Second Comics Week in Egypt – Exhibition by Swiss artist Barbara Mauli

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Second Comics Week in Egypt
Exhibition by Swiss artist Barbara Mauli

Opening 3 February 2015 7 p.m.
The exhibition lasts from 3 to 7 November 2015.

Exhibit daily from 3pm to 9pm except Friday

Medrar will host at 7pm next Monday 2 November 2015 the opening of the second edition of “Comics Week in Egypt” which this year sees entries from Switzerland, England, Germany, and the United States as well as extensive entries by Egyptian artists.

The organization of “Sefsafa” for the second cycle of COMICS Week is part of the Foundation’s attempt to publicize this area and promote the exchange of experiences between Egyptians and Europeans on the one hand, and Egyptian artists and some others on the other, as well as the most important challenges facing COMICS art in Egypt and the prospects it presents for young people.

This week was chosen as the “art of comics and freedom of expression”, where one cannot live without the other.

This year’s cycle includes two training workshops for amateurs and professionals, two round tables on the art of “comics and freedom of expression”, one on “Independent publishing in comics”, an exhibition by artist Barbara Moyle (Switzerland) and another exhibition compiled by a number of Egyptian artists.

Egyptian artist Khaled al-Safati will be honored on the closing day for his pioneering role in promoting the field of comics in Egypt.

ROZNAMA 4

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Medrar for Contemporary Art in collaboration with Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) presents
 Roznama 4 
Visual Arts Competition & Exhibition from Egypt
5 September  – 5 October 2015

Vacation: from Saturday 19 until Sunday 27 September

Opening:
Saturday 5 September, 7pm, Medrar
Sunday 6 September, 7pm, CIC
Daily, from 3pm until 9pm, except Fridays

Awards Ceremony:
Thursday 17 September, 7pm, Medrar.

Roznama is an annual competition and exhibition for contemporary visual arts, organized by Medrar for Contemporary Art and – this year’s edition – in collaboration with Contemporary Image Collective.
A platform for the full spectrum of visual art mediums, ranging from the traditional to the most experimental, Roznama showcases the latest and most notable video art, digital art, photography, graphic art, painting, sculpture, ceramics, installations and mixed media creations by young and emerging Egyptian artists under 30 years old.
Competition prizes are offered by the British Council, Ismaelia company for Real Estate Investment, the Townhouse Gallery, CIC, Alwan Stationary, and artists Adel El Siwi, Ahmed El Askalani, Hala El Koussy, Hany Rashed, Huda Lutfi and Mohamed Abla.

The Good, the Bad and the Crimson Shoe 

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 An Exhibition of Drawings by Maghraby & Tawfig 
I always see objects under the microscope to understand what they are, but what If I put the crimson shoe under the microscope? Salma said.
Salma’s use of the microscope is purely for informational purposes; the microscope is sort of an eye that Salma sees through… sees the reality of things around her.
Whenever Salma puts an object under the microscope … fines lines appear … and form a structural creation … in an unregulated mechanical movement. Salma sat for days looking through the microscope… observing the structural creation .. that constantly changes.
The Crimson Shoe was the only object she never put under the microscope, as all she had was an old painting of the shoe and not the shoe itself.
Salma went to the shoe maker with the painting of the shoe.
How do you have this painting? The shoe maker asked
So you have the Crimson Shoe? Salma said
Yes, the shoe maker replied.
Salma quickly took the shoe…put it under the microscope…and a serial number appears: 10426003850620… Salma looks up and wanders what these numbers are.

 The Good, the Bad and the Crimson Shoe 
Opening: 2 August 2015, 7pm
Exhibition runs through 20 August 2015
Daily from 3pm until 9pm, except Friday
Address: 7 Gamal El Din Abou El Mahasen, 1st floor, Apt 4, Garden City

Exhibition – Hello, I’m an artist

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On the occasion of launching the fourth edition of Roznama competition and exhibition for visual arts, Medrar celebrates the winner of the last edition, by presenting “Hello, I’m an artist”, Sara Nabil’s first solo exhibition.

