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OPENING RECEPTION 12 OCTOBER 2015 6 - 9 PM EXHIBITION 12 OCTOBER - 15 NOVEMBER 2015
braces the endless possibilities of remembrance and provides a multi-dimensional representation of the Egyptian world. The many different chapters across a span of thousands of years appear as fragments absorbed into Mekhail’s works, calling on a transcendent power to provide some meaning to guide our fragile present.
Fatenn Mostafa
Many rivers to cross And it’s only my will that keeps me alive I’ve been licked, washed up for years And I merely survive because of my pride
Maged Mekhail transports us back in time and space from Ancient Egypt to Babylon, and from Mesopotamia to further East. Rulers, traders, warriors, men of sciences and prophets crossed roads, ports and oceans seeking larger empires, flourishing trade and the spread of religion. Thousands of years later, their great grand-children are crossing the roads again – this time heading West, seeking refuge and escaping civil wars and violence. Crossing is no longer the means to enlarge one’s home, but rather the prevalent means of survival – to escape from home. In Many Rivers to Cross, painter and sculptor Maged Mekhail choses to ignore the slow decline of our present and brings to light our past by exploring the traces left behind the convergence of national, racial and ethical lines that supposedly should bond us together. He em4
Instead of falling into nostalgia, remembrance turns into solace and Many Rivers to Cross playfully explores nonrandom moments, rituals and personae where there is no political perspective but rather snapshots that cement our cultural chains and transform our feelings of belonging to pride. In El Sebou bronze sculpture, survival and the number 7 are inextricably linked. It’s on the seventh day that a child’s existence is formally acknowledged to the world in a ritual that dates back to Pharaonic times. El Sebou links birth to gender symbolism, to folk beliefs, to womanhood, and to the importance of the timelessness of a tradition still equally practiced by followers of the two prevailing religions across Egypt. The thread is our common past and Mekhail insists on holding on to these rites of passage, instead of moving on to Western fashions of baby showers. Kemet, the first nation of our modern day history and the ancient name of Egypt in 3100 BCE, is another bronze work deriving from a distant memory and in which Mekhail superimposes a symbol of a different era. The Bible, in the Old Testament, repeatedly refers to Egypt as the “Land of Ham” (Khem / Kemet), which refers to its black soil. Mekhail then adds the Eagle of Saladin, the Ayubbid Sultan who ruled Egypt and Syria and defeated the Crusaders in the 12th century, and which is still used in the current Egyptian flag.
Womanhood continues to be a recurring theme in Mekhail’s work using his contorted signature depiction of the body parts. Today, as during his last show in 2013, there is energy and rhythm, there is sensuality and nudity and there is love and ecstasy. Maged Mekhail ushers the viewer into the intimacy of Ghazia, the modern gypsy folk dancer in rural areas and the semi-nomadic entertainer in moulids known as the beautiful temptress. Originally from the Indian subcontinent, the ghazia came to work as Harem dancer in Middle Eastern courts, until Mohammed Ali banished them from Cairo in the nineteenth century – later to be romanticized in movies. Recognizing the diversity in our region, Mekhail dreams up Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of love, war and fertility and imagines, as a bird, Theodore, the gift of God in Greek, whose name was popular among early Christians and borne by several saints. Mekhail carries on with Kawkab el Shark (Star of The East), the portrayal of Om Kolthoum and the only modern character that functioned fluently across the Arab world. Beside references to the entrenched influences of Greco-Roman, neo-Pharaonic and Coptic art in Fatoun, Nashwa and Farah, Maged Mekhail takes us farthest east with Budda and celebrates the philosophical and religious correlations between Ancient Egyptian Religion and Buddhism culture that may not be known to many. Many Rivers To Cross is, in part, a tribute to our ancient collective past that forms who we are today. Ever since he carved his own place in contemporary Egyptian art, thirty-three year old Maged Mekhail has sought to say something, many things indeed, hoping that, whether we cross or not, our pride will keep us alive.
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Don’t Don’t Don’t Don’t
SCULPTURES
say to me: Would I were a seller of bread in Algiers That I might sing with a rebel. say to me: Would I were a herdsman in the Yemen That I might sing to the shudderings of time. say to me: Would I were a cafe waiter in Havana That I might sing the victories of sorrowing women. say to me: Would I worked as a young laborer in Aswan That I might sing to the rocks.
My friend, The Nile will not flow into the Volga, Nor the Congo or the Jordan into the Euphrates. Each river has its source, its course, its life. My friend, our land is not barren. Each land has its time for being born, Each dawn a date with a rebel.
