Updates on Culture in Action

Kader Attia will sadly no longer be part of the panel discussion, Culture in Action, taking place at the European Culture Congress in Wroclaw. But the panel's moderator, Witold Szablowski, has prepared some interesting topics for us to tackle, ranging from what happened to Polish art after the Polish revolution, around 1989, to the necessity of art in revolutionary contexts, to the rol of new technologies and web societies in revolution-making today.

Should be interesting.

+I Shelving System

Here's a series of bad photographs of a prototype of a shelving system I designed for my own work space. I call it... +I.

It's comprised of two core units; one shaped like a "+" and the other an "I".

Depending on your book load, you can decide how deep to hinge the two shapes into each other.

And you can lay them vertically or horizontally. And if you have several of the units, you can create a variety of combinations with them.

And then fill them with books and other objects (in my case: toys) accordingly.

Happy Eid From Me To You

Created using a preliminary work-in-progress version of the forthcoming Shasha Font.

Enjoy Eid Holidays

The usual season greetings for Ebony & Ivory, created in collaboration with Mohammed Said.

Revolutionary Streets

Yet another article on Egyptian street art. This one by Mehri Khalil for Fnewsmagazine.com, a web magazine associated with the Art Institute of Chicago.

Excerpt:

"One of the pieces that became well known is a boy on a bicycle. The boy is carrying a tray of bread, a scene that we often see in Cairo. Only here, he is opposed by a life sized tank. Next to this scene is a painting of a black and white panda. The symbol of a street artist who operates under the name “Sad Panda,” this depressed, political animal is present on lots of walls around the city (it could possibly be a visual reference to a series of infamous commercials in Egypt for Panda brand cheese, which featured an angry Panda knocking over the cart of a family who refused to buy his brand)."

The Revolution Will Be Painted

I just came across this article on Cairo street-art on a website called Rabble.ca. Posted back on June 17, it's still an interesting read. Here's a little snippet:

"Ganzeer has also been much more direct in criticizing the regime, with this mural -- "the people want to bring down regime lovers." The work (see the original here) features Mubarak arm in arm with Tantawi, the culture minister, and future presidential candidate Amr Moussa -- a visual depiction of the continuity of the Mubarak regime that the revolution has yet to change. No sooner had this appeared that it was defaced. "

Interview on Mideastcollective

Mideastcollective.blogspot.com recently conducted a short little interview with me on street art. Read it here.

Autostrade #1 Cover

I created this wrap around cover for the freshly launched first issue of Egyptian comic book anthology Autostrade.

The cover, which was intended as a general celebration of comics - the idea of comics - has nothing at all whatsoever to do with the content of this issue, which I honestly have very strong reservations against, and as a consumer feel the cover is far too detached from the content. This, I plan on getting into in a proper review I intend on writing and putting up on Rolling Bulb soon.

European Culture Congress, September 8-11

I never thought the day would come when I would be on the same list with the likes of Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, and Andrzej Wajda! But it's actually here. What list am I talking about? Ah, well: This list.

It's the list of participants in what is called the European Culture Congress, which is basically four days jammed with non-stop cultural activities; exhibitions, discussions, films, music, and theatre in the beautiful Polish city of Wroclaw (pronounced Vrotswav).

But what does any of that have to do with me, right?

Well, I've been invited to partake in a little panel discussion under the title Culture in Action. The panel discussion is to take place together with Guy Sorman, Kader Attia, and Rachida Triki. Sorman, a French intellectual in his late 60's and author of numerous books, claims that the current changes in North Africa is due to the growing level of education and "westernization" brought about by the Internet and new media. Although I could never deny the benefits brought about by the Internet and new media, I can't say I entirely agree with Sorman.

And it'll also be interesting to hear Rachida and Kader's, accomplished art-critic and artist respectively, take on the issue. Rachida being based in Tunis, bringing her thoughts and experiences regarding the Tunisian front, and Kader as an Algerian born artist, dealing mostly with the themes of "cross-cultural conflict".

Ramadan Kareem for Ebony & Ivory

This season's greetings for Ebony & Ivory is a collaborative effort between Mohammed Said, Ebony & Ivory's founder, and myself.

Ganzeer's Guest Frame - Part 1

After moving into my new Mounira home studio, I decided to create a documentation of my visitors, and who better to start with than some of the people who helped in making Mad Graffiti Weekend possible. I set up what I call "The Guest Frame," which is a printed frame taped onto the wall, courtesy of Droog, and I started with these guys:

Mikkawi

El Keng

Mohammed Saleh

Mustafa

Hossam

Boghdady

Myself

The Mask of Freedom

On the 26th of May, I was going about the city fly-posting this sticker:

Here's an English version of the sticker for non-Arabic speakers:

And after some demand from some activists in Brazil, I created a Brazil-tailored version here:

The fly-posting of the original Arabic sticker around Cairo led to a short-lived detention by Egyptian military police, which I wrote about in detail in an article on Rolling Bulb, an art & politics web-magazine I started a while back.

The sticker in public. Photo by Aida El Kashef.

Wherever the sticker is placed, it is almost systematically ripped off.

The sticker on someone's backpack at an anti-military-prosecution protest a few days after my detention.

Side note: Rolling Bulb is seeking contributors.

A Soldier's Dance

A few days after Mad Graffiti Weekend, I went out to create a little public intervention, that my friend Aida El Kashef brilliantly documented and edited into this sweet little short video:

And here are a couple of great stills by Aida as well: