As part of extended research projects, Youssef Ragheb in “Succubus” explores a mythical concept that reflects the complex relationship between desire and social control by reinterpreting the character of Succubus, a mythical demonic entity that recurs in many cultures throughout history. It represents the tension between repressed desire and societies striving to control it amidst the dominance of technological evolution.

The exhibition reimagines the concept of the Succubus through visual experiments that delve into the nature of desire and the self in the digital age from the perspective of human heritage, considering the interaction with technology and its modern media. It also explores how ancient myths can form and adapt to the digital world in light of the growing digital dominance, which allows the broadcasting of the digital body to multiple places at the same time.

Youssef Ragab uses the “Succubus” as a focal point for researching and exploring global folkloric heritage, where succubus are often represented as seductive and deadly feminine objects of desire that appear to seduce men through sexual activity in their sleep.

This archetype of the demonic female figure is a staple of mythology throughout ages and cultures, as in Lilith in the Babylonian Talmud, Lilu in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Sirens, and harpies in Greek mythology, Al Quarinah in Arabian mythology, “Al Nadaha” in  Egyptian urban legends, and the Succubus in medieval literature. Philosophically, in Carl Jung’s theories, Succubus often symbolizes integration of the ” shadow self,” which encompasses repressed desires, fears, and other rejected aspects of one’s psyche. Succubus represents the tension between desire and the self, leading us to an internal conflict with the darker parts of one’s psyche.

Through various techniques, Ragab blends cultural heritage with digitization, examining the impact of modern technology on reshaping ancient myths. He revitalizes the image of the Succubus through the simple yet intricate use of traditional mixed media such as inks, charcoal, and soft pastels on vintage paper, within a loosely bound visual narrative occasionally utilizing written text. Ragheb relies on a vast visual archive, incorporating symbols from global cinema like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, medical illustrations, pop culture, and more, to reimagine the concept of Succubus through the lexicon of mythology, cinema, Japanese manga, meme culture, and written text as a narrative tool.

The exhibition opens on Sunday, February 9th, 2025, from 7 – 9 PM at Medrar.

and runs until Sunday, February 27th, 2025, from 4 – 9 pm except Fridays in Medrar.

Address: Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahasen, Garden City, Cairo.

Join us for the opening night, on Sunday,12th of January, 2025, at 7 PM at Medrar.

While public space functions as a realm for social interaction, it simultaneously acts as a contested field where forces of order and freedom intersect, in which the dynamics between urban design, surveillance, and street culture intertwine, reshaping the concepts of center and periphery.

“Along the Way” examines the power dynamics within the city, questioning the nature of public space and how rapid transformations reshape its role in everyday life. The exhibition explores the politics of land and place, shifts in urban planning, and the contradictions between order and chaos, freedom and authority, providing a critical perspective on the interaction between urban design and alternative forms of engagement, such as self-organization, improvisation, and irony.

The exhibition features works by three artists: Tawfig, Abdelrahman Mahmoud, and Dalila Hassanein. In Tawfig’s works, stories emerge from characters of various age groups from Upper Egypt, all bound by the shared driving profession. They navigate the same congested, endless roads, yet each has a unique story and a distinct personality. Portrayed in a caricatured style, these narratives balance simplicity and intricacy, through socially charged humor. Relying on a variety of materials, Tawfig highlights the adventures of his characters within a satirical social context: figures like Uncle Gamil, driving his Chevrolet, and Uncle Naiel, at the wheel of his Peugeot 504, are both marked by carefree simplicity. Meanwhile, Abu Elala, a young bulldozer operator and debris removal worker, appears proficient in his craft yet distant from realizing a more fulfilling life. In his work, Tawfig employs digital drawing techniques, and experiments with ink on book pages and printed paper.

Abdelrahman Mahmoud’s work reflects his personal experiences navigating the city and its diverse spaces, observing the contradictions that surround him—where chaos and freedom intersect. He raises questions about the impact of these tensions and the influence of the urban environment on shaping his perceptions of the city as a space for existence. For Mahmoud, the city transforms into a living stage, unraveling meanings of freedom and disorder. His compositions are filled with interwoven lines, using oil paint on layered paper cutouts to document the individuals he encounters during his journeys. His works adopt a dreamlike effect, reflecting scenes that evoke fragmented memories and embody personal visions.

