Welcome to Egypt

Welcome to EgyptJacqueline van der Venne Text & photographs

25th January 2008 to 8th February 2008 Dwayer’s international visual arts workshop for women is the first of its kind in the arts field in Egypt to gather women who work in the visual arts from the entire world in Alexandria. The workshop will be held with the initiative and organization of Dwayer group for arts and dialogue of cultures and corporation with Atelier of Alexandria (Assembly of Artists and Writers). It is aim to working in the relation between arts and the dialogue of cultures, especially in the fields of visual arts (with a cross over between performing and visual arts). 25 - 26 January 2008 from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM, The workshop will start for two days with a panel discussion for the participants about their artworks or a contemporary arts in their countries. 27 January - 6 February from 11:00 AM to 9:00, the workshop time at Atelier of Alexandria, and it’s open to public people who is interesting to attend, see, sharing and communicate with 33 artists from different countries, to develop and grow up the dialogue of cultures. 7 January 2008 at 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, the inauguration of the workshop re-sult and reception, in addition, at 8:30 to 10:00 PM private meeting with the participants about the negative / positive points of workshop.

10th February 2008 to 16 February 2008Dwayer’s international visual arts workshop for women is the first of its kind in the arts field in Egypt to gather women who work in the visual arts from the entire world in Alexandria. The workshop will be held with the initiative and organization of Dwayer group for arts and dialogue of cultures and corporation with Jesuit Cultural Center. It is aim to working in the relation between arts and the dialogue of cultures, especially in the fields of interdis-ciplinary work (with a cross over between performing and visual arts).The two workshops will gather a group of female artists to exchange their artistic work learn about their respective cultures and develop work toge-ther in a collective environment of intense dialogue and creativity. The goal of these workshop is to stimulate Egyptian female artists to create work through exchange and collaboration with international female artists as well,

and vice-versa, this would allow them a chance to connect to the new works happening in the other regions of the world now, and would support them by a friendly artistic environment.In this environment the artists would have the occasion to share their work and create or develop new pieces, through a period of 15 days. The number of participants will be 30 artists, 5 Egyptians and 25 from other countries. The workshop will end with a day of public presentation of the works produ-ced or developed by the artists. Every artist will also have the opportunity to give a presentation in the first two days of the workshop, about her own work and culture.

The partisipants: AMELIE SCALERCIO - AUSTRALIA, SIMGE UYGUR - CYPRIOT, NICOLA MUELLER - GERMANY, DOROTHY AMENUKE - GHANA, CAROLINE MBIRUA - KENYA, MARY OGEMBO - KENYA, JACQUELINE VAN DER VENNE - NETHERLANDS,ALICJA ROGALSKA - POLISH, MWANDALE MWANYEKWA - TANZANIA,INCI KANSU - TURKEY - CYPRIOT, SONYA RADEMEYER - SOUTH AFRICANMARIE SNAUWAET - BELGIAN,ELGIN RUST - GERMANY / SOUTH AFRICA,EVGUENIA GOLANT - RUSSIA,LYNETTE BESTER - SOUTH AFRICA,KATHERINE BULL - SOUTH AFRICA, HAYRIYE KOC - TURKEY, NICOLA GRAY - UNITED KINGDOM FAREHA ZEBA - BANGLADESHRUBY CHISHTI - PAKISTANALIAA ELGREADY, AMAL NASR, IMAN EZZAT, MAHA SOBIH, NIVIN ELRE-FAEY, SANDY SAMY, RAWIA SADEK , IMAN EZZAT - EGYPT

DWAYER’s INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN

LANDED AT BORG AL ARAB AIRPORT23-0-08

I arrived at Borg Al El Arab airport in the middle of the night at 1 a.m. After twice standing with my passport in the wrong line, I was the last passen-ger who left the airport. There was supposed to be a taxi driver holding my name on a piece of paper waiting to take me to the hotel - but, of course, there was no taxi driver holding up my name. Immediately I was ripped of by a person who wanted to carry my suitcase for a few steps and asked for money for it. Another taxi driver offered to take me to the New Cabry Hotel. He said that he knew were it was. He drove at full speed in a very old Peugeot, honking the horn loudly all the way. The taxi driver said that it was 43 miles to the hotel. He spoke broken English and said: ‘New Cabry Hotel 1 star - know hotel more star - you want?’ No, no, no they expect me at the New Cabry Hotel, I really have to go there! Please bring me to the New Cabry Hotel!

