curated by Stefania Angarano.

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 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.   

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.

This cultural inquiry into the body has never before been locally explored to this depth. Particularly noteworthy is that it asks artists to direct their vision onto their physical selves in a manner that has not been fully explored locally in contemporary times.

Commissary: Adel El Siwi

Artists: Adel El Siwi

              Ahmed Askalany

"Lightly monumental"

Through this work, two different generation attempt to dialogue both with the creativity of their old culture, and with the experiences accumulated in and from it, which never stop to set forth and appear alive through daily but surprising images.

The discovery that comes out is that the biggest achievements can be measured on the availability of tearing a moment of possible joy, out of the logic and the means of development of it, and out of the destiny of a tiring daily struggle. 

The painting from Adel El Siwi insists on the story, which is expressed by the solemn verticality of the art piece, but crossed by small anecdotes that suggest possible adventures, paths of pilgrimage towards non sacred territories. The exceptionally monumental art piece, with its heroic aspect hosts its antagonist provoking and mining it from the inside, although not destroying it. At it's side the circle, which underlines the geometries of the work of art, is accentuating the presence of the painting by it self concentrated on it's invisible centre and symbolically distant from the real context.  

Ahmed Askalany’s sculpture present itself as an empty appearance, which isn’t heavy because of it's mass but recalls only it’s fragility.

The sculpture is produced with simple techniques, similar to a little girl’s hair weaving, with natural coloured palm leaves, and because of that it is captivating the essential gestures and shapes of a humanity cleared from it’s aggressiveness and it’s dark side.

Askalany works on the subtle ridge that divides the handwork from the handcraft tradition, passed thought times, and the contemporary language. to get to a synthesis which is far both from folklore and exoticism  that from a declaration of identity.

Adel El Siwi was born in Beheira in Egypt in 1952. After a MA in psychiatry he decided to abandon medicine to dedicate fully to painting. He spends ten years living in Italy, and returns to Egypt where he is currently lives and works.

He participated to several international exhibitions like “Memories and Modernity” at the 1997’s Venice Biennale; “Italia-Arabia” at the Chelsea Art Museum, N.Y:; “Transafrican Art” at the Orlando Museum of Modern Art, “World into Art” at the British Museum in London, and at the Cairo Biennale in 2008.

Ahmed Askalany was born in Qena, Egypt in 1979. He began is artistic carrier as autodidact after his arrival in Cairo, where he develops a personal stile based on poor materials. He exposes regularly in Egypt and abroad.