As for Dalila Hassanein, she offers an alternative perspective on the traffic barriers and cones that dominate Cairo’s streets. And while their design suggests practicality and ease of use, these objects are imbued with connotations of authority and control, shaping the dynamics of public spaces. Hassanein explores the compatibility between European urban design and local practices, questioning how tools, originally intended for regulation, often end up symbolizing urban chaos and social strain. Using fragile materials, and to highlight the intangible restrictions imposed by such objects on everyday life, Hassanein constructs installations that echo the city’s streetscape, subtly disrupting movement to mirror urban realities. Her works critique the subtle mechanisms of control inherent in everyday infrastructure, reflecting gestures of apathy and resistance that are etched into the surfaces and walls of the urban landscape.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, 2nd of February, 2025, Open daily from 4 to 9 PM, except Friday.

Address: Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahasen, Garden City, Cairo.

Medrar announces “Where do I go after millions of years?” Solo exhibition by Amir Abdelghany

“Where do I go after millions of years?” Solo exhibition by Amir Abdelghany is an art project presenting an exploration of the issues of climate change and their effect on living creatures through a conceptualization of Centers of Evolution for the species most adaptable to changing environments — inspired by plant hybridization in agricultural greenhouses. The project questions the relationship between the human species and other creatures that may be more adaptable, as well as the possibility of genetic and organic self-evolution versus that of human extinction.

“Where Do I Go in Millions of Years?” is part of an extended project, posing Amir’s musings around our inherent ability to evolve, while comparing them to our role as functional agents in our immediate environments. The artist also attempts to understand the effects of inaudible frequencies in the communication of living creatures and the effect of said frequencies on cellular operations.

Abdelghany, through multiple mediums, produces three-dimensional and spatial compositions that embody a futuristic vision of creature evolution, suggesting the existence of fictional incubators that hybridize animal, plant and human cells.

Join us for the opening night, on Sunday, November 3rd, 2024, at 7 PM at Medrar.
The exhibition runs until Sunday, November 24th, 2024, Open daily from 4 to 9 PM, except Friday.

Address: Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahsen, Garden City, Cairo\

“I’m just a picture” is an act of reproduction and intervention, drawing from a collection of film posters, cassette tapes, comics, and advertisements spanning from the 1940s to the 1990s. Through repetition, layering, and combining various techniques, Hany Rashed reconstructs these elements, creating surfaces that appear stripped, weathered, and reassembled.

Rashed’s practice extends to using social media as an archival tool to explore how this imagery continues to persist, evolve, resonate, and inform our visual memory and social identity.

The exhibition opens on Tuesday, October 8th, at 7:00 PM at Medrar

and runs until Sunday, October 27th, 2024, from 4 – 9 pm except Fridays in Medrar.

Durational Memories: an Anti-Archive
Group Exhibition, Curated by Medrar for Contemporary Art

“If you tasted it, it would first taste bitter,
Then briny, then surely burn your tongue.
It is like what we imagine knowledge to be:
dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free,
drawn from the cold hard mouth
of the world, derived from the rocky breasts
forever, flowing and drawn, and since
our knowledge is historical, flowing, and flown.” (p. 66).

Elizabeth Bishop’s (1983) “At the Fishhouses”

As the post-digital age reshapes our memory, characterized by the rapid consumption and production of information, Durational Memories: An Anti-Archive advocates for a more contemplative and reflective engagement with archival materials. The exhibition probes the connections between personal and collective memory, cultural identity, and the shifting perceptions of time.

Anti-Archive or Counter-Archive?

At its core, the exhibition interrogates the collective presence and relationships among the artworks, engaging with their cultural contexts and inviting viewers to reflect on how these relationships are constructed and remembered. The diverse range of works, created over the past decade, embodies an “anti-archive” approach, critiquing the limitations of conventional archival methods and proposing alternative ways of preserving and interpreting cultural histories.

Each work contributes to a broader dialogue on how we remember art and its role within our collective consciousness. By examining the temporal relationship between the artworks and their creation, the exhibition highlights the dissonance between the past and present, urging viewers to consider how archives might be remembered—or forgotten—over time.

The works form a small collection within the exhibition, exemplifying the practice of curating and archiving contemporary art. This approach not only reflects on how collections are constructed but also on their contribution to the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage and art practices.

