PUBLIC VIEWING: GENDER AND STREET ART IN PUBLIC SPACE

Hanaa El Degham painting in Mohammed Mahmoud street, Cairo, Egypt, 2012

PUBLIC VIEWING: GENDER AND STREET ART IN PUBLIC SPACE

CURATOR | LECTURER

2012, Cairo/Egypt | workshop | exhibition | intervention

PARTNERS & VENUES: DARB 1718, SPRING LESSONS, EL FANN EL MIDAN, TEDxCAIRO

FEATURED ARTISTS: DINA RIHAN, HADY BORAEY, MOHAMMED SAAD, NELLY EL SHARKAWY, SAMER KAMEL, HALA EL SHAROUNY, MONA LOTFY, MONA IBRAHIM, MOHAMMED S. EL BOGHDADY, ABDEL RAHMAN NACHED FADLEL-MAWLAH, AHMED REFAAT, AKRAM ABD EL AZIZ, MENNA EL-AZZAMY, KHADIJA MOHAMMED, NADIA MOUNIER, AMMAR ABO BAKR, HANAA EL DEGHAM, AYA TAREK, WAEL ESKANDER

The project

The workshop was part of an extensive, EU-funded project titled “Mashrou3 Hagar: Art Empowers!” hosted by the art center Darb 1718 in Cairo which aimed at fostering the emergence of a generation of visual artists/activists influenced by the Arab Spring. The project sought to provide them with means and expertise to enhance their freedom of expression on a specific subject that polarizes the dialogue and creates ongoing constraint exacerbating creativity: women’s empowerment.

The workshop addressed questions of gendered space and aimed to (re-)evaluate public space as asset in order to formulate artistic positions within the politics of aesthetics. During the workshop, the feminine was traced in the predominantly male public space in Egypt and inserted through temporary installations, street art and projections. The project was continued in an exhibition in Alexandria and an intervention at TEDxCairo.

My responsibilities

As workshop leader, lecturer and curator, I drafted the workshop, communicated with the hosting institution and the participants, facilitated the creative, theoretical and didactic parts of the four-day workshop, and provided input, advice and support during a practical part which focused on street art and graffiti. I co-organized and coordinated interventions in public space and at TEDxCairo, and supported the artists in the preparation and implementation phase of the following exhibition.