We announce «Urgent Thoughts», a series of ongoing meetings organised in collaboration with ASCII program, scheduled to take place every other Saturday starting in July 2025. The program offers a space for the presentation and simplified exploration of a theoretical idea that may hold significance for its connection to the creative practices of young artists in Egypt today.

The series focuses on raising questions and fostering collective discussions around concepts that probe the relationship between knowledge and practice. It examines connections that might expand both artistic and learning experiences. Urgent Thoughts also offers brief introductions to experimental strategies for learning beyond the framework of the school or teacher, while reflecting on the foundations of a cultural structure that supports the artist as an active and influential figure in contemporary society

We announce the first session of “Urgent Thoughts” titled “Statement in Drawing”

This session invites reflection on drawing as a medium traditionally associated with documentation processes, its historical connection to scientific research, intellectual inquiry, and the presentation of knowledge in its various forms. It also explores drawing’s role as a key inspiration for the imagination of the contemporary creator.

«Through bridging physical and virtual reality, I create an alternative environment that offers new ways of understanding social and political narratives that intersect with or challenge official and traditional ones. New media art practices, particularly video games as an art form, provide a space for expression and critical inquiry into subjects ranging from pure aesthetics to contemporary geopolitics.»

As part of the Dossier program, Ahmed El Shaer presents a selection of his projects that explore video games as an artistic medium and extended reality. The talk opens a space for discussion on these practices, tracing their intersections with artistic, social, and political concerns, as well as questions of production and reception in different contexts.

Join us on Wednesday, 12th of March 2025, at 9 PM in Medrar.

Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahsen, 8th floor, Garden City, Cairo.

The second event of the “Dossier” presents an artist talk with Marwa Benhalim, offering a closer look into her artistic practice and the concepts that drive her work. The discussion focuses on the intersections of her roles as both an artist and curator, and how this duality is reflected in her projects and different collaborations.

Join us on Thursday 27th of February 2025 at 7 PM in Medrar.

As part of Medrar’s program in its twentieth year, Dossier presents a series of events, discussions, and talks addressing topics related to the local art scene, contemporary art in Egypt, independent institutions, and alternative practices.

The first event of “Dossier” is a discussion with Ismail Fayed as part of his research project on the history of contemporary art in Egypt from 2000 to 2022. The discussion will explore documentation and writing on contemporary Egyptian art, Medrar’s ongoing programs related to archiving, and the challenges surrounding critical discourse and accessibility.

Join us on Wednesday, 19th of February 2025, 7 PM at Medrar.

Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahsen, 8th floor, Garden City, Cairo.

Vanishing Traces: Reflections on the Digital Archive and the History of Contemporary Art. A discussion panel by the writer Ismail Fayed. 

As part of the public discussion program of the research project “Against All Odds: Towards a History of Contemporary Art in Egypt (2000-2022)”, the second event of the program comes in collaboration with Medrar for Contemporary Art to invite those interested and concerned with the history of contemporary visual art to discuss the role and meaning of the digital archive as a space for memory but also forgetting. The contemporary art scene emerged at the beginning of the millennium and was formed and engaged with a digital infrastructure of image and text that played a fundamental role in developing this scene and its practices, and this was also reflected in the ways in which these practices were received and disseminated, as well as remembered. It can be said that many of those involved in contemporary practices used digital means and tools in various ways, even if their practices were not concerned with specific digital mediums or with direct questions about digital media. Reliance on these digital mediums or structures has become self-evident and largely unquestioned. This was reflected in the methods of communication (starting with email and going on to social media) as well as the spaces for publishing and expression (electronic journalism, blogs, social media platforms, etc.) and this digital structure became an integral part of the presence of that scene and the ways of dealing with it despite the fragility of the digital medium and its seemingly inevitable disappearance. After more than twenty years of many institutions and spaces working in this scene and the “fading” and disappearance of many of those digital traces and their content, the question becomes what kind of archive can be imagined with that vanishing? What is the collective memory that can be saved or formed with this absence? And in the event that it is impossible to save that presence or this content, what kind of dialogue can we talk about as witnesses and agents? The discussion panel invites all those interested in the history of contemporary visual art to share their concerns, hopes, and aspirations and to think about an alternative archive or memory that goes beyond vanishing traces.

Join us on Thursday, November 21 1st, 2024, at 7 PM at Medrar

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

Join us on Sunday, November 17th, at 7 p.m. for an engaging art talk with artist Aïda Schweitzer at Medrar for Contemporary Art!

As the artist-in-residence at Out Of The Circle, Aïda Schweitzer will share her journey with textiles and her art research in Egypt. She delves into the rich heritage of Egyptian textile patterns and techniques, blending tradition with technology. Her project experiments with ancestral embroidery, integrating AI-generated visuals to create a new artistic language. This research opens a unique dialogue: will AI become a tool, a hybrid creative partner, or an independent entity in her process?

Since 2009, Aïda has exhibited widely across Europe, including at Nosbaum Reding Project Gallery and the Venice Biennale. Now, she brings her skills into an experimental laboratory, redefining textile art for contemporary audiences.

AIR supported by Kulturlx Arts Council Luxembourg

Address: Medrar, 10 Gamal Eldin Abo ElMahsen, Garden City, Cairo.
Note: The art talk will be held in English.

Photo: I am back on my land by Aïda Schweitzer (Deconstructed lines, an image of traditional Egyptian motifs reinterpreted by AI and the artist — 80×80 Embroideries on linen, 2024).

Join us tomorrow for an artist talk with Photini Papahatzi at 7:00 PM, where she will share her experiences during her residency in Cairo. Photini explores her family’s roots in Egypt by mapping the traces they left during the 20th century. Her artistic practice incorporates photography, documentation, and narrative storytelling, addressing themes of migration, memory, identity, and the body.

The discussion will be conducted in English as part of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s ALFinMOTION Mobility program, supported by the European Union, in collaboration with the Sekoun Residency Program.

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

Photo courtesy of Photini Papahatzi’s personal archive.

We invite you to attend “Where The Banyan Tree Meets The Nile,” a Multimedia Installation and Artist Talk by our artist-in-residence, Roshan Ganu, on Thursday, 21st of December at 7 pm at Medrar for Contemporary Art.

Native to the Indian subcontinent, a Banyan Tree grows in the heart of Zamalek in Cairo. Its roots were carried to Egypt from India by Khedive Ismail in 1868. Originally from Goa, India, currently living in the United States, and now traveling in Egypt, the Banyan Tree forms a metaphor for immigrant people such as the artist, Roshan Ganu. She says, “When we carry our roots with us, how do we instill a sense of belonging in a new land? What happens when the Banyan Tree meets the River Nile?” Through immersive projection, sound, and darkness, Ganu welcomes the viewer into a place of narrative reflection and the feeling of being itinerant.

At the Artist Talk, Ganu will share her experiences being an immigrant person, addressing the circumstances of aloneness and longing this identity brings. Through her work she proposes a perspective, “Can narrative mythology and storytelling become an alternative way of building a sense of place and home around us when we are confronted by a new land?’