SEKEM Insight

SEKEM‘s Journal for Economy, Culture, and Society in Egypt

SEKEM Insight Nr. 78 - February 2009

Dear Readers, the European Union is an important factor in the strengthening of European and international cooperation for instance in the sciences, economic development, or social advancement.

Education

Art

Seminars

Eurythmy in the Workplace

Sculptors meet at international event

New Islam Seminar in SEKEM

7. Training Course On Eurythmy in the Workplace

The funding programmes also play a central role in the development of cultural cooperation across the borders of individual EU states or even entire regions.

Within their limits and with significant financial contributions of the supported actors themselves they have made possible intercultural encounters, common artistic initiatives, or increased mobility of individual artists.

Beyond these measures the countless and often very personal results of individual activisms of friends of SEKEM have demonstrated that it is possible to also bring about substantial cultural change of significant impact on the initiative of private actors alone. Many of them have been carried out for years.

The months of January and February have been packed with initiatives of artistic exchange, cross-cultural dialogue, and creative collaboration, as this issue of SEKEM Insight intends to show.

Your Editors

Egyptian eurythmists rehearse in SEKEM together with their European colleagues

As in past years a new four-week training course on eurythmy in the workplace was held in January and February for Egyptian and European instructors of eurythmy on SEKEM’s Belbeis premises.

Eurythmy as “gymnastics for the soul” has its important place also in the initiative’s work environments by providing a promising means to loosen physical and emotional deadlocks, strengthen mental flexibility and thus performance in the workplace. Through collaborative work on exercises “on the job”, participants of eurythmy trainings are enabled to develop abilities that are of

immediate value for improving their productivity and wellbeing in factories, office environments, and other professional settings. They are also encouraged to develop improved self-consciousness, professional responsibility, and a sense of their individuality forming an active part of a social organism through the training of physical collaboration.

Whenever we consider economic processes or professional cooperation we frequently use expressions referring to physical relations.

When talking about progress we speak about “making a step”, “get something going”, or “stand up for

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ourselves”. We speak of the “flow of communication”, the need to “take on a certain standpoint”, or the importance of being able to “change directions”. This shows how the physical state of the body frequently forms the conceptual basis for the formation of a community that is perceived to be healthy, and a responsible and conscious professional intercourse.

Instruction enabling eurythmy trainers to apply exercises in the workplace usually focuses on the concrete ways through which individual development can be brought about typically through means that are practical and appropriate to a given professional setting. It emphasises exercises that allow to understand how professional workflows can be shaped and re-shaped through eurythmy in empowering ways that allow participants to train desirable abilities. An important aspect is the precise timing in which such exercises are employed to influence certain operations related to concrete challenges for instance in a factory, at a conveyor belt, or a desk. The exercises are supposed to improve self-reliance and encourage a positive relationship to dealing with workplace challenges pro-actively and flexibly when they arise.

9 participants from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and the Philippines took part in this year’s course. It began with exercises in the careful and precise observation of workflows in the various work-

Eurythmy „on the job“ has its firm place in the training programmes available to co-workers

places that SEKEM’s firms offer to co-workers. This is most effectively done when observation is guided by a specific “observational emphasis”, for instance the examination of a worker’s participation in the four dimensions of sensory perception, his or her encouragement to greater individual freedom on the job, or the strengthening of a possibly monotone or repetitive workflow through new forms of self-guided physical experience.

To approach the preparation of an exercise by focusing on its results is an important prerequisite to its adequate acquisition. This way it can be appropriately split up into individual steps that are easier to grasp, conceptualise, and train. Thus the eurythmy teacher begins to look for the source of concrete behavioural situation through “examining the future”.

It is always a special element of the training course that has also developed into a tradition at SEKEM to present the exercises prepared and studied to the initiative’s senior personnel during the last session. This usually stimulates excitement and praise at the same time considering the short time that is usually available to the trainers to work on exercises.

This year exercises were also studied with the board of teachers of the SEKEM School. They focused on topics such as “Leading and Being Led” or “Self-Reliance and Cooperation”. The 12 Egyptian students of eurythmy were involved as observers and supporters in the practical sections of the courses inside SEKEM’s firms. Through their participation they receive excellent, hands-on preparation for their own later work with people in professional settings.

The organisers of the eurythmy course wish to express their gratitude to Annemarie Ehrlich who has again prepared the course with great personal enthusiasm as she has done in the past years.