Suddenly, and sooner than I expected, he stopped in front of a horrible dirty old building. This can’t be happening! This is a mistake. No way that the New Cabry Hotel is here! This is the wrong address. It was also supposed to be the New Cabry Hotel, not New Capry as was written on a sign above the door. I had the telephone number of the hotel with me and the taxi driver called the New Cabry hotel. Yep! It is definitely here, the taxi driver said. I was panicking and before I knew it there were 5 men standing next to me, including a police officer, and they all claimed that this really was the New Cabry Hotel and that they were expecting me. For sure I am not going in here! This is a night mare. A donkey with a hamper was standing in front of me and in the hallway of the hotel there was a mountain of scrap pieces of bricks lying in a corner. The pavement was broken everywere. What was this terrible place? My first impression of the New Capry Hotel was a huge shock!

New Cabry was a written mistake on the information we had from the or-ganisers, it was supposed to be the New Capry Hotel. The p and b are the same in Arabic. The hotel was on the 7th floor and at first sight it did look quite OK. One of the boys who brought me up in the elevator to the hotel said: ‘you are safe now’, and he took me to my room with a view over the sea and a square with a huge statue of general Said Zaghloul.

PRESENTATIONS 25-01-08

The sea will be my next exhibition. With the size of a stamp projected on the wall with a beam of light. This is a picture of me when I was 18. And this is the end of my presentation. Fine! Now it is Mary’s turn and she starts her story by saying that she is going to keep it short. Good for you! We have been busy since 10.00 o’clock this morning with these presentations of all the artists’ work. The time is now exactly 18.03. Much too long, and some of the artists are losing themselves in their stories and won’t stop talking and showing photographs and it is becoming irritating. Mary goes on with her story and I hear her talking about the beautiful Masaï women. Just to show the beauty of the woman and the jewellery and the nice beats. Mary kept her word and keeps her story short; luckily, because I am wiped out. Ten minutes each for a presentation is more than enough!

Hayriye from Turkey just told me that she wants to go home immediately. She wants to change her ticket so she can fly back home right away. Bad organisation -she has to share her room with Nicola Gray from England - without a bathroom and toilet. It is freezing cold, it is too windy, the food is horrible and many more complaints she has. This morning I saw Hayriye at breakfast who I met in Germany last year. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw her. I didn’t know that she would be here as well. She, like everybody else, was in a state of shock at seeing the entrance of the hotel for the first time. That is why she wanted to go home at once.

At this moment Caroline is talking and I really hope that she doesn’t take a long time. She talks as well about the beautiful Masaï women who are so in-spiring to her. Please keep it short because I am exhausted! I said to Nicola and Hayriye that they have to keep it short definitely, otherwise I drag them from the stage myself, which made us laugh.

Alicja drank coffee with women of different nationalities and she wrote down on the wall what was said in these conversations. She shows us photo-graphs of a plate of spaghetti.

Amelie works together with her boyfriend in so-called ‘collaborative art’ which is very popular nowadays. They tie their wrists together with a rope and then they make criss-cross drawing with a pencil in their hands. She


said that they play it rough sometimes because it is also a matter of who is the strongest at the time. Amelie is very tiny and small.

Lynette with her stand up piano and a flower she made out of wood. She worked for 2 months to make the flower as well as doing her full time job. She burned the flower to charcoal in a special burning process. She was terrified that her flower would burn up totally. Also she made a sculpture from a dry ordinary Marie biscuit that she gave away with an authenticity certificate.

This day is just too long and at one point you are not able to listen anymore. It is Marie from Belgium’s turn now. She talks about fortune cookies and the text that she puts inside. Claustrophobia, the beauty and the horrible life. She shows a video of a child with her head on the table with a very annoying voice. Luckily we don’t have to see the whole video because Marie stops half way through, saying that it goes on and on like this for a long time. I want to go to the hotel! We have a late dinner in the restaurant in the hotel where they don’t serve alcohol.

