Keeping up
Septuagenarian cadences
THIS WEEK at the Atelier du Caire, poet Ahmed Abdel-Mo'ty Hegazi celebrated his 70th birthday with, among others, critics Mahmoud Amin El-Alim, Gaber Asfour and Abdel-Moneim Telima, poet Hassan Telab and actor-director Mahmoud Al-Heddini.
With the late Salah Abdel-Sabour in the 1950s, Hegazi championed the free verse movement in Egypt. In the 1970s he left for Paris, where he taught Arabic poetry at the University of Paris 8 - Vincennes and spent ten years. On his return to Egypt in the 1980s, he joined Al-Ahram newspaper, through which, in a regular Wednesday column, he has advocated discourse reform, which he believes to be necessary for cultural development. Last week he went so far as to accuse the official cultural establishment of "lacking any thought, planning or follow-up -- indeed lacking culture". The institutions it comprises, he said, are in the hands of people "who monopolise privileges, cover up mistakes and resort to bribing critics and officials in charge of monitoring their work... By the time they finally leave their posts, they have gulped down everything, leaving behind a culture hostage to looted, burnt out structures."
Hegazi's vehement attack on the Ministry of Culture comes in the wake of the Beni Sweif tragedy of 5 September, when 150 spectators watching a ministry organised provincial theatre fesival play found themselves trapped after a fire broke out in the theatre; 46 people died and all the rest were badly injured. Hegazi's critique of the ministry was seen as the last blow dealt to Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni in the wake of the tragedy; Hosni resigned on the same day the column was published, but was later asked by the president to resume his work until the soon-to-happen cabinet reshuffle.
Egyptian artists in Beijing
THE SECOND BEIJING International Art Biennale, the largest and highest level art exhibition in China, opened this week (Tuesday 20 September) and will be on until 20 October, 2005.
Themed "Contemporary art with humanistic concerns", the month long art exhibition, which will mainly feature paintings and sculptures, has put its eyes on human social life and world peace, as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the victory of the anti-Fascist war.
Jing Shangyi, chairman of the Chinese Fine Artists Association says "We will exert more efforts to make contemporary art accessible to the general public, express pursuit for world peace and promote the development of humankind as well as the harmony between the human beings and nature."
Five hundred art works by famous artists from sixty countries around the world, including big names such as John Bellaney and Allen Jones, will be on display during the month. Three Egyptian artists are participating in this year's Biennale, having been selected by the Ministry of Culture's Fine Arts Department. They are Abdel-Salam Eid, Abdel-Wahab Moursi and Ahmed Sotouhi, each of whom contributing one work.
Eid's contribution, in the words of the artist himself, comprises a large oil painting that revolves around the notion of war and peace, through a depiction of social life, particularly its negative aspect: "In new ways, it sheds light on humanity's troubled relationship with society, and highlights the horrors of war."
Moursi contributes a slightly smaller, square painting executed in coloured sand -- a representative example of one of the more interesting sides of his overall achievement.
For his part Sotouhi submitted an iron sculpture entitled A Working Woman -- a symbolic reflection on the homeland, Egypt, whose hard work never ceases.
Monroe's last days
AFP REPORTED that 29 previously unseen photographs of legendary US actress Marilyn Monroe went on display in Barcelona's Hartmann Gallery on Friday 16 September (the exhibition is ongoing until October 24). Taken shortly before Monroe's death by photographer Arnold Newmann, the black and white originals date from January 1962, when Monroe was attending a gathering at the Beverly Hills villa of Hollywood producer Henry Weinstein. In a series of stylised scenes, Monroe is pictured surrounded by friends, including poet Carl Sandburg, . Seven months later Monroe was dead, having taken an overdose of barbiturates according to a controversial official autopsy. Photo-journalist and portrait snapper Newmann, 84, immortalised various personalities from Picasso and Stravinsky to Bill Clinton and Francoise Sagan, working for various publications including Life magazine.
Play and learn, affordably
LAST WEEK the General Egyptian Book Organisation Reading for All project reissued a 10-volume series of books written and illustrated by artist Adly Rizkallah under the banner of the Family Library.
Aimed at encouraging small children to learn through artistic self expression -- and now available in an economy edition -- the series is entitled simply "Play and Learn". Among the many awards it has won are the Suzanne Mubarak award for children's books in 1999 and and the International Council for Children Books' first award in 2000. Its appearance with a LE 2 price tag for each book is to Rizkallah himslef "the greatest artistic dream" come true -- "something I have been aspiring to since my return from Paris in 1980."
Some of the series' books appeared in France during the artist's nine-year residence in Paris from 1971 to 1980.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/761/cu7.htm