Keeping up

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Alexandria Biennale

THIS DECEMBER, the Alexandria Biennale will be celebrating its golden jubilee under the title "Limpidity of the Universe/Fascination of the Mediterranean." Alexandrian artist and commissar of this 50th biennale, Ismat Dawestashi told Al-Ahram Weekly that, so far, 15 countries have accepted invitations to participate in this event, which lasts from 1 December 2005 to 28 February, 2006. While official participants in the biennale will exhibit their works, as usual, in the Hussein Sobhi Museum of Fine Arts, this year a number of related events -- such as workshops, seminars, film screenings, and folkloric dances from around the Mediterranean -- are to be hosted by cultural centres and venues around town.

Marking the jubilee theme is a special exhibition, to be held in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, of works by previous biennale award-winners, who are guests of honour in this round, as well as a book by Dawestashi on the history of the event over the last 50 years. The history of the biennale also makes up one of the topics of the series of seminars taking place on the fringe of the event.

Poetic license revoked

PALESTINIAN poet Mahmoud Darwish on Saturday published "a correction of statements by the press" in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, regarding a statement he allegedly made at the press conference he gave in the course of the 41st International Carthage Festival in Tunis, two weeks ago. By the time the "correction" appeared the statement had generated a wide-ranging campaign against the poet, largely due to a misunderstanding. Describing the Abbasid master Abul-Tayib Al-Mutanabbi as "more contemporary than any contemporary Arab poet", Darwish was thought by many to be insulting fellow poets throughout the Arab world -- something that prompted many a frenzied reaction.

First publicised in Al-Hayat, the "statement" was quickly taken up by Cairo's foremost literary journal, Akhbar Al-Adab, which published a series of responses by Egyptian poets, ranging from mild admonition to harsh critique of Darwish's own work. The issue has since spiralled beyond any reason. Few seemed to notice that, in honouring his greatest influence, Darwish was including himself in the phrase "any contemporary poet"; the statement was made in passing in response to a brief question about Al-Mutannabi (not about contemporary Arab poets). In the "correction" Darwish points out that he was "greatly surprised by the interpretations and responses, whether for or against, that my quick words about the poetry of Al-Mutannabi generated". His statement had been purposely decontextualised, he added, and interpreted in a literate framework that ultimately runs counter to its "metaphorical intent".

Abnormalisation

ACCORDING to AFP reports, a group of writers recently signed a statement condemning what they saw as the pro-normalisation stance of the latest Adel Imam vehicle Al-Sifara fil-Imara (The Embassy in the Building), written by Youssef Maati and directed by Amr Arafa. The statement focussed on a scene in which the film's protagonist, Sherif Khairi (the name means "the Noble, the Good"), stoned, misquotes Amal Donqul's much admired poem condemning the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, La Tusalih (Do Not Reconcile). In the relevant line the poet asks the reader how he would respond if someone were to gouge out his eyes and replaced them with two jewels, the Arabic word for which is easily confused with hagar (normally "stone"), which is the term used to denote a course of hashish served on the shisha.

Signatories include novelist Sonalla Ibrahim, who embarrassed the cultural establishment by turning down the award of the Culture Council's conference on the Arab novel, stating, in the course of the awards ceremony, that accepting it would be condoning Egypt's unequal relations with the US and Israel, and objecting to the widespread corruption -- an act that continues to resonate in cultural circles. They also include novelists Youssef Abu Raya, Mahmoud El-Wardani, Hamdi Abu Golail and Afaf El-Sayed; poets Mahmoud Qorani and Abdel-Moneim Ramadan; journalists Osama Orabi and Mohamed Shoeir. The statement voiced the signatories' objection to "making fun of a great work of art that opposed normalising with the historical enemy at a time when that enemy is achieving much in the effort to realise its Zionist project and fulfil its expansionist plans."

Maati has responded to the criticisms by saying that his anti-normalisation stand is unquestionable and apparent in many of his dramatric and literary works, and that those who cite this scene in the film are taking it out of its dramatic conterxt. He contended that the popularity of Imam would revive this classic poem in the collective memory of a younger generation of audiences.

Hail Guantanamo

NOBEL laureate VS Niapaul, author of over 25 works of fiction and non-fiction, recently expressed disdain for the widespread sympathy with prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. He told the New York Times that people "here [in the UK] talk about those people who were picked up by the Americans as 'lads', 'our lads', as though they were people playing cricket or marbles... It's glib, nonsensical talk from people who don't understand that holy war for Muslims is a religious war, and a religious war is something you never stop fighting."

Niapaul's work has addressed the question of Islamic fundamentalism, often criticising those who have benefited from the West and turned against it, or have aggressively withheld respect for the customs of the culture in which they live. Commenting on the 11 September attacks, Niapaul warned Americans that they were confronted with "a war declared on you by people who passionately want one thing: a green card". Niapaul has been widely criticised for such views by many writers and academics, including Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe and Carribean poet and Nobel laureate Derek Walcott as well as Edward Said.