Posts tagged history

Preview: Hydrarchy – Transitional and Transformative Seas - by Hannah Mae Cooper

In October 1967, the Suez Canal’s Bitter Lake became home to fourteen international cargo ships, trapped in a legal grey zone caused by the Six-Day War. Officially un-allowed to contact the shore, the ships were stuck for eight years, the crews continued with operations as their contracts required them to do so.

The few available traces of this intriguing but little-known anecdote were researched by artist Uriel Orlow; one of the many amazing, but unseen stories of the sea explored by Hydrarchy.

Opening Friday, December 9^TH, 7:00PM at Contemporary Image Collective (CIC), this exhibition leaves land to explore the sea, the ship, and the offshore as “remarkable and contested cultural, political, legal and socio-economic territories”; intertwined with both historical and contemporary narratives of resistance. As conventional shipping and state military forces take full advantage of the sea, non-state actors such as pirates and ‘illegal’ migrants also make use of the sea’s flexible circumstances by achieving their goals through constantly changing tactics and opportunities.

Hydrarchy – Transitional and Transformative Seas is the second part of a two-phase project, which started with Hydrarchy - Power and Resistance at Sea 

that took place in London at Gasworks and the University of Central London in September 2010.

As a volunteer worker at CIC, I had the chance to talk more with Mia Jankowicz, CIC’s art director and as one arm of Hydrarchy’s curatorial team, she provided insight into the conceptualization of the exhibition and its overall relationship to both historical and present-day Egypt:

“Doing a show about the sea might seem like a strange and distant topic but myself and Anna Colin, the show’s co-curator, realized how little we factor in the sea when we discuss global politics. We think of history as something that happens on land, but when you look at the ways in which the sea is used by pirates, offshore financiers, smugglers and ‘irregular’ migrants - not to mention the enormous wealth of cultural material about the sea - you realize the sea provides a lot of amazing ‘loopholes’ for us to break the rules and consider the world differently.”

The sea is indeed a fascinating subject and in relationship to Egypt’s waters,

Jankowicz explains, “Egypt is not typically a maritime country, but its fate has been tied to ‘water’ factors. Look at Suez, which for thousands of years, people have wanted to develop and control as a shipping route, and in the 20th Century Suez has become an immensely symbolic site of military and nationalist pride. We became fascinated by issues like these where the use and control of water routes became not only historical events in themselves, but actually shape the world as we know it.”

Without giving too much away, the exhibition includes seven international artists or groups – some who talk very directly to matters involving Egypt including Uriel Orlow’s work on the Suez Canal and the research group, Take to the Sea, who looks into Egyptian migration across the Mediterranean. Others take a more symbolic approach such as Ayed Arafah’s piece about the idea of a sea in Ramallah, or Lawrence Weiner’s work using the language of navigation.

As Hydrarchy includes a symposium on January 6^th, the project offers the chance to explore its ideas in more depth, and more closely in the context of Egypt’s politics today. The keynote lecture is by postcolonial theorist Iain Chambers, who has long looked at Mediterranean cultural relations, through a process he calls ‘maritime criticism”; he will be in conversation with the Egypt-based research group Take To The Sea.

The exhibition will run from December 9^TH- January 21^st. Do not miss this! 

Civilization and the Cultural Explosion in Egypt: A view from Germany - by Carambolage

In my ongoing series of rants on  Arab culture, I offer you this:

In the venerable computer game of Civilization, the borders of your nation are set, amongst other things, by the amount of culture you produce. In this game, culture is calculated by taking the artistic, religious and technological improvement you have built in any given city, then multiplied through wonders or global improvements you have built in your capital cities. Occasionally a great artist or other personage will appear, allowing you to further enhance your cultural reputation. You can even set the national budget to support culture, which makes people happy.



This metaphor is not that farfetched: Reality requires similar structures to exist for culture to become a meaningful tool of politics and diplomacy: places that represent your culture, whether it be religious, artistic or a philosophical point of view. People who identify with the flavour of the culture on display are needed to populate those locales. Every now and then one of them will gain a reputation that goes beyond the borders of your country, even though this is far more random than Civilization makes it appear.  The cultural message the population puts out is multiplied by the media and institutions located in various metropolæ.

But before looking at the broader picture,  let’s focus on the act of producing culture for a moment. The so-called creative moment. The myth of the creative spark that floats unto the artist from the heavens is much overhyped. Having said that: It usually begins with an inspiration. This is usually caused by various factors in your surroundings: The beauty or brutality of a moment. The way the light streams through the leaves of the trees. A new smell. Social injustice. You perceive something and think “I have something to say about that”. That’s about all there is to it.


Now, an idea has been planted in your head, one that will not go away. Not only do you have something to say about it, you have a rough idea what your skills will allow you to make of it. The way you approach it separates culture, in this context the arts, from politics, academia, or journalism. And again, separated into various subgenres of art. Painting, writing, singing, designing, installations, performance art – and from there onwards to further subdivision. What the initial idea finally turns into is as dependent on the person doing the turning as it is on what surrounds that person.

