For our third participation, we presented the artworks of the following artists: Adel El Siwi, Qarm Qart, Mustafa El Husseiny, and Heba Abu El Ella.
Adel El Siwi
One of the most famous and influential contemporary Egyptian artists, Adel El Siwi has been exploring the subject of faces, which have become his trademark since the 1990s. As a continuum of his reflection on the human body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, he brings back to the limelight the most expressive part of the body against the backdrop of inhibited and guilt-ridden precepts.
ُEl Siwi’s elongated faces, which seem to be growing out from the surfaces, are the amalgamation of a three-pronged influence: the Pharaonic face, the African mask, and the Fayum mummy portraits. This gives form to an array of different personalities: amongst pensive moods and suggestive looks, some faces emanate allure and charisma, others intimidate, others reveal a subtle capacity of seduction. El Siwi’s ancient faces can be distinguished by his monochromatic expressions and the use of warm colours obtained through gracefully wrought brushstrokes of oils and acrylics, which intensify the expression of anonymous figures without resorting to too many details. His ready-to-explode static figures are containers of memory and history, while the symbols -interspersed throughout the paintings- introduce the viewer to the non-visible dimension, yet preserving its mysterious core.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He simultaneously studied medicine at Cairo University and art at the Faculty of Fine Arts between 1970 and 1976. In 1980, he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times in Mashrabia gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007) and in several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
Adel El Siwi
One of the most famous and influential contemporary Egyptian artists, Adel El Siwi has been exploring the subject of faces, which have become his trademark since the 1990s. As a continuum of his reflection on the human body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, he brings back to the limelight the most expressive part of the body against the backdrop of inhibited and guilt-ridden precepts.
ُEl Siwi’s elongated faces, which seem to be growing out from the surfaces, are the amalgamation of a three-pronged influence: the Pharaonic face, the African mask, and the Fayum mummy portraits. This gives form to an array of different personalities: amongst pensive moods and suggestive looks, some faces emanate allure and charisma, others intimidate, others reveal a subtle capacity of seduction. El Siwi’s ancient faces can be distinguished by his monochromatic expressions and the use of warm colours obtained through gracefully wrought brushstrokes of oils and acrylics, which intensify the expression of anonymous figures without resorting to too many details. His ready-to-explode static figures are containers of memory and history, while the symbols -interspersed throughout the paintings- introduce the viewer to the non-visible dimension, yet preserving its mysterious core.
Adel El Siwi was born in 1952 in Beheira, Egypt. He simultaneously studied medicine at Cairo University and art at the Faculty of Fine Arts between 1970 and 1976. In 1980, he moved to Milan, Italy, where he lived and worked for a decade before moving back to Cairo, where he currently lives and works. The prominent artist, doctor, and translator has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions In Egypt and abroad. Starting from 2000, his work was exhibited many times in Mashrabia gallery of Contemporary art, Cairo, Egypt (2017, 2006, 95, 93, 92, 90) and at Artspace, Dubai, UAE (2015, 2012, 2009, 2007) and in several galleries in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Italy, France, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, UAE, USA, Algeria, China, and the UK. He has represented Egypt at the Sharjah Biennale, UAE (1997) and the Venice Biennale, Italy (2009). Several private collections and museums hold his acquisitions, such as: British Museum, London, UK; The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; IMA, Paris, France, and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar.
Qarm Qart
An artist, a writer and a translator, Carmine Cartolano aka Qarm Qart was born in 1972 in Buonabitacolo (Salerno). Qarm Qart enacts a profound reading of Naguib Mahfouz. In the stunning modernity of Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy with its sweeping grandeur and evocative detail, Qart sees contemporary Egypt. Palace Walk (Bayn al-Qasrain), Palace of Desire (Qasr al-Shawq), and Sugar Street (Al-Sukkariyya) are starting points for the images Qart stitches onto the tarboush which serves as the canvas for his imagined world. Qart’s "Qarboush" offers multiple layers of meaning in the interpretation of Egyptian past and presents. The tarboush as male headgear is now an historical relic, but what about its symbolic force of national and patriarchal privilege? The artist makes us ponder whether this privilege has gone with the tarboush itself as he ushers us into disquieting yet intriguing spaces. Disruptions and continuities haunt the pinpricks of his Qarboush.
An artist, a writer and a translator, Carmine Cartolano aka Qarm Qart was born in 1972 in Buonabitacolo (Salerno). Qarm Qart enacts a profound reading of Naguib Mahfouz. In the stunning modernity of Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy with its sweeping grandeur and evocative detail, Qart sees contemporary Egypt. Palace Walk (Bayn al-Qasrain), Palace of Desire (Qasr al-Shawq), and Sugar Street (Al-Sukkariyya) are starting points for the images Qart stitches onto the tarboush which serves as the canvas for his imagined world. Qart’s "Qarboush" offers multiple layers of meaning in the interpretation of Egyptian past and presents. The tarboush as male headgear is now an historical relic, but what about its symbolic force of national and patriarchal privilege? The artist makes us ponder whether this privilege has gone with the tarboush itself as he ushers us into disquieting yet intriguing spaces. Disruptions and continuities haunt the pinpricks of his Qarboush.
