The project created by Stefania Angarano, Director of Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art will take place from 16th of December 2009 until the end of January 2010.
The idea behind this group show is how the body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, comes to life in Contemporary Art and expresses the human condition in contemporary times.
The Concept
The body is of course a very wide topic that has been explored in many international exhibitions, however, in the local Egyptian context it is rarely discussed in an open forum and is, in fact, (sub) consciously ignored. This exhibition is an exploration of the situation of the body in contemporary Egypt; as well as an exploration of how visions and perceptions of the body have evolved in the public conscience in the more recent history as well as the more distant past, to help to locate the reasons for its current situation.
As paradigms shift in contemporary Egypt society, be it through politics, religion, thought and social constructs; objects and their relationships change their meaning. The body being an object that absorbs the times as a sponge, has, naturally, shifted its position in public and private perception repeatedly but has somehow, in that change, been unanimously granted a status of absence – silently ignored, removed from discussion, stripped of value, essentially non-existent ( or so it seems). It is the body's position as a black hole that then sets this exhibition up for surprise: to discover the innovative ways in which the artists 'find the body'. It is particularly through the field of visual art that a cavernous exploration of this topic can allusively unearth the body (in a manner that words and other mediums cannot).
The exhibition will explore interpretations of the body in many terms, for example: its perception in the context of the rapid globalization and the current local political atmosphere, as a source of self-knowledge in of itself, as a physical landscape for pleasure and pain, as a question of worth, as a site for imagination.
Artists and Structure
The exhibition will commission new productions by about 20 visual artists from Egypt. The selection includes the work of both prominent and upcoming Egyptian artists, who both already directly explore the body in their work and conceptual artists who will explore this path for this exhibition.
The participating artists are:
The idea behind this group show is how the body, which tends to be imperceptible in the local public conscience and discourse in Egypt, comes to life in Contemporary Art and expresses the human condition in contemporary times.
The Concept
The body is of course a very wide topic that has been explored in many international exhibitions, however, in the local Egyptian context it is rarely discussed in an open forum and is, in fact, (sub) consciously ignored. This exhibition is an exploration of the situation of the body in contemporary Egypt; as well as an exploration of how visions and perceptions of the body have evolved in the public conscience in the more recent history as well as the more distant past, to help to locate the reasons for its current situation.
As paradigms shift in contemporary Egypt society, be it through politics, religion, thought and social constructs; objects and their relationships change their meaning. The body being an object that absorbs the times as a sponge, has, naturally, shifted its position in public and private perception repeatedly but has somehow, in that change, been unanimously granted a status of absence – silently ignored, removed from discussion, stripped of value, essentially non-existent ( or so it seems). It is the body's position as a black hole that then sets this exhibition up for surprise: to discover the innovative ways in which the artists 'find the body'. It is particularly through the field of visual art that a cavernous exploration of this topic can allusively unearth the body (in a manner that words and other mediums cannot).
The exhibition will explore interpretations of the body in many terms, for example: its perception in the context of the rapid globalization and the current local political atmosphere, as a source of self-knowledge in of itself, as a physical landscape for pleasure and pain, as a question of worth, as a site for imagination.
Artists and Structure
The exhibition will commission new productions by about 20 visual artists from Egypt. The selection includes the work of both prominent and upcoming Egyptian artists, who both already directly explore the body in their work and conceptual artists who will explore this path for this exhibition.
The participating artists are:
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