The breadwinner
If you think bread can only be found in bakeries, then think again.
Rania Khallaf finds other places to savour the aroma of fresh bread
"Bread" is the simple theme of an interesting exhibition now being held at one of Cairo's newest galleries. The gallery, which has the indistinct name of Darb 17 18, or, alternatively, Road 17 18, is located in the district of Al-Fakhareen, the new Fustat, a quiet place on the outskirts of Cairo. You will probably lose your way a couple of times before you finally reach it. Yet it is well worth the wasted time. The gallery, which might be better called a cultural centre, is built on the white- domed model. The three-storey building is amazingly beautiful. You immediately capture a feeling of freedom and enjoyment as soon as you enter the villa and are received by the gallery's hospitable owner, artist Moataz Nasreddin.
The idea of the exhibition was an inspiration stemming from last year's dramatic events centring on the severe bread shortage in several parts of the country. In 2008, the exhibition statement says, Egypt was struggling to cope with grain shortages. Millions of Egyptians who relied on government-subsidised bread were forced to queue at bakeries for hours to get their daily ration, a situation that led to violent clashes in many parts in Egypt.
In 1977, the Anwar El-Sadat government's attempt to lift the subsidy on bread sparked a mass uprising in which 70 people died, which quickly forced the government to restore the subsidies.
This unique art exhibition, however, uses bread in a rather different context. The aim of the exhibition, Nasreddin says, is to rethink bread and to create a sort of dialogue, or better a debate among viewers and artists over this basic food stuff, and to create a row over bread as a symbol.
"The idea is that the cultural centre, which is surely different than other galleries that nowadays are controlled by people with a business orientation, is open to all sorts and trends of art. We have presented experimental theatrical plays and cinematic and musical shows in the vast area of the centre," Nasreddin told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"As a non-governmental organisation, we have been approached by several international donors who want to support us financially, and this in itself gives us a great boost," says Nasreddin, who was interviewed by the Weekly a day before he was due to leave on a two-day visit to Belgium for a meeting with the European Commission to discuss the support issue.
The exhibition hosts works by 12 artists reflecting different perspectives and representations of bread. On its opening day the centre was buzzing with visitors, most of them young people, artists, foreigners, and media representatives, who added a vivid spirit to the place.
Facing the Viewers is a huge illustration by Youssef Limoud, an Egyptian artist based in Switzerland. Limoud opted to present an installation that adapted the famous painting by the late prominent artist Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar, known as Al-Chorus Al-Shaabi or The Chorus of Simple People. Limoud's illustration measures 4x1.5 metres. The original medium-size painting by El-Gazzar, painted in 1948, was a gesture to highlight the situation of the poor some 60 years ago.
"I have been haunted by this painting for a long time, and when I was invited to take part in the exhibition it just jumped into my head," Limoud told the Weekly. Limoud's illustration displays the same figures: distressed men, women and children outlined in black, all standing in despair, and looking hopelessly to the void.
While in the original painting by El-Gazzar people carry small, empty plates as if waiting for food to come from somewhere, Limoud painted huge people on a white wall with charcoal. Instead of the empty plates, there are dozens of rotten baladi (local) loaves thrown at their feet, as if the people were walking on their own remains.
Although the idea is rather simple, the work is fabulous. It leads one to maintain a space and stand to think profoundly of the fate of these people. Who are they? Actually they do not have a specific identity; they could be anyone, anywhere. Their misery cannot be denied, and one cannot help but sympathise. "I wanted to question if there were any changes that took place over the last 60 years concerning the situation of the poor in society. And you can simply tell that there is no difference, despite the allegedly democratic and free political regime that is currently ruling Egypt," Limoud says with a hint of sarcasm. El-Gazzar, Limoud adds, was a prominent and talented painter who established the Surrealist current and the Art Contemporary movements in Egypt.
"I thought my work was a kind of interaction with one of the most significant paintings and a landmark in the first half of the 20th century," he went on. Even though the work may seem a bit dramatic, the sight of bread thrown on the ground clicks in his mind as a primitive scene. "It questions the relationship between bread and soil, between bread and our own existence. It simply questions the fate of humanity," Limoud says anxiously.
On the upper floor of the gallery is a variety of works, including paintings and video art. One of the latter is a video clip by Nasreddin, who is also the curator of the exhibition. His work represents the movement of a bread loaf inside the oven during the baking process. "It was just a half-minute shot, and I made an animation out of it," he says. "The bread looks small in the beginning, and then it develops into a huge thing like a balloon, and then it gradually becomes a small thing once again."
Accompanying this amazing video is the sound of a woman breathing in a dramatic way, as if she is giving birth to a new baby. "I look at it as a human being struggling for survival. But it faces challenges and disappointments, which force the small loaf of bread to expire." It is an extraordinary view of bread.
Shaimaa Aziz, a young artist, has gone a bit further with the idea. In 12 neighbouring paintings, the scale of each 40x60cm, she portrays different forms and colours of mouldy bread. Floating on the surface of the bread are elastic forms of colourless human beings in relaxed, or rather erotic, positions. To make them, Aziz simply collected pieces of bread in a plastic bag and left them to rot naturally. "Then I took some photographs of the colours of the mould and I found that there are amazing degrees of yellow, green and white," Aziz says, barely checking the excitement in her voice. "It took me two days to finish the paintings. Before I got involved in the exhibition as a participant, I hardly found bread a stimulating subject." While most works by the 12 artists participating in the exhibition have adopted socio- political approaches in their work, Aziz's paintings are purely fantastic. "It may seem, however, that the paintings refer to a mood of relaxation. People do not mind lying on a rotten surface; they feel comfortable, as they are used to this kind of dirty world, and nothing bothers them," she winks.
As I left the building I paused for a couple of moments in the garden to take a deep breath, and then I got lost, or lost myself, in the crowded streets of Downtown Cairo once again.
The exhibition runs till 7 November.
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