By Chelsea Mattioda, News Staff
A year after the first Arab spring uprisings in Tahrir Square, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) opened the exhibition, “Histories of Now: Six Artists from Cairo.” The Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery and the Mrs. E. Ross Anderson Auditorium will display works of six Egyptian artists through March 17.
“[The exhibition] is unique in a number of ways, but most importantly because the works are current, created at a time when Egypt is undergoing a huge transition, and because all the works are created in new media,” said Joanna Soltan, SMFA curator and one of the co-curators of “Histories of Now.”
The exhibition covers a wide range of Egyptian culture and politics, from what should be celebrated to what still needs to be changed. Collectively, the art serves to educate people about Egyptian culture and heritage as well as engage people in current conflicts.
“I think young people would be attracted to depictions of young Egyptians fighting for the new identity of that country,” said Evan Garza from SMFA Exhibitions and Public Programs.
The exhibition consists entirely of video pieces and other multimedia installations: Documentary footage, montages of images or original stories that reflect social events.
For one of the featured works, artist Ahmed Basiony attached sensors to his feet, arms and chest to run in place for an hour a day for 30 consecutive days, creating a digital display based on his motion. This display is combined with images from the first four days of rioting in downtown Cairo last year to create “30 Days of Running in the Place.” Basiony’s efforts came to an abrupt end with his assassination last January, but his friend Shady El Noshokaty edited and curated the work so it could be shown around the world.
“Each work is very strong,” said Soltan. “Each artist should be seen on his or her own terms. The overall emotion, however, is inevitable.”
The other exhibits include video installations by Mohamed Abla, Sabah Naim, Hala Elkoussy and Moataz Nasr. Abla’s “Out of the Water” features documentary footage of residents defending their homes from army-backed developers on Egypt’s Qorsaya Island. “People of the City,” Naim’s video and image montage, is a poetic tribute to Cairo’s citizens. Elkhoussy’s video “First Story – Mount of Forgetfulness” describes a young man’s realization that stories are “dying.” Depicting the dance of Sufi whirling dervishes, Nasr’s “Merge and Emerge” calls for spiritual solidarity amid current conflicts.
Shady El Noshokaty’s “Stammer – A Lecture in Theory” incorporates the idea of a teacher engaging students in art-making.
In a release for the exhibition, Press Coordinator Brooke Daniels said Noshokaty’s exhibit “is centered on the notion of stammering, a failed attempt at a speech act and, by extension, that which is located between communication and its failure.”
Each artist in the exhibition presents different views of the oppression and recent tumult with distinct emotions and concerns for Egypt. Together they represent part of Cairo’s new media movement which artists have been exploring there for years.
According to Garza, SMFA is hoping to highlight the artistic movement within these technologies and celebrate the pieces while the subject matter is current. He said after it was featured in the Egyptian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, the SMFA had been hoping to bring the works here to Boston. Only some of the artists have been previously part of American exhibitions, and this showing is the only one of its kind and size to ever take place in the US.
Monday through Saturday, students can view the pieces and learn about their message with free admission to the SMFA.
