CAIRO – Last week, Art d’Egypte opened its annual exhibition of contemporary art. While the organization has made a name for itself since its founding in 2016 with exhibitions staged near historic sites within Cairo, this year’s show is the first to take place at the most famous of Egypt’s treasures – the Pyramids of Giza.
As reported in Artnet, the process of bringing contemporary art to the Pyramids was a years-long task. Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, Art d’Egypte’s founder, explains that the authorities in Egypt saw the pyramids as a heritage site and had no interest in contemporary art. Ultimately the exhibition is taking place with the help of Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and UNESCO. “We changed people’s mentality,” Ghaffar said, “and now they actually say that the art makes these ancient walls speak.”
The exhibition includes artists from around the world. A press release named artists from Russia, the United States, Brazil, France, Italy, Egypt, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia, the latter a member of the Saudi royal family.
The strangest of the artists involved is undoubtedly Ai-Da, an art-making robot that was detained by the Egyptian authorities for ten days for fear that the cameras in her eyes would be used for spycraft. “Let’s be really clear about this. She is not a spy,” said Aiden Miller, an English art dealer and Ai-Da’s creator, to The Guardian. “People fear robots, I understand that. But the whole situation is ironic, because the goal of Ai-Da was to highlight and warn of the abuse of technological development, and she’s being held because she is technology.” Ai-Da was eventually released from custody and both the robot and her artwork were represented in the show.
Ai-da was not the only artist whose work took some effort to put on display. Simon Watson, one of the event’s curators, described the process as “a waltz between the artists and the bureaucrats.” But with this exhibition now open, Watson believes visitors will find an entirely new way to experience the Pyramids. “People will be asked to think about the themes there through a new lens.”
JR’s Greetings from Giza at the 2021 exhibition Forever is Now [Art d’Egypte]
Many of the works on display interact with their scenery in some way. Some are cheeky send-ups of Egyptian tourism, such as the French artist JR’s Greetings from Giza, a billboard-like sculpture that, when viewed straight on, seems to replace the peak of a pyramid with a postcard of the same sight – except with the top of the pyramid floating, disconnected, in mid-air.
The Brazilian artist João Trevisan, on the other hand, contributed Body That Rises, a seven-meter tall structure built of railroad ties and other scrap pieces. “The piece is designed for the Giza plateau, and I’d like viewers to imagine that the shape echoes the framework of a large obelisk pointing skyward,” Trevisan said, as reported by The National News. The crate-like structure brings to mind the relentless pilfering of Egyptian antiquities by European colonizers, which today still fill the halls of institutions like the British Museum.
Moataz Nasr’s Barzakh, from the 2021 exhibition Forever is Now [Art d’Egypte]
The exhibition includes two Egyptian-born artists, Moataz Nasr and Sherin Guirguis. Nasr’s piece is Barzakh, which can mean “divide” or “barrier,” or even “purgatory.” Nasr himself describes the word as a “mental construct, an intangible entity that is understood but not witnessed, known but not realised.” The sculpture appears to be constructed out of oars standing together to form a triangular passageway, a form inspired by the boats that carried the souls of the pharaohs to the afterlife.
Guirguis, who was born in Luxor but now lives in Los Angeles, contributed Here I Have Returned, a geometric sculpture she says is inspired both by ancient queens and by the feminist movement that made great advances for Egyptian women in the 1950s. Like Greetings from Giza, Here I Have Returned interacts with the pyramids when viewed from a certain angle, emphasizing the golden ratio of their peaks.
Guirguis’s message is particularly relevant for Art d’Egypte, since the team behind this project is made entirely of women. The organization’s goal is to bring more attention to contemporary Egyptian art and to bring Egyptian artists to the international stage. Their previous exhibitions include “Eternal Light at the Egyptian Museum” in 2017, “Nothing Vanishes, Everything Transforms at the Manial Palace” in 2018, and “Reimagined Narratives on al-Mu‘izz Street” in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
João Trevisan’s “Body That Rises,” from the 2021 exhibition Forever is Now [Art d’Egypte]
During the pandemic, Art d’Egypte has also produced a number of educational programs and virtual exhibitions, including arts education aimed at a younger audience. Just before the opening of Forever is Now, the organization held installations in 12 locations in downtown Cairo, a project they called the Cairo International Art District. CIAD closes on October 27th, just slightly overlapping with Forever is Now.
“The Pyramids have a long, illustrious history of extraordinary kind that has fascinated and inspired artists from all over the world,” said Ghaffar in Art d’Egypte’s press release. “I’m thrilled to share what will be an unforgettable encounter with the union of art, history, and heritage.”
The exhibition opened on October 21st and will continue for three weeks before closing on November 7th.
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