25TH JANUARY – 8TH FEBRUARY 2008
AAW INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN 25TH JANUARY 2008 – 8TH FEBRUARY 2008
Initiatives and Founded by
Artistic directors REEM HASSAN and MOATAZ EL SAFTY Founding director of AAW projects Founding director of EAN for arts and Culture Founding director of EAN Egyptian artists network
Special Thanks for their supporting
FORD FOUNDATION IIE Institute of International Education
KUONA Trust Visual arts in Kenya
AAW international artists workshop for women 25 January – 8 February 2008
At the very beginning of my word, I would like to express my great appreciation for Ford Foundation in Cairo for its agreement to support this great artistic project because if it were not for this support and this financial and spiritual support, this great success for this extremely special event would not have happened. In addition, it gives me great pleasure to thank the sponsor Africa Art Moves for their belief in the idea and their consent to provide a touring grant for six African female artists for attendance and participation. Moreover, I would like to thank as well the Institute of International Education (Cairo) for their material and spiritual assistance which we have always been familiar with. Furthermore, I am honored to thank Mr. Mukhtar Kokash, Ms. Samr Abd El-Wahab and Mr. Hany Fathy for the spiritual support during preparation for the workshop as their serious work has achieved the greatest effect for our attaining this subsidize in order to realize this great event. In addition, I hope that cooperation continues between the Dwayer Group and Ford Foundation for further progress and change which we have been dreaming of and seek for changing the cultural and artistic climate in Alexandria through the projects which have the character of artistic and cultural exchange between us and our colleague artists in Africa and the rest of world countries.
I have dreamt so long of this workshop idea since I participated in a similar one in Kenya about a year ago, organized by Kuona Trust. The Kenya workshop was one for the arts and innovations of women. Actually, I greatly enjoyed through direct contact, dialogue and giving more space for women in order that they present their innovations and show their serious experience through several contributions and participations from different countries around the world. The first lines have started in order to achieve the idea since March 2007. Step by step till the dream has actually come th
true in Alexandria on 7 February,2007 through a subsidize from a number of authorities which believed as well in the idea and helped a number of women participants to attend and interact with their peers from several African, European and Asian countries in order to present the product of this highly special workshop. Dwayer Workshop for women arts and innovations is considered a highly artistic event as important as biennial event. Twenty-two women artists from abroad as well as eight Egyptian women artists participated. The workshop started its
first and second day by presentations of the artists' experiences the whole day. This led to getting acquainted and dialogue since the very start of the workshop. Moreover, the results of the workshop show of extremely high level of seriousness, interest and sharing whether in experiences concerning multimedia arts, in the video art field, installation art, classical arts such painting, sculpture, photography and book art. They were artistic experiences at the visibility level and the content which carry an amount of experience and sharing events. The self- experience for each woman artist includes in it the education and culture of a country and this is what we can feel in the work of artist Sonya Rademeyer- South Africa, as she presented two works in the field of video and installation work. Moreover, she employed drawings and girls' works at the Orphanage. This is in addition to her video work and cement tables. It is worth mentioning that this great workshop has produced four small workshops. One of these is the workshop
which
Sonya
established
with
the
orphanage and the other one was created by the woman artist Nicola Mueller- Germany, with the children and youth Al-Max Area. There Nicola had a group of youth putting on their faces masks help her in order to photograph them. The artist made these masks in her country and applied them in Alexandria in order to eliminate places differences and exceed the differences among cultures and societies as man is the same entity in all environments and places.
As for the third workshop, it was done by Elgin Rust- Germany/ South Africa as she exchanged living with an Egyptian woman artist, Aliaa AlGeridy. Thus, Ms. Rust lived in Ms. Aliaa's house and performed her work according to the schedule which the Egyptian artist provided her with. In fact, she actually used some of the furniture in her house in her display of her work. In regard to the fourth workshop, it was created by Ms. Alicja Rogalsks –Poland as she used a table on which she placed all kinds of food which attract a great number of cats. She took this table to Kom El-Dekah area next to a fish shop known of its great number of cats visiting it.
She waited there and started taking video trailers photographing the arrival of these animals to the table of this free lunch, their racing, fights and dialogues over this feast. We were greatly happy by the participation of the artist Nicola Gray/ England among the organizing committee of the Braziers International Artists Workshop in UK. Her presence was greatly useful from the beginning till the end, as she presented a useful artistic experience through photographic painting and video. In addition, she demonstrated a critical insight of the workshop whether during work or at its end inspired by her experience at the work she does in participating in the organization of Braziers workshops. Thus, we would like to express a special greeting for her presence with us and her belief in the project and participation with us in it.