At “Beirut”, a contemporary art centre located in Cairo, I met and talked with the assistant curator, a graduate of Fine Arts of the American University in Cairo, of the space and her advice to me was to always introduce myself… to shake hands like this … and to say I am … and I do … that I cannot just make art and neglect this part.

Sara Nabil introduces herself and her artistic project through her first solo exhibition “Hello, I’m an artist” where she presents some personal experiences using different artistic mediums, including photography, drawing, painting, installation and video. In general, her work touches upon 3 main issues: the instinct to colour which drove her to study art at a young age, the relation between art and the public, and contemporary art vs. romanticism.   

Opening: Tuesday 2 June 2015 at 7pm

through 16 June 2015.

Daily from 3 pm to 9 pm, except Friday.

Address: 7 Gamal El Din Abou El Mahasen St., 1st floor, apt. 4, Garden City, Cairo

This exhibition is one of Medrar’s prizes for Roznama 3.

Exhibition – Chocolate Bar of the Future

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Roznama 3 comes to an end, yet not before we celebrate the winners of last year’s edition. Medrar for Contemporary Art is delighted to present Chocolate Bar of the Future, the first solo exhibition by artist Hend Samir.

Hend’s artwork takes a critical view of modern consumerism, individuals’ shopping habits and the role of advertising in manipulating consumer behavior.

Chocolate Bar of the Future emulates the visual and sentimental experiences of shopping, with a collection of paintings based on manipulation of photos and magazine advertisements. The vivid colours of her artwork establish a dream-like surreal quality, suggest excitement, self actualization, and quite often solace.    

Her works have also been exhibited at the Mattress Factory Museum in USA and at Supermarket art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden.

Opening: Sunday 10 May 2015 at 7pm

through 24 May 2015.

Daily from 3 pm to 9 pm, except Friday.

Address: 7 Gamal El Din Abou El Mahasen St., 1st floor, apt. 4, Garden City, Cairo

This exhibition is one of Medrar’s award for Roznama 3.

Roznama 4 will kick off soon, so stay tuned!  

EXHIBITION – NAEMA’S OFFICE IS BLEEDING

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Medrar is happy to present “Naema’s Office is Bleeding”, an exhibition of the output of a painting and collage workshop by artist Hany Rashed.

The Exhibition will run for 3 days, from 4 to 6 May 2015 at Medrar.
The Exhibition includes works that have been developed
and produced during the workshop, under the mentorship of artist Hany Rashed.

Medrar would like to thank the guest artists: Huda Lotfy, Mohammed Taman, Shady El Noshokaty, Mohamed Abla, Ahmed Sabry for their generous contribution to the workshop.

Exhibition -The provisionary that lasts

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Opening Tuesday 9 December 2014, 7 p.m  

The exhibition from 9 December 2014 to 6 January 2015,the exhibition has been extended, and will show until January 29, except Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 23rd, 24th, 25th January. 
Daily from 3 p.m to 9 p.m, Except Fridays

Badry shows his series of sculptures and illustrated drawing as a proposal for objects that recover usefulness as much as possible, as a sort of provisionary design movement. Badry’s objects, however, will not be helpful, because his objects are made with useless and non-functional materials; papers and cardboard. his objects are not there to play a role in a socially engaged practice; rather, they operate as a pair of spectacles, which he uses to frame, and focus on, social and political issues dealing with several phenomena – questioning the ability of the global system and corporatization, objects and instruments of daily life to become a paradigm of normalization.

the internet is full of images from plenty of people who can only resemble the manipulation system – they do not exist inside of it: they reproduce the everyday useful objects in another frame, where provisional innovations act as optimal solutions in order to be out of the system. They demonstrate unique methods of composition, precariously reproducing the regular machines, tools and instruments as a means of creating their own ones. In turn, Badry reproduces their innovations as totally useless in respect of their size and materials – as monument: hailing contingency.