Martina Dinkel

Creative Dialogue Through Art in SEKEM

The team of young sculptors examines the finished work together with Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish

Intercultural workshops for sculptors from Egypt and Europe were held in January and February in SEKEM attracting nine students from the Alanus School of the Arts (Bonn) and four Egyptian sculptors under the supervision of professor Andreas Kienlin. The task consisted in the creation of sculptures for the premises of the SEKEM Headquarters and the Heliopolis Academy as well as for the newly developed grounds of the Heliopolis University in Cairo.

Special emphasis was put on the topic of “an encounter of the cultures through dialogue” to be recreated in stone by the sculptors’ hands. In fact, the partnership between Alanus and the Heliopolis Academy was to bear fruit in the form of a practical artistic cooperation for the first time. Andreas Kienlin, manager of the faculty of sculpture of the Alanus School and his colleagues Ludger Krause and Karin Humberg provided the necessary professional guidance.

During the days the cooperative artistic work furthered remarkable social encounters and special trust among the artists and also stimulated interest by the many co-workers of the initiative who visited the site. They were able to witness the progress of the work on the monumental stones on a daily basis.

The artistic experience they were

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allowed to have when encountering the artists, their work, and their products was supposed to provide them with new insights into the role of art in daily life and work as well as promoting the advancement of their sensory sensitivity through concrete experience.

Four huge chunks of stone with a combined weight of around 70 tons had been cut in the Mokkatam mountain quarry in Cairo by the sculptors themselves. The participants of the workshop transformed them into artifacts through tireless work almost around the clock. To handle the enormous mass of raw material even night shifts had to be introduced during the final week.

The subject of “puncture” or “penetration” formed the conceptual basis of all four ways of artistic transformation of the stones albeit in different ways for each of them. The work of two of the artists brought about two full “breakthroughs” and an “entrance only” into the stone in the third case. On this one the artist left the penetration of the material visually incomplete and thus created a permanent work in progress. The polarity of the two surfaces - clean and polished versus the coarse, natural stone - was visualised in different ways in all of the objects.

It was a remarkable process letting all of the 14 participants of the course work on all of the stones, a process that was reflected by the emotional comments many of the participants made. „It is important to be able to give up your expectations in favour of the production process as a whole” a sculptor commented. „Whenever I came back to one of the stones I noticed that it had become something completely different again”.

After the completion of the work SEKEMs co-workers at the headquarters and the research facilities will now be able to witness the further integration of the artifacts into daily life in their midst in the weeks, months, and years to come.

Islam Seminar in SEKEM As in the preceding years Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish will again participate in the new 2009 Islam Seminar that is to be held 11-14 April in SEKEM. Next to the speeches by Dr. Abouleish himself and several artistic exercises (Islamisc poetry, Arabic script, Quran recitals, Arabic songs, eurythmy) a one-day excursion to Cairo’s Islamic quarter that will focus on visits to the historic mosques has been integrated into the schedule. An extension programme on 15 April will provide an opportunity to visit the pyramids and the Egyptian museum. Participants will also be able to catch a glimpse on the various cultural and economic fields of work of SEKEM itself on 16 April. Applications should be directed to: SEKEM Travels, Dietmar Kreuer, Tel: +49(0)7556931777, Fax: +49(0)7556931385, Mobile: +40(0)15209884485, e-mail: dietmarkreuer@web.de

Swiss Economic Delegation Visits SEKEM A Swiss economic delegation accompanied by Federal Council Member Doris Leuthard visited SEKEM on 2 February. The Egyptian initiative was a stop on the route of the three-day visit to the country by the representatives of major Swiss enterprises. In the presence of Helmy and Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish the delegation consisting of 25 participants visited several of the facilities of SEKEM. The main interest of the group was on the exploitation of possible cooperation opportunities with Swiss firms. Doris Leuthard particularly pointed at the relevance of many of Egypt’s specific export products in light of the demand existing with Swiss firms.

Many of these items still in regular use in Egypt like various varieties of natural fibres are no longer produced in the European country but still in demand.

Impressions from SEKEM

During the first years of SEKEM’s establishment co-workers had to live with the bare necessities on the farm in the desert several kilometres away from the nearest human settlement. This also applied to any form of technological aids. It took the first cellular phone almost two decades to arrive at the initiative’s remote premises. Today high-end glass fibre connections allow all staff on the main farm full location-independent mobility in life and work greatly enhancing their flexibility and connectivity with their partners all over the globe. The new technologies have become the backbone of SEKEM’s rapid development, a feature distinguishing the initiative from other ventures at an early stage.

Imprint: Publisher: SEKEM, Egypt The editorial team of SEKEM Insight would like to thank all correspondents who have contributed to this edition.

Editors: Christina Boecker Bijan Kafi Contact: SEKEM-Insight c/o Sekem Holding P.O.Box 2834 El Horreya, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt

Martina Dinkel

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