Opening: Tuesday 17 September, 7 PM. The exhibition is open daily from 4pm to 10pm

Address: Goethe Institute, 5 Al Bustan St, Downtown, Cairo

Medrar announces “Earth, Birds, and Metal Dragons”
Exhibition by Amr El Kafrawy

As a documentary and analytical act of representing urban expansion, referencing its impact on local communities, “Earth, Birds, and Metal Dragons” addresses the emerging geographies and relationships generated by current economic, socio-political structures which shape our urban infrastructure and environments. This is especially evident in the Delta region, where the expansion is clearly demarcated by the intersection of urban areas with agricultural lands.

The exhibition explores a range of contemporary responses to the city, transcending visual boundaries by penetrating and deconstructing spaces. A focus on fragmenting perception permeates the works, where overlapping images and distorted spaces evoke scenes of devoid fixed horizons. 

Textual interventions of Elkafrawy’s own poetic phrases further transforms the spaces into a contemplative state closely intertwining nature and urbanism offering a more philosophical reflection.

Using digital maps as raw materials and a primary resource, Elkafrawy captures the urban expansion of Egypt’s Delta region. He employs laser printers and powders on specially textured recycled paper, reflecting the complexities of the ongoing changes in these areas.

The exhibition opens on Sunday, September 15th, at 7:00 PM at Medrar

and runs until Thursday, October 3rd, 2024, from 4 – 9 pm except Fridays in Medrar.

Medrar announces its group exhibition, “Pattern Recognition”. The exhibition reflects on everyday social struggles, gathering a diverse group of artists whose works explore the concepts of chance, improvisation, and abstract symbolic systems. Focusing on the intricate and unseen patterns that shape our daily lives, the exhibition transforms the familiar into the unfamiliar, providing a deeper understanding of how our individual lives intersect with larger patterns that define our collective existence.

The exhibition opens on Sunday, June 30th at 7:00 PM at Medrar

and runs until Thursday, July 25th, 2024, from 4 – 9 pm except Fridays in Medrar.

Address: Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahsen, Garden City, Cairo.

We are pleased to announce “Sarcastic Facts”

Exhibition by Nour Elglaly

“Sarcastic Facts” is an exhibition at Medrar by Nour ELGlaly, presenting a multifaceted experience that integrates elements of humor and satire, confronting traditional narratives and challenging social norms, and exploring various scenes within the fabric of contemporary society.

Nour creates hybrid elements resembling cartoon characters by fusing human and animal bodies. His artistic practice focuses on the element of movement, creating experimental virtual realities to highlight temporal differences. drawing inspiration from complex characters from his own world. He presents a different perspective, highlighting his vision on issues of contemporary society, creating space for reconsideration of subjects intersecting with power dynamics, cultural norms, and contradictions in our reality.

The exhibition opens on Wednesday, May 15th, at 7:00 PM at Medrar

and runs until Monday, June 3rd, 2024, from 4 – 9 pm except Fridays in Medrar.

We are pleased to announce Radical Echoes: Motherhood, undergrowth, and Shelter

Exhibition by Alaa Ayman, Mariam Soliman, and Mariam Fayek

In Radical Echoes, three artists—Alaa Ayman, Mariam Soliman, and Mariam Fayek—explore creating some sort of visual narratives touching on themes of the undergrowth, motherhood, and shelter. Their aim is to chase passing moments that remain frozen in time, transcending temporal boundaries. They weave together threads of complex memories, significant events, and the profound journey of womanhood, drawing from personal experiences.

As Alaa gathers tales, random stories, and memories from her collection of photographs and videos, she finds inspiration in tracing her own thoughts, depicting and recreating them as a form of self-expression. While Mariam Soliman documents her exotic perspective on the concept of tribe or family, and the public happenings, with a sarcastic tendency. As for Mariam Fayek, she embodies her personal experience of the journey of motherhood and its altered emotions, exploring the notion of the body through various mediums.

The exhibition opens on Sunday, February 18th, 2024, from 7 – 9 PM at Medrar

and runs until Sunday, March 10th, 2024, from 4 – 9 pm except Fridays in Medrar.

About Self, Memory, and Body
By Aya Gamil & Mariem Abu Taleb

Memory is not a recording device; it’s an active reconstruction process influenced by our beliefs and experiences” Daniel Schakter

‘Thorny Edges’ is an exhibition by Aya Gamil and Mariem Abu Taleb, held in Medrar, where each artist shares her own unique experience. The exhibition attempts to embody both collective and independent interpretations in their work to raise questions about the concepts of self, memory, and body.