Text: Mohamed Abdelkarim
Poster Design: Amr Elkafrawy
This exhibition would not have been possible without the help of many friends and artists

The Guide for Using Life

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An exhibition featuring all the artwork in “The Use of Life novel” by artist: Ayman Al-Zorkany Along with First book signing with the author: Ahmed Naji

A contemporary experimental by Ayman Al-Zorkany featuring the visual language used in the novel with all it’s diverse mediums, using shorthand and extending the material to take the audience through a unique visual experience, where the visual language is connected to the script in it’s structure and contradicting in it’s practices with the tools used in the same script to introduce what is more like a guide for using life.
accompanying the opening the first book signing for “Using Life” novel published by “Dar Al-Tanweer” and an interview with Ahmed Naji and Aymen Al-Zorkany

On the sideline of the exhibition, limited editions of Ayman’s work will be offered for sale along with other comic publications for “Dar Al-tanweer” (Marsoom)

Opening at Medrar for Contemporary Art will be from Monday 24th of November 2014, 7pm, and the exhibition will continue until Monday the 1st of December, all days of the week except Fridays, from 4 pm until 10 pm.

7 Gamal El Din Abou El Mahasen,
Garden Cit,
First Floor, Apt.4, Cairo, Egypt
Medrar Contact info/ Phone 02 27957714
Email info@medrar.org

ROZNAMA 3

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Roznama 3 

 Roznama 3 is a periodical competition and exhibition for contemporary visual art by young Egyptians 

From 12 October to 30 October 2014

Opening Sunday 12 October 2014, 8 pm

Daily from 4 to 10 pm, Closed Friday

The competition’s objective is to encourage creative contemporary art works, which are different from the orthodox forms taught at art academies. This is achieved through providing a space for experimentation, research, and mixed media and multimedia production. Roznama also takes interest in traditional art forms, such as painting, sculpting, and avant-garde photography. Roznama aspires to become a platform that presents distinguished art works, introducing artists from Egypt and supporting them by all possible means.

 Awards: 
Medrar for Contemporary Art would like to congratulate artists Hend Samir and Sara Nabil for the Roznama 3 Competition Award (Shared 1000 USD) and Solo exhibition at Medrar, While also congratulating Artists Marwa Adel Benhalim and Sherifa Hamed upon receiving the Jury Selection Certificate of Appreciation.

PROFIT | PROPHET

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The first offense: Kopernikus. The second offense: Darwin. The third offense: Freud himself. The fourth offense: ††. Habitually modest, team titanic invites to a two-part cooperation project with Medrar for Contemporary Art: PROFIT | PROPHET. The message is the message. A bi-urban, transcontinental exhibition- and performance-series.

Geminoid, quantified-self, object of consumerism, analysis and data. No new info: the body is more than the sum of its organs. However its surroundings are getting lighter: polypropylene, polyurethane, spandex, silicon, and 3(H)D scans are the materials of the sport and technology industries. Profit, much like biology, is based on selection and competition, investment and return. Profit is a little alchemist, that transfers immaterial goods (trust, speculation, time) to presentable formats (even more spandex, money, sculptures). CGI or synthetic organism: what difference does it make?

Prophecies are in itself not bound to the verifiable. Their messenger himself dispatches from the the non-verifiable omnipotence. Nonetheless, by utterance and medium, something concrete lies within this ‘immaterial forecast’. Prophecies exist in all religions and cultures, and fall within a long tradition in human society – not least in the economy. Mankind clings onto the prospects of tomorrow. Something vital (and mortal) yields from something as immaterial and inanimate as code.

The participating artists are asking questions of anonymity versus collectivism, (self-)marketing and future strategy, the visual and the virtual. It is a community, bound by and through local circumstances, asking similar questions. Ultimately, a condition, rather than the work, is at the fore: fleeting, dedicated to the process, and open. Before the spectator is after the spectator. This – an actual extension of the freudian triad – is the fourth offense. Less than ever, the works require on the observer or the artist as an individual with identity. This isn’t regrettable.

The title is to be understood as the basis of working together: by bringing together two cities, as the works of artists from Cairo and Berlin convene, exchange reaches a physical here and now. Prophet. The program, as a result of the encounter, can be seen as the prognosis of an already set future. Profit.