Furthermore, we cannot ignore the experience of the outstanding artist Katherine Bull- South Africa as she is among the distinguished and serious woman artists in her work. She painted all participant women artists by using computer programs in live scheduled meetings in the position of silent sitting. She presented an experience in the field of conceptual art. As for the African artists, their experiences were little in regard to the intellectual aspect except for one of them, Dorothy Amenuke – Ghana. She demonstrated an artistic piece in the field of Book Art which was to a great extent good. When I enquired about the standard indirectly, they used the pretext that good quality expensive materials should be provided by the sponsors for the workshop as they could not make good artistic works due to the limited financial resources. However, I doubted the truth of this for when I were in Kenya before and I enquired about the poor style of handling there and the method of their display of their works. I can say that we must increase the frequency of organizing artistic programs and workshops. These are concerned with artists in Africa in order to help them to change in their
innovative techniques and their artistic views and attempt to
develop them. This is actually what Dwayer Group wishes to initiate it. In other words, this is considered among its prominent objectives i.e. holding meetings and dialogues through artistic programs and projects between Alexandria, Africa and the world. This is what we called AAW (Alexandria to Africa to World). In addition, we would like to mention the participation of the Pakistani artist Ruby Chishti, who added by her touches and embroidery sculpture works of embryos which she made them from fiberglass material of transparent material. Actually, it was among the distinguished works in the exhibition. The participation of the Egyptian woman artist Aliaa El-Geridy was quite effective in the Egyptian presence and her cooperation with the artists. It is worth mentioning her participation in the project made by the woman artist Elgin Rust, namely: exchanging places and alternating their daily life as she stayed three days pretending to be an artist in order to see Alexandria by this perspective. As for Elgin Rust, she stayed at her home.
Moreover, the woman artist Maha Sabieh had an effective role in providing a simultaneous translation during the shows of the artists' works, as well as till and during the final meeting of the workshop. She presented also a video work with a photographic painting. Furthermore, the Dutch photographer woman artist Jacqueline Van Der Venne made a daily report in writing, pictures and video in order to publish it on a special website for this event. This would be published and distributed after a month of the workshop termination. She gave us an idea about it through her display of her work on a computer of some trailers and pictures which she took in Alexandria. This website is : http://web.mac.com/jacquelinevdvenne
It is worth noting and was stated by all participants during the final meeting of evaluating the workshop that the tour organized by us in both Alexandria and Cairo had the greatest effect in their feeling the actual real knowledge of the nature of Alexandrian and Egyptian art including their historical or contemporary backgrounds. This was achieved through their touring the museums and monumental places and artistic galleries, as well as through the visits prepared for them to visit studios of Egyptian artists at King Maruit and the studios of artist at the Alexandria Ateliers, or some visits to the houses of Alexandrian artists. In addition, this event was colored by some visits to organizers from different countries that came to visit Alexandria and its artists. Hence, I took this opportunity and I invited them to visit the workshop's artists. Actually, a visit was made to an organization, from Norway, preparing to hold an International Exhibition in a Gallery. This is in addition to a visit of a German delegate participating in the Book Fair, as well as a visit of an English photographer living in Alexandria and visiting the artistic critic Khaled Boughdady and Channel 5 of Alexandria Television. We hope that this success and generosity continue for the enhancement and promotion of culture and art in Alexandria. Artistic directors Dr. Reem Hassan Artist. Moataz El Safty www.egyptartists.com/aawprojects FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/moatazface www.facebook.com/EANnetwork www.facebook.com/AAWprojects www.facebook.com/EANgroup YOUTUBE www.youtube.com/AAWproject www.youtube.com/EANnetwork www.youtube.com/EANgroup TWITTER www.twitter.com/AAWprojects www.twitter.com/EANnetwork www.twitter.com/EANartculture www.twitter.com/MoatazElSafty WOOLOO.org www.wooloo.org/moatazelsafty ISSUU.com channel http://issuu.com/moatazel-safty
Participants
17 Countries - 22 artists from different countries – 6 Egyptian artists
AMELIE SCALERCIO - AUSTRAL, FAREHA ZEBA - BANGLADESHI, BONGI BENGU, SOUTH AFRICA SIMGE UYGUR - CYPRIOT, NICOLA MUELLER - GERMANY, DOROTHY AMENUKE - GHANA, HILDA HIARY - JORDAN, CAROLINE MBIRUA - KENYA, MARY OGEMBO - KENYA, JACQUELINE VAN DER VENNE NETHERLANDS,
MWANDALE MWANYEKWA TANZANIA, INCI KANSU - TURKEY - CYPRIOT, MARIE SNAUWAERT - BELGIUM, BRANKA RIDIKI - CROATIA, ELGIN RUST - GERMANY / SOUTH AFRICA, RUBY CHISHTI - PAKISTAN, EVGUENIA GOLANT - RUSSIA, LYNETTE BESTER - SOUTH AFRICA, FIDAA KIWAN - PALESTINE,
KATHERINE BULL - SOUTH AFRICA, HAYRIYE KOC - TURKEY, NICOLA GRAY - UNITED KINGDOM SONY RADEMEYER - SOUTH AFRICAN ALICJA ROGALSKA - POLISH, EGYPT: ALIAA ELGREADY, AMAL NASR, IMAN EZZAT, MAHA SOBIH, NIVIN ELREFAEY, SANDY SAMY, RAWIA SADEK , IMAN EZZAT