THE WEATHER IS HORRIBLE 26-01-08

Luckily it didn’t go as slowly as yesterday. Everybody kept their presentation really short today.

Sonya from South Africa showed us jam jars in a row and under each other which is supposed to be the female period. She made sculptures from human hair and, as she said, it was a lot of work to make them. The German Nicola from Berlin had photographs of people wearing masks - and she sho-wed us pictures of all kind of structures like fences, bricks, and tiles.

In the afternoon we went for a walk with Aliaa who guided us around. But first we got a huge carton box for our lunch with mango juice, chips, a ham-burger, banana, falafel, cheese, and pickled vegetables.

When we were finally finished with all the presentations we had to look in the Atelier d’Alexandria for a space to work for the next two weeks. Elgin chose the lounge with a big and comfortable sofa and big comfortable chairs - which of course was a brilliant idea. What they expect from us and what they would they like us to do, I am not sure at this point.

Big Mama from Tanzania showed me where she was working outside and there was a big tree trunk waiting for her to make a sculpture out of. She works with wood and stone. Big Mama is very good in wood carving which she finishes by rubbing them with a homemade oil.

The weather is horrible, very cold and it starts raining heavier and heavier. My clothes are not warm enough because I really thought that the weather would be tropical. I even brought my bikini with me. In the hotel it is cold as well because there is no heating. The wind is blowing through the hotel, and doors and windows are slamming everywhere. Kenya, Tanzania, Cyprus and Ghana are very cold all the time; they even sleep with their clothes on.

This morning I asked the waiter in the restaurant if they couldn’t turn up the heating. ‘Maybe next year’, he said. It looks like they also have the air-conditioning working, only cold air comes out instead. Eve-rybody is complaining because of the cold. I am definitely not the only one who thought it would be much warmer in Egypt.

Tonight Aliaa is taking us to a bar where we were yesterday evening as well. Aliaa’s friends are coming over from Cairo and there we will talk together about art. Yesterday the wine was great so it is going to be a cosy evening. First we have dinner in the restaurant in the hotel.

This morning I had to move to another room because I had a double be-droom and that is not allowed. My single room is on the 3rd floor with a very little window and no nice view at all. In the Lonely Planet, I read that in Alex you must never accept a room in a hotel without a sea view.

Welcome to Egypt

ATELIER ALEXANDRIA27-01-08

In Atelier Alexandria, I am sitting on the couch next to Nicola Gray who is trying to get her camera in the right mode. We all get a big white cardboard box again with our lunch in it. The imam sings in the background and inbe-tween you hear, throughout the building, the voices of the artists talking. This morning I made a photo series of Big Mama who is working with her big tree trunk outside. She makes everybody laugh including 2 artists who try to convince her that they are really nice Egyptian men and very women friendly. Big Mama keeps on saying, while she is holding her axe in the air, that they: ‘gonna have a big problem with her! What is your problem! Go to sleep!’

Mary is busy with an installation of rusty old stuff which she found in the atelier of an artist. She wants to attach the iron onto wood. Nicola gets her things and goes to the hotel to find batteries. Maha comes to sit next to me to tie her shoes because she is going for a walk with her camera. She is doing something she already did before with photographs and will assemble it on a big wooden light box.

Cyprus works very hard every day and always on the same table. Inci and Simge have had a terrible cold since they arrived, but they are not the only ones. Dorothy works on her silk paintings. She gives lessons in batik. She is a very busy woman. Dorothy is just back from New York were she was an artist in residence for a month and after this workshop she is heading to Baltimore for an exhibition.

The Egyptian artists are often not in the Atelier during the workshop, or they come over for a few hours and than go away again. Except Rawia who is staying in the Hotel New Capry as well because she lives in Cairo. She works as a French translator and speaks very good English. Her family is from Palestine, Turkey, and France.

