Welcome to Egypt Jacqueline van der Venne photographs
THE WEATHER IS HORRIBLE 26-01-08 Luckily it didn’t go as slowly as yesterday. Everybody kept their presentation really short today. Sonya from South Africa showed us jam jars in a row and under each other which is supposed to be the female period. She made sculptures from human hair and, as she said, it was a lot of work to make them. The German Nicola from Berlin had photographs of people wearing masks - and she showed us pictures of all kind of structures like fences, bricks, and tiles. In the afternoon we went for a walk with Aliaa who guided us around. But first we got a huge carton box for our lunch with mango juice, chips, a hamburger, banana, falafel, cheese, and pickled vegetables. When we were finally finished with all the presentations we had to look in the Atelier d’Alexandria for a space to work for the next two weeks. Elgin chose the lounge with a big and comfortable sofa and big comfortable chairs - which of course was a brilliant idea. What they expect from us and what they would they like us to do, I am not sure at this point. Big Mama from Tanzania showed me where she was working outside and there was a big tree trunk waiting for her to make a sculpture out of. She works with wood and stone. Big Mama is very good in wood carving which she finishes by rubbing them with a homemade oil. The weather is horrible, very cold and it starts raining heavier and heavier. My clothes are not warm enough because I really thought that the weather would be tropical. I even brought my bikini with me. In the hotel it is cold as well because there is no heating. The wind is blowing through the hotel, and doors and windows are slamming everywhere. Kenya, Tanzania, Cyprus and Ghana are very cold all the time; they even sleep with their clothes on. This morning I asked the waiter in the restaurant if they couldn’t turn up the heating. ‘Maybe next year’, he said. It looks like they also have the air-conditioning working, only cold air comes out instead. Everybody is complaining because of the cold. I am definitely not the only one who thought it would be much warmer in Egypt.
Very bad unhealthy air 29-01-08 In the Atelier Alexandria, it is very busy. You can hear Arabic, English, Turkish. Next to me is an Egyptian artist using horrible smelly spray paint. Hopefully she is not going to use this paint every day. Some artists have a nice table to work on but of course I don’t. I put a stand on 2 chairs to be something like a table but it is the wrong height so it is quite uncomfortable. My laptop is sliding slowly off my lap. The smell from the paint the Egyptian artist is using is horrible and very annoying. Today a made some videos of the 2 Cypriot artists who are with me in the same space working on a huge table. As I am recording, suddenly Nicola Gray steps into the frame and puts out her tongue which is very funny. Inci is working with papier-mâché on what seems to me to be Egyptian eyes. Simge made a cocoon from papier-mâché that she is stuffing with black twine. Simge sews the black twine onto jute also. The volume is pumped up with Arabic music. Marie has had her purse stolen with her passport as well. They are standing next to me discussing what they are going to do. Alicja comes to ask me what I am doing and tells me that a forum would be great to put on my web-site. Sandy, who is standing next to me with that horrible paint that smells like petrol or turpentine, puts music on as well, so now I hear 2 different kinds of music. Today I was a model for Katherine who is doing portraits in Photoshop in big pixels of all the artists who are participating in the workshop. She draws me from behind with my nose in the direction of the Netherlands. She marked out on the floor the direction of all the countries with tape. Katherine was well prepared when she came to Egypt and had planned out her project before she came. She had printed invitations in South Africa already inviting us all for a Photoshop sit in. She has her laptop, chairs, camera and iPod with her; she didn’t leave anything to chance in her project. All her equipment is from the Stellenbosch University near Cape Town where she teaches. My neighbour Dorothy is shivering all the time because of the cold. She is painting on silk and wears a big apron with ‘Smullers’ written on it. Caroline is working in the basement with 2 aluminium frames which she