Issue No. 597
Culture
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1 - 7 August 2002 Issue No. 597 Culture |
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In progress: On turning sixty
Esmat Dawestashi, a distinguished Alexandrian artist, has held more than 41 one-man exhibitions in Egypt and abroad. His work has ranged across a wide variety of media: photography, painting, drawing, graphics and installations. A rigorous art historian and critic, he has also written poems, short stories and screenplays. Recently, he directed a number of short films, including Mahmoud Said (1997) and Al-Risha Wal-Qalam (The Brush and the Pen, 2001), the latter on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. He is the recipient of a host of international and local prizes, including a prize for drawings for children won in an international Japanese competition, one from French radio for the design of a poster on Africa, the Spanish Cultural Centre in Cairo's Picasso-Miro Award, and the Jury's Award at the 18th Alexandria Biennale. Since 1996, he has been the recipient of a State Fellowship for Creative Artists
These days I'm preoccupied with the fact that I'll be turning 60 next March -- the age of pension in this country. Well, for artists there is no age of pension; I don't have a job as such, but I work more than any government employee. But the idea is that reaching the age of 60 should be a time for stock- taking and re-evaluation, because one's best days are behind one, and the next phase is likely to be one of diminished stamina, or even ailing health. So, I am looking back and re- evaluating my creative journey.
I've just published a book, Munamnat: Alf Rasm wa Rasm (Miniatures: A Thousand and One Drawings), which reproduces my most important drawings from 1962 up until this year. Alongside each group of drawings I've selected there is a written text where I describe the context and the circumstances that surrounded the work. I also talk about the art of painting and its importance, because it is an authentic Egyptian art, one that flourished and reached great heights in ancient Egypt; and Egypt today has a large number of first-rate artists. The 210 drawings in the book will be shown at a retrospective exhibition at the Cairo Opera in September, also on the occasion of my turning 60. It's also part of a series of other retrospectives of the rest of my work. All this is keeping me busy, because it's very important; many people did not see these works when they were exhibited, or if they did they no longer remember them. You see, unlike the writer or film- maker, whose works are preserved and remain accessible, the artist's work, once the exhibition is over, is removed and can easily be forgotten. Hence, each of these retrospectives will be accompanied by a book that documents the work.
These are the preoccupations of turning 60. But I continue to paint and to write, and in fact I am now preparing a large volume -- like the one [compiled and written by Dawestashi] about Mahmoud Said published in 1999 -- about the two eminent Alexandrian artists Seif and Adham Wanli. It's a commemorative book -- the centenary of Seif's birth is coming up in four years' time -- that comprises the biography of the two artists, a bibliography of studies about them, and a full survey and documentation of their works. I'm also preparing a second edition of my book on the Alexandria Biennale, to be launched on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the biennale in 2005. Both books will be comprehensive reference works.
And from time to time, I sit down to write chapters of my autobiography where I bring to light worlds that no longer exist; for example, the Biktashiyya, a Turkish Sufi sect who were based in the Muqattam Hills, and the Geritliyya [Dawestashi's paternal family, which hailed from Crete]. The autobiography will go up to 1962-- this being a turning point, both in the history of the country and in my personal trajectory. Spatially, its focal point will be the district of Bahari, where I spent my childhood -- an old, authentic neighbourhood of Alexandria which has its own traditions relating to the harbour and the fishermen. I need to revisit the area to refresh my memory about schools, alleys, corners of mosques where study groups were held -- and everything has changed, one way or another. One chapter, entitled "Al-Ramla Al- Beida" [The White Sand], revolves around the customs' area and the harbour -- we used to take a felucca to get to the Ramla Al- Beida beach. The harbour area had a very distinct character that you no longer find: you had Greeks, Armenians, Italians, and of course Egyptians working there; even the cargo the harbour received was of a very different kind. From time to time, I publish these chapters of my autobiography in the Akhbar Al-Adab newspaper.
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