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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000 Issue No. 505 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000 Issue No. 505
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Not a car in sight
By Youssef Rakha
On the way to Alexandria I ponder Jesuit history. I had never suspected it might interest me. Considering the stringency of this brand of Catholicism (and regardless of their role in the counter Reformation) -- I reassure myself as I step onto the platform -- the Jesuits' mission is remarkably community-oriented and constructive. Their monasteries in Upper Egypt are willingly converted into activity space for (anti-sectarian) summer schools. For monks (Father Faiz of the Jesuits Cultural Centre in Alexandria being a prime example), they are shockingly street-wise: the perfect embodiment of a spiritual path devoted wholly and perceptively to community service.
Karima Mansour's Taming
In fact the determination is such that the fast growing independent culture scene has found the Jesuits supportive and like-minded (even as, officially and commercially marginal, it suffers the brunt of pseudo-controversies like the legitimacy of foreign funding and the validity of patriotic sentiment). Theatre enthusiasts, in particular, claim to have sometimes found the monks more open to experimentation and more receptive to difference, even transgression, than government officials or media producers, and correspondingly more aware of the cultural impasse the increasingly standardised global community might soon reach. Ergo: synergy is needed.
Limited as its range remains, this is why the combination of Jesuits and young theatre enthusiasts is worth exploring. In the wider context of non-profit-oriented networking and showcasing, this work might just be the seed of a more robust and globally aware independent sector -- a necessarily slow-growing, variegated creature prone to its own mistakes, that might nonetheless stand up to the tyranny of bureaucracy and arbitrary favour in Egyptian and Arab arts.
As a peculiar example of a wide range of possibilities, the collaboration of the independently run Young Arab Theatre Fund, directed by Tarek Abul-Fetouh, and the well-supported Jesuit Cultural Centre in Alexandria is a marriage made on the far side of normality (the latter being, in the present case, an oppressive force). A latent contradiction might be perceived: while the kernel of Jesuit driving force is religion, the independents are motivated by libertarian, thoroughly secular objectives. As both Father Faiz and Abul-Fetouh will testify, however, it is precisely the possibility of such coexistence that defines a truly non-ideological activity. The Jesuits, in their commitment to art, take theatre as it comes; the theatre enthusiasts, realising the practical benefits a pro-theatre orientation might offer them, utilise a connection that has always existed but had not hitherto become apparent: the two organisations' shared awareness of community.
Secluded in a relatively well-preserved corner of the city, the Jesuit Cultural Centre is within easy walking distance from the Sidi Gaber train station. The ample space exudes an aura not of sanctity, but of quiet, civilised engagement. And while Abul-Fetouh, who has recently relocated temporarily to Alexandria, shows me around his newly assembled office (a homely room with a big window overlooking the garden), I note the order with which the tiny number of people present go briskly about their work -- cleaning, filing, rearranging. There is an old philosopher-priest wandering about in the background, too, and suddenly I almost forget: I am visiting the Centre not to contemplate the quietude and low population density, but to inspect the site of an uncomplicatedly named multi-media event, "It's Happening in the Garage" (31 October-5 November). Engineered by the Fund, it brings together artists, administrators and members of communities from the Arab world and beyond.
Tucked away to the right beyond a tall metal gate, the garage is impressively large. It has a sizable garden on the outside and, through a wooden gate, an empty space roughly the size of two basketball courts placed side by side. The garage is being refurbished, not only for the event, but as a long-term performance and exhibition space. The components of the new space comprise noise blocking partitions, platforms for the audience, curtains, lighting and ceiling pads that redirect sound towards the audience. As Abul-Fetouh puts it, they will be "capable, like letters of the alphabet, of unlimited theatrical possibilities. Such modular components," he explains, "solve the problem of acoustics and allow the use of the main hall as activity space."
"Discovered" by two of the event's artists during a Fund-initiated pre-performance visit to the Centre, the refurbishment remains but one aspect of what's happening in the garage. Happening also -- in refreshing juxtaposition with each other, as either stand-alone or complementary "contextualisation" programmes -- are five performances (Karima Mansour, Esam Boukhalid, Sherine El-Ansari, Ahmed El-Attar, Mahmoud Abu-Doma), four installations on the theme of "a sewage pipe in a Mediterranean city 100 years from now," presentations on German and French contemporary dance accompanied by movement training sessions, and an architectural workshop in which four architects will focus on the rapid change now besetting Alexandria, Beirut, Rotterdam and Berlin, engaging participants in how to approach urban planning problems.
The activities feed into each other in myriad unexpected ways. To mention but one example: Boukhalid's play, Archipelago, set in a Lebanon of the future, deals with urban planning developments in Beirut; Archipelago's set will also be converted into one of the four installations on display. With time set aside for informal discussion and contact-making, imagine the experience from the point of view of the unsuspecting audience member.
Will it keep happening in future years? On the way back to Sidi Gaber, Abul-Fetouh shrugs knowingly; he doesn't want to say anything yet. "We now have the right to use the garage for certain periods of time every year, and that's certainly what we hope to be doing." As I say my good-byes, images of an archipelago of sewage pipes keep cropping up in my head, and on the way back I am incapable of focusing on Jesuit history. On top of the pipes are lithe dancers, everyday Alexandrines poring over hypothetical maps of the city, story-tellers looking to the future.
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