Contemporary Art, Gay Art?
Thanks to Harvard students who wanted to "connect", now everyone in Cairo and some other provinces around Egypt has "Facebook".
And thanks to Facebook, this mighty, powerful social networking tool, that contemporary art is now much more accessible, not to mention visible to a whole new audience.
And to specify,someone like Kiki for example, got to know about the next biggest art event, more of an unfortunate event, through Facebook, and after terrorizing Kiki, she RSVPed as "attending".
And she and I, were not disappointed in the least.
At least not attendance wise.
Every high brow queen in the gay community showed up. All dressed to the six. Shirts with ruffles, t-shirts with political statements, avant-garde fashion, even the classic black could be seen here and there.
Despite reconciliation, or rather appropriation, the independent contemporary art scene in Cairo is very much "underground" and anti-government.
Like happenings in the 60s, independent contemporary art events are hosted in the most unusual of spaces. An old factory in downtown, a run down villa, or even some obscure old flat in the former colonial town center.
While all contemporary art seems overtly political, one has to only think of the latest exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York to know that, in Cairo there is a whole layer of "who gives the money".
Since independent artists rely on foreign funding and not local sponsors or donors, most foreign institutions or rather all of them, have an agenda or two.
And one can see it all over every single work produced.
Not only is the object of creation political, it is also heavily exoticized. The unfathomable Cairo, the impervious Cairo, the crazy Cairo, the dirty Cairo.
And while this, for a foreign observer, might be a subject to fascination, and exoticism, its hardly exotic or remotely appealing to s=have it seen projected on 42x20 screen by Egyptians themselves.
While Kiki bitched about which queen was wearing what, the highlight of our evening and the thing that caught our undivided attention was an installation of one artist who projected over 4 walls, 4 anonymous profiles of gay HIV positive men.
This particular artist has a history in using the peculiar and might I say tenuous position of the gay community in the Middle East and literally appropriating it for "artistic purposes".
And while this little installation might be devoid of any artistic or even meaningful content of any kind if these 4 anonymous happen to be European or Westerners, it gains this much power and creates this much controversy because of the fact that these four men are forced into anonymity because of who they are.
The pain becomes political. HIV, disease becomes political, their very identity and who they are, in the context of where they are, becomes political.
How much merit can we accord this fabulous artist?
Someone figured that sexuality is a taboo in the Middle East. Hurray you deserve a medal for that!
While Kiki was offended, I was just amused.
This is a very lazy artist with little or no ingenuity at all.
And if I judge by content I will give him a zero.
Yet why not spice things and give something for the donors to make their money worth its while.
Why not throw a few things about the veil and women's oppression and while we are at it show how sexually oppressed Cairians are?
Oh, and everyone's favorite subject, Cairo as an ecological wasteland.
And thanks to Facebook, this mighty, powerful social networking tool, that contemporary art is now much more accessible, not to mention visible to a whole new audience.
And to specify,someone like Kiki for example, got to know about the next biggest art event, more of an unfortunate event, through Facebook, and after terrorizing Kiki, she RSVPed as "attending".
And she and I, were not disappointed in the least.
At least not attendance wise.
Every high brow queen in the gay community showed up. All dressed to the six. Shirts with ruffles, t-shirts with political statements, avant-garde fashion, even the classic black could be seen here and there.
Despite reconciliation, or rather appropriation, the independent contemporary art scene in Cairo is very much "underground" and anti-government.
Like happenings in the 60s, independent contemporary art events are hosted in the most unusual of spaces. An old factory in downtown, a run down villa, or even some obscure old flat in the former colonial town center.
While all contemporary art seems overtly political, one has to only think of the latest exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York to know that, in Cairo there is a whole layer of "who gives the money".
Since independent artists rely on foreign funding and not local sponsors or donors, most foreign institutions or rather all of them, have an agenda or two.
And one can see it all over every single work produced.
Not only is the object of creation political, it is also heavily exoticized. The unfathomable Cairo, the impervious Cairo, the crazy Cairo, the dirty Cairo.
And while this, for a foreign observer, might be a subject to fascination, and exoticism, its hardly exotic or remotely appealing to s=have it seen projected on 42x20 screen by Egyptians themselves.
While Kiki bitched about which queen was wearing what, the highlight of our evening and the thing that caught our undivided attention was an installation of one artist who projected over 4 walls, 4 anonymous profiles of gay HIV positive men.
This particular artist has a history in using the peculiar and might I say tenuous position of the gay community in the Middle East and literally appropriating it for "artistic purposes".
And while this little installation might be devoid of any artistic or even meaningful content of any kind if these 4 anonymous happen to be European or Westerners, it gains this much power and creates this much controversy because of the fact that these four men are forced into anonymity because of who they are.
The pain becomes political. HIV, disease becomes political, their very identity and who they are, in the context of where they are, becomes political.
How much merit can we accord this fabulous artist?
Someone figured that sexuality is a taboo in the Middle East. Hurray you deserve a medal for that!
While Kiki was offended, I was just amused.
This is a very lazy artist with little or no ingenuity at all.
And if I judge by content I will give him a zero.
Yet why not spice things and give something for the donors to make their money worth its while.
Why not throw a few things about the veil and women's oppression and while we are at it show how sexually oppressed Cairians are?
Oh, and everyone's favorite subject, Cairo as an ecological wasteland.
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