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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Supplement Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Books better than walls
LIVELY and well worth a visit are the two collections of modern Italian graphic work currently on show in Zamalek: one of works by Melotti, Vedova, Santomaso and Consagra at the Italian Cultural Institute; the other, titled 50 Years of Sports by Ottorino Mancioli at the Centre of Arts (see Listings). Graphic artists, at the very roots of all the visual arts, are usually overlooked in this century. In the scramble for space, light, and constructional excesses, it is nice to see the more intimate side of the big gallery scene. These five Italian graphic artists are draughtsmen in the older tradition. Santomaso and Vedova offer in their linear creations memories of distant surrealist and romantic attitudes which have partly lost their validity. Vedova, especially, has elegance and a fine touch as a graphic illustrator almost equal to the young De Chirico who influenced the work of all four artists on show. The impact they had on book illustration and theatrical decor has been long lasting. And for a vision of how the human body in motion can be sheer power, there is Mancioli.
Nathaniel lusting and grieving Remembering Thais
JULES Massenet, one of France's best opera composers, had a weakness for tall, blonde American girls -- catwalk types. He found his dream, an immense six-foot soprano called Sybil Sanderson, and wrote a few beautiful operas for her, gifts to her long, brilliant voice and pulchritudinous manner on stage.
Thais is a gem of French opera, both grand and pure, about the impure. Its about a couple who meet and fall in love in a very decadent Alexandria -- he, a defrocked monk, baritone, she, Thais, a call girl. It is a tale well told about the lust of the flesh, the body and the golden life versus God and the spiritual one. He prefers the body, and she prefers God. After a tumultuous affair, Thais slides beautifully to eternity leaving Nathaniel, the hero, to plunge into the terrors of the world of the flesh.
The Cairo Opera's production last year was the triumph of work over years of struggle and speculation. It was beautiful to look at and listen to. Iman Mostafa will repeat her greatest performance yet as the heroine. It is an opportunity to hear French opera in its proper style. Melodrama, glamour and, at the end, tears, as the genuinely affecting character of Thais departs for immortality.
Thais opens at Cairo Opera next Saturday until 30 May.
Femmes fatales and existential angst
YOUSSEF Nabil's photographs may be best described as adult fairy tales, woven out of the stuff dreams are made of, revolving around fear and desire. Oozing with a neatness that only glamour can justify, each of the meticulously hand-coloured photographs is a window opening onto an impossibly calm and symmetrical world.
The titles of the works inscribed in the exhibition catalogue reveal the identity of the models, as if to anchor their dream-like nature in some kind of reality. Either stark naked or ready for the cat-walk, Nabil's models lead an idle existence, unperturbed by the sound of the snap shot stealthily capturing their action. Action? -- there is hardly any.
Blasé, disillusioned, friendless, arrogant, pathetic, both belittled and glorified by shameless objectification, when seen enclosed in their row of black frames Nabil's personae are provocative. They stare right out of their celluloid pedestals, each vainly occupying centre stage, not reaching out to the onlookers but defying them to raise but a single objection.
The women, whether wallowing in self-love -- as in the picture left -- or springing their claws (as in another picture titled Innocence Protector), bear a femme fatalish aspect which is, to say the least, imposing. The men, on the other hand, are pitifully unsure of themselves, seemingly plagued with serious existential angst which their calm faces can hardly conceal. They are either caught in the private loneliness of their rooms, beds and baths, or on the brink of escape.
Nabil's exhibition represents a full-fledged revival of the once popular debut de siècle tinted photography, although he does not manually paint the photographs himself. Cinematic, dramatic and poetic, the pictures juxtapose glamour and solitude, contemporary cultural anxieties and an old-fashioned artistic style.
Youssef Nabil's exhibition at Cairo Berlin Gallery closes on 25 May.