It is almost impossible to get to know everyone really well in such a short time. It goes automatically that the younger ones stick together and the older ones from the group get along very well. In the end the young ones complain about the fact that the elder artists isolate themselves. The young ones do that to themselves and in a way they ignore the older artists from

the group. I don’t mind but don’t complain about it in the end. I don’t like forced collaboration. You feel a connection with someone or you don’t, it clicks or not. Also, to talk about each other’s work in a group session, I am not up for that right now. We are not at the university anymore. It is also not psychotherapy. It is important to focus on your own work and feel free with it. Otherwise it can be at the cost of your own work. In this situation you mustn’t force anyone to collaborate with someone else, because either you like to talk about your work and what is it about with a person, or you don’t. That is up to you.

Welcome to Egypt

ZEBA FROM BANGLADESH 28-01-08

Nicola Gray screws her camera on the tripod in the big hallway of the Atelier Alexandria. Elgin and Aliaa are sitting opposite of me and are discussing their project. Aliaa is an Egyptian artist who lives in Alexandria. Elgin swap-ped her hotel room for Aliaa’s house for 5 days. That is Elgin’s art project where the idea is that Aliaa is supposed to be a tourist in Alexandria. Aliaa is Elgin for 5 days, and Elgin is Aliaa. Elgin even wants Aliaa to walk around with a blond wig as well but I don’t think Aliaa is buying that. The whole pro-ject is going to be published with photographs in a newspaper.

Nicola is standing in front of me trying to focus her camera on a chandelier that is hanging from the ceiling. She turns on the light. People are walking in and out of the atelier. Three Egyptians are talking in a corner and music is playing.

Caroline and Big Mama put their jewellery on the floor to sell and so every one is wearing a whole bunch of ebony bracelets, including myself, which Big Mama made. You can hear the bracelets through the whole building as well. I bought 3 necklaces from Caroline, and one from Dorothy.

Everybody is very busy with filming and making pictures in the Atelier. Often someone asks me how my project is developing, what I am going to do, if I am progressing with my work and if I have great ideas. Dorothy passes by with a plastic cup of water and brushes. In the meantime another Egyp-tian artist is on the phone while her son is bored and is running around in the atelier. Nicola comes to sit next to me while Evguenia is busy with her phone.

The artists from Cyprus are concentrating on their work and they hardly go away from their table. They are working with papier-mâché. Inci asked eve-rybody to bring newspapers from their own country and she is using them now. It is my eye, says Inci, when I asked her what she was making.

Yesterday evening we were drinking a glass of wine on Elgin’s balcony when a woman came in. We asked if she was Bongi from South Africa but no, she was Zeba all the way from Bangladesh. She had just arrived and, just like the rest of us, her clothes were too thin. She couldn’t come sooner because

of her work. Nicola Gray asked Zeba if she new the artist Mahbub Rah-man from Bangladesh? ‘Yes’ she knows him very well, they are even good friends. It is a small world after all.

Nicola is standing up again, takes her tripod and tries to focus her camera on the same kitsch lamp. She falls down on the couch with her camera that is still on the tripod and she tries to focus her camera again.

Welcome to Egypt

Very bad unhealthy air 29-01-08

In the Atelier Alexandria, it is very busy. You can hear Arabic, English, Turkish. Next to me is an Egyptian artist using horrible smelly spray paint. Hopefully she is not going to use this paint every day. Some artists have a nice table to work on but of course I don’t. I put a stand on 2 chairs to be something like a table but it is the wrong height so it is quite uncomfortable. My laptop is sliding slowly off my lap.

The smell from the paint the Egyptian artist is using is horrible and very annoying. Today a made some videos of the 2 Cypriot artists who are with me in the same space working on a huge table. As I am recording, suddenly Nicola Gray steps into the frame and puts out her tongue which is very funny. Inci is working with papier-mâché on what seems to me to be Egyp-tian eyes. Simge made a cocoon from papier-mâché that she is stuffing with black twine. Simge sews the black twine onto jute also.

The volume is pumped up with Arabic music. Marie has had her purse sto-len with her passport as well. They are standing next to me discussing what they are going to do. Alicja comes to ask me what I am doing and tells me that a forum would be great to put on my web-site. Sandy, who is standing next to me with that horrible paint that smells like petrol or turpentine, puts music on as well, so now I hear 2 different kinds of music.