And now, the word revolution has been used. Specifically Egypt, as I am more familiar with the changes the Egyptian revolution is bringing to artistic thinking and the perception of the artist in what I consider to be home than in the other countries.

In interviews, cultural activists talk about the ignition of creativity in the population. Many people turned to the arts to express themselves - doctors discovered their talent for comedy, such as the brilliant Mr. Nana from India on Tahrir, the countless graffiti found decorating the walls around the plaza, the stages on which many singers and poets found their voice and lent it to their listeners, political art was created in amazing quantity by what seems from after to be just about everyone.

Not all of this art was of a high quality. This is to be expected. It takes the average or superior artist their whole life to perfect their chosen form. To expect a sudden awakening of talent to also convey the skills of someone training themselves for years instantaneously is overly optimistic.

But it also gave many artists their first opportunity to talk freely about subjects they feel passionately about. Under the Mubarak regime, very few artists managed to do their thing without government interference or fear of imprisonment. Art, and the perception of it, degenerated to a point where the entire country seemed to be producing kitschy landscapes, papyrus or pop songs. There was an underground, of course. But where can the underground express itself when the state seems to loom everywhere, even in your most secret hiding places.

And when you did produce something worth showing, you still had to present it, in most cases, to a state-sponsored censor, who would suggest changes to the work that would undermine its relevance. Even the more liberal galleries were careful not to show anything too subversive. “We would love to, but it’s too loaded, we’ll lose our license” was a commonly uttered sentence.

It felt slightly pointless, even though many persevered on principle. A good film to watch about this is Microphone, by Ahmed Abdallah. Ironically released in theaters on the 25th of January, it portrays an attempt to stage a small underground music festival in Alexandria.

The change in the perception of the role of art that Tahrir brought with it can not be understated. The long Arab tradition of political songwriting was revived, uniting the masses and giving them hope and courage to continue in their struggle. Suddenly, visual artists with political messages no longer had to hide behind facades of conformity. They are now able, repression from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (one of the most pompous monickers to ever spring from a revolution) nonwithstanding, to display their interpretation of events and opinions freely. Political awakening, accompanied by artistic awakening. Subtle subtextual messages are no longer required to bring your point across.

The cultural production generated on Tahrir was, along with the politics of the event, the first thing to reach us in Germany. Who was writing the new songs? Where did the graffiti come from? Which minds were thinking up installations? Who are the bloggers? Which opinions were being expressed, in which language? How is art affecting popular opinion? 

Which brings us back to Civilization. The cultural border of Egypt before the revolution was nonexistent. Even though culture was being produced, most of the cultural exports were of such low quality that visiting an exhibition on the Pharaohs reavealed more about the current character of Egyptian society than visiting an exhibition of contemporary, government-sponsored art. We were aware of some breakout artists- Khaled Khamissi, Tamim Barghouti, Yasser Gaessa come to mind- but where were the others? Where was the mass of young artists those who visited the country knew existed. They did not make an impact beyond their circle of friends at home. You had to discover the hidden channels through which this culture was being published. There were no magazines, or websites openly dedicated to art. *

The perception was that Egypt was mostly being influenced by Western culture and did not add very much to global culture. Egypt was the Pharaohs, Mubarak, Khan-El-Khalili, Soufi Dancers, Om Kolthoum and Mohammad Mounir. There was no new artistic edge, nothing that warranted much discussion or particular attention, again, with some exceptions. The films and music that did make it here made it as much by hype as by the desperation of people to say “Look, we have produced a film that is being shown in foreign cinemas”. This did not mean they were particularly good, or representative. They were there, and we were somewhat proud of it. The Yacoubian Building is one of those examples, though I am presenting it through the filter of my own perception.  

Contrast this perception with the cinematic and cultural output from the 1950s – 70s and how Egypt was perceived then. A picture of steady decline, erosion of artistic freedom and dumbing down of art. The choices were to emigrate and do your thing, or stay home and be schizophrenic. Schizophrenic in the sense that you went about your day job and hid your evening activities. And in many cases, abused drugs to get over the depression this caused. Being a fulltime, young artist, was even more impossible than it is anywhere else. This has hopefully changed, even if I still hear some people have to keep up their day jobs a bankers while flying to all manner of events to perform there. You know who you are. 

[Munich Freisprechanlage]

But the fact that they are being flown to such events, the fact that many websites dedicated to art and culture have sprung up, that they are freely accessible to those outside Egypt, that the concept  Egyptian Pavillion in Venice revolved around a young artist killed, or martyred during the revolution all point to a change in the way Egyptian art is percieved outside the country. There is now a perception of a young, energetic art scene, prepared to go to great lengths to get their message across. They export current social and political opinions in ways even people who do not understand Arabic can relate to.** 

A good part of a recent poetry festival in Berlin was dedicated to young Arab spoken word performers. Panels are being held, amongst them a panel by the Anna Lindh-Stiftung in Berlin, and that of the Freisprechanlage in Munich, on the changing role of culture in Egyptian and Arab society. Do I have to mention Londons Shubbak Festival? Young artists are being flown in, along with their art, to allow us poor foreigners to catch up with the last 30 years of underground production. Even though pop culture is an important part of culture, it seldom yields deeper insights into the problems affecting a society, or the opinion of the man on the street, unless he happens to be in love or cruising in his car.  

