It’s Not Easy to Dream

Dreaming is fragile, insistent, and often interrupted, a vision of departure cut short by borders, a promise of paradise that reveals darker truths, or the unfinished projects that continue to shape cultural practice in Cairo. 

It’s Not Easy to Dream exhibition reflects on how art in this city has carried on, not through stability, but through vulnerability, persistence, and collective endurance. To dream is not to escape or collapse, but to hold relations, to name what is withheld, and to carve out continuity on precarious ground. It features works produced or shown in its programs between 2007 and 2025 by Esraa Elfeky, Ahmed Elshaer, Ahmed Badry, Ahmed Nader, Amir Abdelghany, Aya Elsayed, Imane Ibrahim, Shereen Lotfy, Reem El-Maghraby, Amr Elkafrawy & Jean-François Robin, Mohamed Ismail, Mohamed Abdelkarim, Mostafa Youssef, and Malak Yacout.

The exhibition is part of a month-long program with the same name that also includes: screenings from Cairo Video Festival archive curated by Habiba Sallam and Mena El Shazly, a workshop titled “But You Have to Try” on critical writing led by Ismail Fayed, and weekly tea-time gatherings.

Exhibition Opening October 9th at 7 pm. On view until November 6th. Open daily from 4 to 9 pm except Fridays.

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“But You Have to Try” is a workshop conceived and designed by Ismail Fayed for people who are interested in writing as a practice and in critical writing specifically, as well as those engaged with contemporary artistic practices and the ways we can speak about them from a critical position.

The workshop is part of “It’s Not Easy to Dream,” a month-long program celebrating 20 years of Medrar.

The workshop is intended for 8–12 participants. Participants are emergent artists and writers who already have a practice and are familiar with the process of writing. The workshop sessions will last roughly four hours each.The three sessions will feature guest contributions by Maha Maamoun, Ahmed Refaat, and Imane Ibrahim.
Application deadline: October 10, 2025. Apply via form link.