Today I was a model for Katherine who is doing portraits in Photoshop in big pixels of all the artists who are participating in the workshop. She draws me from behind with my nose in the direction of the Netherlands. She marked out on the floor the direction of all the countries with tape. Katherine was well prepared when she came to Egypt and had planned out her project be-fore she came. She had printed invitations in South Africa already inviting us all for a Photoshop sit in. She has her laptop, chairs, camera and iPod with her; she didn’t leave anything to chance in her project. All her equipment is from the Stellenbosch University near Cape Town where she teaches.

My neighbour Dorothy is shivering all the time because of the cold. She is painting on silk and wears a big apron with ‘Smullers’ written on it.

Caroline is working in the basement with 2 aluminium frames which she

found somewhere. One frame she used to stick little shelves, surrounded with little red paint splashes. I asked her what her idea was in the work, and she said that it was that we are all heading in the same direction with the same goal. The first thing that pops into my mind is that we are all heading towards death, but I don’t want to say that because it is so negative. But then she said it herself; that that is our main goal in life. We are all in the same boat and we had to laugh about that.

Her neighbour Sonya has made plastic cushions which she has filled with cement. Sonya gave everybody a form to fill in with all kind of questions. She made the forms at home in Cape Town; the questions were about em-pathy in relation to art. We have to answer all kinds of difficult questions and I don’t know the answer.

There goes again a cellphone with an Arabic ring tone. In the meantime eve-rybody is photographing and filming a lot. Sometimes 3 persons at a time are making pictures. Caroline is coming over to us because she is just fini-shed with her modelling job for Katherine. Now the artist from Bangladesh is coming over to me and says: ‘you people are so lucky. You have your laptop and can sit wherever you want and do your work wherever you like’, and off she goes. You can hear Big Mama chopping wood outside where it is freezing cold.

Sandy starts to use spray paint again and I tell her that she really must stop it right away. I have had it! That’s it! This is unhealthy! I tell her it is very bad to work with spray paint without protection. Go work outside, I said in a friendly way. A lot of people complained about her smelly horrible paint but she doesn’t care and she keeps on spraying until the last day. Even the fact that someone has asthma doesn’t bother her. Sometimes she uses that smelly paint and puts on her coat and goes away, so we sit all day in her bad unhealthy smell. She even lives and has her own atelier in the same street as Atelier Alexandria. So I ask her nicely if she could work in her own atelier across the street. But she looks angrily at me. How dare I say any-thing about it at all in the first place!


BREAKFAST AT HOTEL NEW CAPRY 30-01-08

This morning I had breakfast with Nicola, Hayriye and the South African Ly-nette who didn’t sleep well because she was too excited about starting her art work today and she knows exactly how. Until now, Lynette had just been making preparations for her work - and this is the big day to start her art project. Lynette asked everybody to bring something special from their own home country so she got a whole lot of nice presents. That is a super idea - to get all kinds of nice stuff. I gave her some little blue porcelain shoes with Holland written on them. From Russia: a Matrioshka; an old cell phone from Elgin’s boyfriend; a necklace with a tulip from Hayriye; handmade little table cloths; a knife; Dove deodorant and a whole lot more. Wonder how her work is going to work out.

The weather is bad and the wind goes around like crazy through the hotel because the windows and doors don’t close properly. Kenya, Ghana, Tanza-nia and Cyprus especially are shivering all the time from the cold although they wear 3 sweaters which they borrowed from the Egyptians. At this mo-ment it is 25 Celsius in Kenya and 40 Celsius in Ghana. They packed totally wrong things, just like me. I have my bikini and sun block with me and that is a big laugh.