Through a complex, vague, and dystopian universe, Aya Gamil questions the notion of the body. Drawn from her own memories and the power dynamics between personal and public events, as well as plants, objects, and probably dreams and fantasies implicated with dreadful spaces related to wars and conflicts, and a gloomy and cruel visualization of the present and future. While Mariem Abu Taleb creates an abstract monochromatic personal journal in geometric structures using her own reproduction of Arabic letters and calligraphy, she challenges the traditional art of Arabic calligraphy, which is often associated with sacred artistic and cultural significance, to a transformed realm that interacts with cognitive concepts such as narrative and digression.

The exhibition opens on Monday, January 22, 2024, at 7 pm and runs until Monday, February 11 in Medrar.

“Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs. True professionals establish a bank.” Bertolt Brecht’s phrase is the conducting line to reflect on the Lebanese situation at the moment. In the year 2022, the country’s situation is on the brink of collapse, having already resulted in more than 20 bank heists across the nation. Through assembling interviews with depositors Sally Hafiz, Bassam El-Sheikh, Abdallah El-Saii, and critical theorist Nadia Bou Ali, along with extensive image research and TV material, the project aims to explore and make sense of the surreal circumstances that have taken hold.
The multi-format project explores the ongoing aftermath of the 2019 financial crisis, how violence is a fundamental part of the system we live in, and how historical corruption has led to the absence of the state and its substitution by the NGOs in all services.

Opening night, on Tuesday, January 9th at 7 PM at Medrar
The exhibition is open on January 10th and 11th from 4 – 9 PM

About, from and to Palestine

Missile, Parties, Occupation, Nation, Internal Affairs, Hamas, Front, Escalation, Gaza, Locations, border strip, dust, Al Qassam, Haifa, confrontations, rubble, liberation, clashes, Retreat, Israel, fusion, retrieval, Al-Aqsa, camp, crossing, Al-Shifa, map, bursts, Conviction, Sector, Martyrs, Shelling, Cannons, Olive District, North, Fire, Incursion Tel Aviv, alliance, safe passage, raids, plaza, dust, explosion, banner Jenin, fighters, tanks, Jabalia, Phosphor, dead, aircraft, soldiers, water, march wounded, injured, rebellion, Al-Guds, damage, bombs, smoke, Al-Zaytoun, children,West bank, artillery, Enemy, Pieces, Destruction, Warning, Yarmouk, Rubble, Rafah, Family, Fall, Breaking, Tunnels, Demonstrations, Attack, Warning, Siege, Al-Shgaeiaa, Cover, Palestine, Rulers, evacuation, intensifying, white flag, blood, Zionists, weapon, appeals, America, targeting, Hospital, force, inland, Resistance, War, Civilians, Infiltration, Salah El-din, Aggression, hostages, massacres, freedom, displacement, fuel, Khan Younis, missing, factions.

“Missile” is a group exhibition held at Medrar, featuring the artworks of several artists and designers who want to show their solidarity with occupied Palestine. A percentage of the exhibition’s income will be returned as a symbolic contribution to the victims of the aggression in Gaza.

Artists: 

• Ahmed Mohamed Hussein
• Ahmed Zidan
• Ahmed Badr
• Amir Abdelghani
• Osama Ehab
• Ahmed Tawfiq
• Ahmed Yazzer
• Amira Khalil
• Ehab Ehab
• Engy Mohsen
• Mohamed Abdelkreem 
• Soukina Goal
• Bashier Asalieh
• Bahman Eslami
• Gian Spina
• George Deeb
• Ganzeer
• Khaled Al-Wakil
• Rania Ezzat
• Rodeina Fouad
• Abdool
• Omar Gabr
• Abdelrahman Allam
• Ali Zarey
• Kinda Ghannom
• Muhammad Elmahdy
• Mariem Abutaleb
• Mohamed El- Maghraby
• Marwan Sabra
• Mostafa Saifoon
• Mona Essam El-Din
• Mona Khaliel
• Shaimaa Elhussieny
• Hani Rashed
• Hager Elsayed
• Heba Tarek
• Huda Lutfi
• Yarrah Yasser
• Youmna Noah

Special thanks to artist Rania Ezzat for contributing to the exhibition’s idea.