Come in and buy out.
Sincerely
Goldilocks, Cheeta & Schlomo
aka
††

SATURDAY, 20.09.2014 | 6 PM
Exhibition Opening with:
Ahmed Shoukry (Kairo),
Peter Feiler (Berlin),
Khaled Galaledeen (Kairo),
Anne-Sophie Kneer (Berlin),
Kareem Lotfy (Kairo),
Hanne Lippard (Berlin),
Pussykrew (Berlin),
Sarah Samy (Kairo),
Islam Shabana (Kairo),
Santiago Taccetti (Berlin),
Britta Thie (Berlin),
Helga Wretman (Berlin)

Performances by:
Quit Together (Kairo),
COCKPIT (Berlin),
Soda Plains (Berlin)

SUNDAY, 20.09.2014 | 6 PM 
Panel talk with:
Quit Together,
Medrar & team titanic

Exhibition – Visual Lab Rats

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Installations exhibition by Alaa Abdelhamid

Opening Wednesday, June 25th 2014, from 7 pm to 10 pm, till July 16th, 2014
Daily from 10 am to 9 pm, Except Fridays
Throughout the month of Ramadan from 12 pm to 5 pm
Address: 7 Gamal El Din Abou El Mahasen St. Garden City, First Floor, Cairo

/// Visual Lab rats ///
Long after cold wars have been deployed by regimes to assure their survival, such wars have become a contemporary reference for visual and audio media. Governments utilize this process to monitor their citizens. Furthermore, citizens are lured into cooperating with these systems by means of repetition, either through recurrent images or audio messages. Such messages are stored in the minds of the public. Results of such practices are variable from one person to the other, in accordance with his/her interests and degree of awareness. Accordingly, a person follows, rejects, or alters between different interpretations of the given information. However, he/she might have to resort to the toughest choice after all, which is self-doubt.

In this project, Alaa Abdelhamid attempts to incorporate the viewer and enable cross-visibility. This quality results from the pieces acquiring liveliness, which in return, alters the visual according to the surroundings. The project stems from Abd El-Hamid’s research on the rules of reflection, and ipso facto the perceived image.

1971, Sun Ra in Egypt

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by Tom Bogaert

May 15 to June 13, 2014
Saturday to Thursday from 5:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m.
Opening reception: Thursday May 15 at 7:00 p.m.

Please join us for the opening of Tom Bogaert’s “1971, Sun Ra in Egypt” including a special performance Dwarfs of East Agouza & Invisible Hands, that will pay tribute to Sun Ra’s music.

One hundred years after 1914, Medrar for Contemporary Art is celebrating Sun Ra’s birthday in a special exhibition. Bogaert’s “1971, Sun Ra in Egypt” is an ongoing research project based on the life and work of Sun Ra – the legendary American jazz pioneer, mystic, poet, and philosopher. The project exists as a series of performances, lectures, installations, videos, art objects, and a related publication and it takes as its starting point Sun Ra’s 1971 visit to Egypt.

Besides Bogaret’s art works, the exhibition will also feature a make-shift museum for Sun Ra, which includes books written about him, his records, and other objects.

Sun Ra (1914-1992), born in Alabama in the United States, was a legendary jazz pioneer, mystic, poet and philosopher. Born as Herman Poole Blount, he changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra after a visionary experience that led him to believe he came from the planet Saturn. From this point on Sun Ra was fascinated by both outer space and ancient Egypt. His incorporation of the Egyptian sun god Ra into his name was the first of many invocations of ancient Egypt’s culture and beliefs. Sun Ra was famous for his music as much as his eccentricity with his unique sonic productions that reflected a myriad of approaches and inspirations. From the mid-1950s until his death in 1993, Sun Ra led a band called “The Arkestra”, which continues to perform its eccentric mix of free jazz, bop, and electronic music under the leadership of Marshall Allen.

This project is supported by the Flemish authorities, Embassy of Belgium in Egypt and Roberto Cimetta Fund.

1971, Sun Ra in Egypt

Event Details

’1971, Sun Ra in Egypt’ opens on Thursday 15 May at 7pm.

The exhibition is ongoing Sunday to Thursday until 13 June 2014.
Opening hours: 10am – 5pm

7 Gamal El Din Abou El Mahasen Street, Garden City, 1st Floor, Cairo, Egypt