For breakfast we have croissants, rolls, falafel, cheese, olives, omelette, tomatoes, cucumber and the mashed beans that are a typical Egyptian speciality - and eaten best in the morning because it is too heavy to digest otherwise. Dinner was great yesterday. Lovely! Fish, humus, eggplant with tomatoes, pasta with seafood, salad, beetroots, and mixed fruit salad for desert. After dinner we went out quickly between the heavy rain to get some wine in the store. We drank the wine in my room playing the video tape I made earlier in the day of Inci and Simge over and over again. At one mo-ment Nicola Gray appears, sticks out her tongue and walks away from the camera, which we thought was hilarious. We rewind the video all the time and find it so very funny to see. Nicola wants to step into all my videos, and put out her tongue everywhere. That is great art! She is deadly serious. Elgin tells us that Marie from Belgium hired a white classical wedding dress and wants to make pictures of each of us wearing the wedding dress. That is art! No way will I put on a white wedding dress and let her make photographs of

me like that. Inci, Simge and Hayriye don’t want to put the wedding dress on either.

When someone’s cell phone goes off, it is with an Arabic ring tone. The waiter from the restaurant gave me a CD with Arabic music that sounds a bit western to me. They turn up the volume really loud on the television in the restaurant.

Nicola and Hayriye asked for another room this morning because their room was too windy. And they didn’t have a toilet or shower in the room. My room does but my toilet and shower are not working. Yesterday the shower was working but there was hardly any pressure on the water. The toilet paper here is in short supplyl. You have to ask here every time for new toilet paper.


ALEX31-01-08

Today we drove all day in 2 white mini vans through Alexandria. From one tourist place to another, from one Ottoman castle to a Roman catacomb, the museum - and the famous library were the Tale of the Thousand and One Nights and the Nobel prize winner Naguib Mahfouz are, among others, forbidden literature.

There are loads of tourists walking around. We stood in a totally stuffy grave tomb of 54 square feet, with our guide trying to scream in broken English over the Spanish guide. We had to wait to get in because the Japanese, Spanish, or Canadian had to get out first.

Ruby Chishti from Pakistan just arrived today without her suitcase, which didn’t arrive at the airport. And her clothes are too thin as well. Ruby lives in St. Francisco- and now she has come straight from Pakistan. Aliaa promised to give her warm clothes tonight, just like she gave to some of the others. Ruby is famous, said Zeba who knows Ruby personally, and her work is very good.

The artists from Ethiopia, Iraq and Palestine couldn’t come to the workshop because they didn’t get a visa. I didn’t know that something like this exists, I never heard about it before.

Because we walked around all day, I am exhausted right now. We have still to go tonight to Elgin’s and Aliaa’s house warming party. The party is in Ali-aa’s house, not far from the hotel. Aliaa is now living in the Hotel New Capry. That is Elgin’s art project, but although Aliaa is going along with it she is not totally convinced about it.

There goes the telephone and it is Elgin who asks me to bring some music and wine for Evgenia as well - who is already there and is painting a piano on the wall. So Evguenia wants to play the piano tonight. Of course I will bring the wine and Ipod to the party.

Today we have an early dinner at 19.00 which, for the Egyptians, is very early. Sometimes we have dinner at 22.30 and then you are starving already. Dinner is great tonight. The cook is a woman with a veil and there on her

head she is wearing a chef’s hat as well. She serves our meal tonight. The lunch box we got today was at 16.00 so I am not really hungry at the mo-ment. The boys who have to prepare our lunch boxes are caring less and less because today they put cold chips in a roll. The Imam starts to sing again and he is calling to Allah in his prayer.

Welcome to Egypt

5 NEW BORN BABIES 01-02-08

After breakfast Aliaa, Nicola and I had Turkish coffee on a terrace. We talk about everything and nothing. It is true that Marie wants to make photo-graphs of us in a classical white wedding dress. South Africa is very dange-rous and after 18.00 you can’t go out anymore because it is not safe. Almost everybody there has a gun in the house. How can Katherine, Elgin, Lynette and Sonya live there I wonder? Incredible! Maybe you get used to the violence. Elgin said that a friend of hers was robbed 9 times at gun or knife point. Her friend has had enough and is leaving South Africa now for good. The safest way to move around there is in a car but that is also not totally secure because there is car jacking. Make no resistance when you are rob-bed, give them immediately all that they want because they can blow your head of just for a cell phone. They build big walls around the buildings just for the protection of the white people. Johannesburg is much more dange-rous then Cape Town so I hear. It is the aftermath of the ‘Apartheid’ regime; it still has an impact on the population.

