MY NEIGHBOR
The 2011 CARAVAN Festival of the Art in Cairo, Egypt held during the month of May with the theme "My Neighbor" honored the compassionate spirit between Egyptians of all creeds in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.
Apart from the main visual arts exhibition involving 48 noted Middle Eastern and Western contemporary, a parallel exhibition titled "The Peoples’ Egypt since January 25th" was also held, as well as a literature evening with noted Egyptian novelist Khaled Al Khamissi and a music night with renowned Egyptian ney player, Mohammed Antar.
The exhibition was officially opened by United Nations Resident Coordinator, The Honorable James Rawley, with opening remarks by Bishop Botros, General Bishop for the Coptic Orthodox Church, and The Rt Rev Dr Mouneer H. Anis, Archbishop for the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East and Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Egypt, including a visiting delegation of 20 Muslim imams from Alexandria, Egypt.
CURATOR
Roland Prime
British artist Roland Prime served as the curator for the 2011 visual art exhibition of the CARAVAN Festival of the Arts. He graduated from Canterbury Christ Church College with a B.A. in Fine Arts where he studied painting and drawing; through the exploration of art his work became gradually more three dimensional.
Once qualified in welding, this background led him to also creating large sculptures in steel made from the discarded pieces of metal from the steel industry, a recycled art form, gaining public and private commissions in the process. On his painting, he says, “I had always wanted to paint and explore the variety of expression that can achieved through painting.”
ARTISTS
48 premier Middle Eastern and Western visual artists submitted work for a selling exhibition that reflected the theme “My Neighbor.” Additionally, a parallel exhibition was held entitled “The Peoples’ Egypt since January 25th", and the artists were invited to contribute artworks that were created in response to the events of the Egyptian revolution.
Galila Nawar
Guirguis Lotfi
Hakim Jamain
Hisham El Zeiny
Isolde Kadry
Maher Ali
Mansour Ahmed
Miriam Forham
Mohamed Abla
Mohamed Mandour
Mohamed Youssef
Nabil Lahoud
Naguib Mahmoud
Omar El Fayoumi
Rania El Hakim
Reda Abdel Rahman
Wilson Abrama Ntana
Abdel Wahab Abdel Mohsen
Ahmed Osama
Ahmed Selim
Asmaa Takieddine
Bishop Mouneer H Anis
Carelle Homsy
Dia Makeen
Farid Fadel
Farres Ahmed Farres
MIDDLE EASTERN ARTISTS
WESTERN ARTISTS
Anne du Boistesselin France
Ben Robinson USA
Britt Boutros Ghali Norway
Carolyn Seaton USA
Cath Barnes Wales
Cecilia Smith USA
Cosima Lukashevich USA
Dorian Haqmoun Switzerland
Jerome Meadows USA
Julia Morgan-Leamon USA
Julie Klimentos Greece
Julie Oxenforth UK
Katrina Vrebalovich Norway
Kimberly Odekirk USA
Lucy Westwood UK
Marielle van der Woude The Netherlands
Neil Crouch Canada
Renee van Lille-Demetroudes South Africa
Roland Prime UK
Silvia Davies Germany
Yasmine Perni Italy
LITERATURE NIGHT
Khaled El Khamissi signing books
On 14 May 2011, acclaimed Egyptian writer and novelist Khaled Al Khamissi gave a talk followed by a book-signing. He took an active part in the “25 January Egyptian revolution” and in his talk shared how his findings while writing his best-selling novel Taxi related to the historic happenings in Egypt.
In mid-2010, Khaled Al-Khamissi prophetically remarked: “When I was writing Taxi, between 2005 and 2006 something was stirring, a social movement I had never seen before, ready to demonstrate and protest. It was the start of a new era, a crucial start, the birth of a dream of change…A grass-root social movement, [is] the only [thing] able to create real change in the end”.
Khaled Al Khamissi is author of the international best-selling novel, Taxi. Born in Cairo, he studied first at Cairo University and then obtained a master’s degree in Political Science from the Sorbonne in Paris.
MUSIC
Mohammed Antar performing
Mohammed Antar performing
Audience listening to Mohammed Antar concert
Mohammed Antar performing
On 18 May 2011, renowned Ney (Middle Eastern Flute) player Mohammed Antar, performed a closing musical concert for the CARAVAN Festival of the Arts inside the historic St. John’s Church. Following the concert, Mohammed Antar said, “It was my deepest joy to play to God in this beautifully spiritual place.”
Mohammed Antar is the renowned Egyptian Ney (oriental flute) player, musical composer, and founder and conductor of Ensemble Munajah for meditative middle-eastern music (formerly Cairo Group for Sufi Chanting and Zikr) and Oriental Secrets Ensemble for traditional Middle Eastern music based in Cairo, Egypt. Being born blind opened the way to his ears to catch the beautiful tones surrounding him with little difficulty, and therefore he discovered this musical talent in an early age. At the age of four he was first exposed to the Ney instrument.