Now, a few months later, observers of the Egyptian cultural scene cannot help but be familiar with names such as Ganzeer, El_Teneen, Mariam and Abou, Masar Egbari, Deeb,  and of course many many others, not to mention websites and blogs. They spring up by the day. They have political and social views they are expressing through art. They are reaching a global audience. 

To return to gaming terminology: Level up. ***
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* Even though this is changing on a grass-roots level, the state has yet to embrace the explosion of soft political power its people are putting out. In fact, I hear that they are trying to repress it- again. ** The use of Arabic in songs and on blogs has increased manyfold since January. Apart from a growing national pride, this also reflects whom the artists are trying to reach.  

 *** I seldom play Civilisation as the Egyptians. Their attributes are simply too weak. Let’s see what future versions bring. 

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Small disclaimer: This is a rant, put together from observation, personal impressions and discussions. I am intentionally leaving myself wide-open to critisism and discussion. 

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[This was originally published at: http://caramk.blogspot.com/2011/08/culture-ideas-revolution-all-these.html]

A Letter To The SCAF - by Psypherize

King Farouk I of Egypt; overthrown in the July 23 Revolution in 1952, with a military coup d’état by a group of young army officers who named themselves ‘The Free Officers Movement’. After which the movement had begun to establish a republic, known today as the ‘Arab Republic of Egypt’.

The Free Officers Movement’ was formed by a group of reform minded officers which, backed by the Soviet Union and the United States, coalesced around a young officer named Gamal Abdel Nasser. They used an army general, Muhammad Naguib, as its head to show their seriousness and attract more army followers.

In the heat of the revolution, Lieutenant General Muhammad Naguib wrote a letter that he conveyed to King Farouk on the 26th July upon the king’s abdication, an image of the original copy of the letter you’ll see below,

An English translation of the letter goes,

From Lieutenant General Muhammad Naguib, in the name of the Free Officers and the Army, to His Majesty, King Farouk I;

“In view of what the country has suffered in the recent past, the complete vacuity prevailing in all corners as a result of your bad behavior, your toying with the constitution, and your disdain for the wants of the people, no one rests assured of life, livelihood, and honor. Egypt’s reputation among the peoples of the world has been debased as a result of your excesses in these areas to the extent that traitors and bribe-takers find protection beneath your shadow in addition to security, excessive wealth, and many extravagances at the expense of the hungry and impoverished people. You manifested this during and after the Palestine War in the corrupt arms scandals and your open interference in the courts to try to falsify the facts of the case, thus shaking faith in justice. Therefore, the army, representing the power of the people, has empowered me to demand that Your Majesty abdicate the throne to His Highness Crown Prince Ahmed Fuad, provided that this is accomplished at the fixed time of 12 o’clock noon today (Saturday, the 26th July 1952, the 4th of Zul-Qa’ada 1371), and that you depart the country before 6 o’clock in the evening of the same day. The army places upon Your Majesty the burden of everything that may result from your failure to abdicate according to the wishes of the people.”

Striking words! The King in the end had indeed abdicated the throne and the Arab Republic of Egypt was formed, with the Egyptian masses celebrating what was then the end of ‘tyranny’.

But on the span of 1952 to 2011, did we really change to the better? Did we live to see these words take form in reality? Did we really live to see the end of tyranny and corruption?

From the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser, till the reign of Mubarak, we lived to see military dictatorship take form, sugar-coated with fake democracy and later on enforced by a state of emergency and the police to create oppressive systems of surveillance coercing people’s conformity, telling people how to move, how to think and what to say.

#Jan25 had managed to overthrow Mubarak but in his place we had become subjugated by the redundant military mind of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which absolutely has no legitimacy whatsoever in assuming legislative, executive and judicial authorities of the country all-in-one. They had manage to legitimize their existence under the claim of protecting the revolution. But many have been detained in military prisons under the label of vandalism, thuggery and spying. The new interim Cabinet so far had not been able to take major steps to introduce political reform because of how the Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and the rest of them being held back by the SCAF. It is becoming clear now that the only way to counter the SCAF is through mass protests and civil disobedience.

So as a letter was sent to King Farouk I, the people of Egypt are also sending the SCAF a similar letter demanding them to step down and allow the people to assume control of the country. We are DONE with military rule, an army’s job is to protect and serve the country, not claim ownership over it. Egypt belongs to it’s people, not the SCAF.

It’s time to end it! Down down with the SCAF!

bravo

this is not a submission. this is to say that you are doing the most exiting website i have seen in egypt. the texts i read here make me go mhhh, i never thought about this this way. you are really inspiring. the look of the site and the illustrations, for example of the army’s a/c ventilator, are of a graphic quality that i have not yet seen in egypt. thank you for sharing this with the reader.  and continue, please. 

tobias lengsfeld, cairo & zurich