Mustafa El Husseiny
Mustafa Ali Saad (aka Mustafa El Husseiny) is a Cairo-based visual artist. El-Husseiny graduated from Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University in 2014. His work is magical, symbolic, ironic and macabre. In his most recent work, El Husseiny boldly employs media such as paper paste, acrylic, and collage to show what he came across during his walks through the cemetery in search of a way to reconnect with his late father. Dozens of small papers hidden in the cracks in the walls surrounding the tombstones, which he initially thought to be supplications or Koranic verses dedicated by visitors to their loved ones, turned out to be containing magical and allegorical symbols. By carving blunt symbols of death, such as skulls and dissections of cadavres, as well as intelligible codes, formulae and numbers into paper paste, El Husseiny emulates the digging up of a past made of mysterious signs and re-conceptualises his personal research into an all-pervasive memento mori. Half-human and half-animal mythological beasts and deities-like creatures impose a fierce and bitter tone to his works, alluding to an uncommon form of sacrality. In a gloomy and restless atmosphere of death, feelings of uncertainty, nostalgia, grief and loss mingle, offering ample space for universal reflection on individual, historical, and collective memory.
Mustafa Ali Saad (aka Mustafa El Husseiny) is a Cairo-based visual artist. El-Husseiny graduated from Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University in 2014. His work is magical, symbolic, ironic and macabre. In his most recent work, El Husseiny boldly employs media such as paper paste, acrylic, and collage to show what he came across during his walks through the cemetery in search of a way to reconnect with his late father. Dozens of small papers hidden in the cracks in the walls surrounding the tombstones, which he initially thought to be supplications or Koranic verses dedicated by visitors to their loved ones, turned out to be containing magical and allegorical symbols. By carving blunt symbols of death, such as skulls and dissections of cadavres, as well as intelligible codes, formulae and numbers into paper paste, El Husseiny emulates the digging up of a past made of mysterious signs and re-conceptualises his personal research into an all-pervasive memento mori. Half-human and half-animal mythological beasts and deities-like creatures impose a fierce and bitter tone to his works, alluding to an uncommon form of sacrality. In a gloomy and restless atmosphere of death, feelings of uncertainty, nostalgia, grief and loss mingle, offering ample space for universal reflection on individual, historical, and collective memory.
Heba Abu El Ella
Born in 1993, Heba Abu El Ella is a promising emerging Egyptian visual artist and light designer. She graduated in 2017 from Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University, Egypt and took part in many group exhibitions in Egypt.
The Boat is part of an ongoing installation project in which the artist carries out a very personal exploration to investigate her roots and the environment in which she was raised. Her work is deeply connected to African and Pharaonic history and heritage. The boat recalls the traditions of trade and transportation on the Nile, the hearth of ancient civilization, which has been held up to the ancient people as the source of all life in Egypt. The vessel also reflects the Ancient Egyptians' afterlife beliefs, having been the means for shipping the dead for burial, and thus becoming the symbolic means of transition to a different realm and state of being.
By intertwining copper wires and using ammonia and vinegar, Abu El Ella reinvents the techniques of metalworking present in the Fertile Crescent since a very early date with a contemporary flair. The volume, made of lots of lines with different thicknesses, gives shape to different spaces. The thick lines agglomerate into dark spots, while the thin ones resemble neurons or spider webs. Heba Abu El Ella’s evocative boat represents at the same time a place inside oneself, where lots of forgotten memories, worries, fears and wishes lie, and a place where the thread of history develops and recreates places that can't be found in everyday life anymore. A whole new reality, made of tangible and intangible spaces, intermingling pasts and presents, unfolds.
Born in 1993, Heba Abu El Ella is a promising emerging Egyptian visual artist and light designer. She graduated in 2017 from Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University, Egypt and took part in many group exhibitions in Egypt.
The Boat is part of an ongoing installation project in which the artist carries out a very personal exploration to investigate her roots and the environment in which she was raised. Her work is deeply connected to African and Pharaonic history and heritage. The boat recalls the traditions of trade and transportation on the Nile, the hearth of ancient civilization, which has been held up to the ancient people as the source of all life in Egypt. The vessel also reflects the Ancient Egyptians' afterlife beliefs, having been the means for shipping the dead for burial, and thus becoming the symbolic means of transition to a different realm and state of being.
By intertwining copper wires and using ammonia and vinegar, Abu El Ella reinvents the techniques of metalworking present in the Fertile Crescent since a very early date with a contemporary flair. The volume, made of lots of lines with different thicknesses, gives shape to different spaces. The thick lines agglomerate into dark spots, while the thin ones resemble neurons or spider webs. Heba Abu El Ella’s evocative boat represents at the same time a place inside oneself, where lots of forgotten memories, worries, fears and wishes lie, and a place where the thread of history develops and recreates places that can't be found in everyday life anymore. A whole new reality, made of tangible and intangible spaces, intermingling pasts and presents, unfolds.