عن األمنيات ليتني بائع خبر في الجزائر !ألغني مع ثائر ٍ مواش في اليمن ليتني راعي ألغني النتفاضات الزمن ليتني عامل مقهى في هافانا !ألغني النتصارات الحزانى ال ً حما ّ ليتني أعمل في أسوان صغير ألغني للصخور
لن يصب النيل في الفولغا ! في نهر الفرات، وال األردن،وال الكونغو ! وحياة... ومجرى... وله نبع،كل نهر أرضنا ليست بعاقر...!يا صديقي ولها ميالدها،كل أرض ! وله موعد ثائر،كل فجر
:ال تقل لي :ال تقل لي :ال تقل لي :ال تقل لي
!يا صديقي
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mahmoud darwish
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Kemet, 2015 Bronze 40 x 15 x 15 cm
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Kawkab El Shark, 2015 Bronze 180 x 55 x 55 cm
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Farah, 2015 Bronze 45 x 20 x 17 cm
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Nashwa, 2013 Bronze 41 x 24 x 13 cm
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El Ghazia, 2015 Bronze 170 x 80 x 70 cm
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Ishtar, 2015 Bronze 140 x 60 x 65 cm
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El Khadem, 2015 Bronze 48 x 40 x 25 cm
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El Fagr, 2015 Bronze 40 x 25 x 15 cm
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Budda, 2014 Bronze 40 x 25 x 25 cm
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El Sebou, 2010 Bronze 17 x 15 x 15 cm
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“ PAINTINGS
On the day you kill me You’ll find in my pocket Travel tickets To peace, To the fields and the rain, To people’s conscience. Don’t waste the tickets.
تذاكر سفر
يوم من األيام ٍ وعندما ٌأق َتل في سيع ُثر القاتل في جيبي َ على تذا ِك ِر السفر: واحدة الى السالم واحدة الى الحقول والمطر واحدة الى ضمائر البشر ) ارجوك ّال ُتهمِل التذاكر يا قاتلي العزيز (..ارجوك ان تسافر
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Samih al-qasim is a Palestinian Druze poet living in Haifa
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El Rakessa, 2015 Acrylic on pressed wood 70 x 50 cm
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El Deeq, 2015 Acrylic on pressed wood 70 x 50 cm
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Fostan el Akhdar, 2015 Acrylic on pressed wood 50 x 37 cm
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Hanan, 2015 Acrylic on pressed wood 70 x 90 cm
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Suzy, 2015 Acrylic on pressed wood 90 x 70 cm
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BIO
ماجد ميخائيل سعيد ولد الفنان فى ديسمبر من عام 1982 ودرس الفنون الجميلة بجامعة حلوان بالزمالك وتخرج بتقدير جيد جداً بالترتيب األول مع مرتبة الشرف فى عام 2004 ألتحق بأتيليه الفنان الكبير “أدم حنين “ 2005وعمل وتتلمذ على يده . شارك فى العديد من المعارض الجماعية (معرض جماعى بقاعه المسار بالزمالك تحت اسم “تواصل” -معرض جماعى بقاعه بوشهري بدولة الكويت) قام بمعرضه االول الخاص 2013بقاعة”ارت توكس” باسم “انا مصرى” شارك فى (صالون الشباب الخامس عشر ,العشرون ,الواحد العشرون ,الثانى والعشرون -صالون القطع الصغيرة السادس المئوية الخاصة بكلية الفنون الجميلة بقصر الفنون دعوة للمشاركة بالمعرض العام )2013 كما شارك بسمبوزيوم اسوان الدولى للنحت بالدورة” الحادية عشر -2005والدورة العشرون ”2015االعمال موضوعة حالي ًا بالمتحف المفتوح بأسوان كما شارك بسمبوزيوم سوديك 2012 حاصل على” جائزة صالون الشباب “ الدورة الواحد العشرون كما حصل على منحة التفرغ فى النحت من وزارة الثقافة 2011-2010-2009-2008
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Maged Mekhail Saied Born December 1982 Education 2008-2011 Ministry of Culture Scholarship 2005-2010 Studied sculpture under Adam Henein 2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Helwan University in Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt Exhibitions 2013 ‘I Am Egyptian’, Solo, ArtTalks, Cairo Egypt 2013 General Exhibition, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt 2013 22nd Youth Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt 2012 21st Youth Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt 2012 Sodic Symposium, Cairo Egypt 2011 20th Youth Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt 2010 Group exhibiton, Boushahri Gallery, Kuwait 2009 ‘Continuity’ Group Exhibition, Al Masar Gallery, Cairo, Egypt 2005 Aswan International Sculpture Symposium 2005 Awards 20th Youth Salon, Sculpture award, 2011
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Catalogue Published on the occasion of the show Maged Mekhail Many Rivers to Cross 12 October - 15 November 2015 ArtTalks | Egypt Graphic Concept & Realization Omar Mobarek
8 EL KAMEL MOHAMEd STR. ZAMALEK. CAIRO
Texts Fatenn Mostafa Coordinators Cherine Chafik Lisa Lounis Aynour Zeitoon Photographs George Akhnoukh Lisa Lounis Printing Concorde Press
OPEN dAILY FROM 11AM - 8PM FRIdAY 3 - 8PM +20227363948 info@arttalks.com
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