz standards to contemporary. The Riff Band is an elegant, smooth and always entertaining, spicing thing up with costumes and theme-nights, the event’s Facebook page says.
Location: The Music Tent, Cairo Festival City
Dates: Friday 13 March, 8.30pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
7. City Layers by artist Miriam Hathout
Location: Al-Kahila art gallery
Address: 15 Al-Batal Ahmed Abdel Aziz Street, Mohandessin, Cairo
Dates: 14-24 March, 6pm-9pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
8. Aida Al-Ayouby Music Concert
Location: River Hall, Al-Sawy Culture wheel
Address: 26 July Street, Zamalek, Cairo
Date: Saturday 14 March, 8pm
Check the Facebook event for further details and the Culturewheel’s Facebook page for its entire March program.
9. Mega Farmers & Vintage Market
The Aquarium Grotto will host Egypt’s largest Farmers Market for the “best and largest selection of producers and suppliers of health food, healthy grains and condiments, organic vegetables, olive oils, honey, homemade jam and chutney, baked goodies, natural cosmetics and handmade products”, as described on the event’s Facebook page.
The garden will also host the Vintage Market with carefully selected vintage and antique artifacts.
Location: Aquarium Grotto Garden, Zamalek, Cairo
Dates: Saturday 14 March, 10am-5pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
10. Film screening: Digital Amnesia
A documentary titled ‘Digital Amnesia’, discussing the idea of memory and the danger of forgetting in the digital era, will be screened at NVIC.
“This VPRO Backlight documentary tracks down the amnesiac zeitgeist starting at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, whose world-famous 250-year-old library was lost to budget cuts. The 400,000 books were saved from the shredder by Ismail Serageddin, director of the Library of Alexandria, who is turning the legendary library of classical antiquity into a new knowledge hub for the digital world”, says the event’s Facebook page.
Location: NVIC – Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo
Address: 1 Dr Mahmoud Azmi Street, Zamalek, Cairo
Dates: 15 March, 7.30pm -9pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
11. Sunday Screening: Short Waves Film Festival @ Zawya
“Short Waves Film Festival is one of the largest and most prestigious film events in Poland. The new edition will begin with the global route of competition screenings – Grand Prix Tour held on 6-22 March 2015, while the final part will take place on 22-29 March 2015 in Poznań”, as is described on the event’s Facebook page.
The short films will be screened for the first time in Cairo’s Zawya.
The seven chosen titles include documentaries, animations, video clips and fiction films, and will all compete in this competition.
Location: Zawya, Cinema Odeon
Address: 4 Abdel-Hamid Said Street, off Talaat Harb Street, downtown Cairo
Dates: Sunday March 15th, 6:30 pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)
12. Voices of Freedom
The New Woman Foundation and Egypt’s General Public Library will celebrate Egyptian Women’s Day on Monday 16 March at the General Library of Egypt.
The event is titled ‘Voices of Freedom’ and will include music by the Habayebna Band and Comics Exhibition. The guest of honour is Aida Saudi, head of the Nile Radio Network. Some of the women to be honored include:
Media & Industry: Lillian Dawood / TV Presenter
Art and literature: Radwa Ashour / Writer
Mariam Naoum / Script Writer
Trade Union work: Abeer Ashour – Effat Abdel-Razek
And posthumously, the martyr Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh
Location: General Library of Egypt
Address: 4, Altahawey St.- Giza Street,
Date: Monday, March 16th, 12.00 pm-4.00 pm
13. Le Cinema de la Francophonie
In commemoration and celebration of the International Day of Francophonie, the French Institute in Cairo is screening French and Francophone films for two days, starting 16 March.
Location: Institut Francais d’Egypte, Le Caire
Address: 1 Madrasset Al-Huqouq Al-Frinseya, Mounira, downtown Cairo
Dates: March 16th – March 18th, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
For further details, check the Facebook event page.
(photo: Event’s Facebook page)