Aliaa is working for Gudrun in Alex and is also in charge of international workshops. Nicola Gray is a co-ordinator for the Braziers Workshop in the UK. They both know what it is like to be in charge of a workshop and be prepared for all these artists with these crazy ideas. Nicola said that the most difficult thing she had to resolve was for a Mexican artist. In the Braziers kitchen there was a match box with 3 nice white horses on it. The Mexican got inspired and he wanted to put 3 white horses in a meadow as an art project. Nicola had to look for 3 white horses in the UK. At one point she gave up and handed over the telephone book to the Mexican so he could look for these horses himself. (If I was Nicola I would have done that right away) The Mexican got his 3 horses in the meadow in the end because he went for it and wouldn’t give up on his idea.

After the coffee Nicola and I went for a walk with our cameras and Aliaa went working with her laptop somewhere in a quiet place. Suddenly we noti-ced there were green carpets everywhere on the ground and I thought it was a big carpet shop - but no, the big Friday prayer was on. The imam starts his call to prayer through the loud speakers and calls for Allah. The imam doesn’t sound very friendly although we can’t understand anything at all that he is saying. We go back to the hotel and men are on their knees every-

where praying all together. They bend right over, stand up, and go down on their knees again, touching their heads on the floor. Without them seeing I take some pictures from all these praying men but they weren’t successful; they came out as a big blur.

Doctor Farouk Wahba is an Egyptian artist and we go to visit him this after-noon all together in 2 mini vans to his house. He has a huge house, studio and big garden. He is probably a successful artist. Farouk Wahba’s work is full of ancient Egyptian symbols like hieroglyphs, mummies, papyrus, sca-rabs, and winds-els. We got to eat tangerines, roasted sweet potatoes and bananas in his garden. The visit was a bit too long and it started to get cold again so we all were happy when we could go back to the hotel.

On the way back Ruby was sitting next to me and we spoke the whole way through. She makes babies from old flesh coloured tights which she sews together with needle and thread. She is making 5 new borns for the exhibi-tion. In the past she made some little burkas. Ruby also made an artwork in the past to honour her birth that has the title: ‘My birth will take place a thousand times no matter how you celebrate it’. She was born as the 4th daugheter in the family and everybody including her father cried there eyes out because she was again a baby girl instead of a baby boy which, in Pakistan, is a big disgrace to get a daughter instead of a son. Ruby gave me a photograph from ‘My birth will take place a thousand times no matter how you celebrate it’ - and tells me a story that women in Afghanistan veil themselves completely when their sons turn 7 years old so the son wouldn’t recognise his own mother when he sees her unveiled. Very sad story.

We were dropped of at the Atelier and we walked back to the hotel. The smog is horrible at this moment. You can’t breath in Alex. You get dizzy from the bad petrol air.


EXHIBITION OPENING ON THE 7 FEBRUARY 02-02-08

It is already Saturday, early in the morning. The sun shines brightly in my little room. The weather is much better now, luckily, and the wind is not blowing so much through the hotel anymore. It is not as cold as it was. My bathroom is still not working although a plumber has looked at it 3 times already. Tomorrow we are all going to Cairo; we will leave early, at 6 o’clock, so it is going to be a long day. It is a 2 hour drive to Cairo and we are going to see all the tourist attractions - like the pyramids of course.

Yesterday, when we had dinner, we heard that Poland and Belgium have a new idea: they want to record everything the Egyptian men are saying to them in the street like ‘Fuck, come to me’, ‘I want you’, Welcome to Egypt’, and so on. They want to put these words together on a tape and repeat them all the time and play that at the exhibition - just like the wedding dress idea and the cat story. Alicja’s idea is also to feed 21 street cats by putting them around a table and feeding them all together.

In the restaurant there are 3 veiled women having breakfast. They are mo-ther, daughter and daughter in law I have heard. The mother is totally veiled so you can see only her eyes. Every time she wants to have a bite to eat she has to lift her veil quickly. The father is also in the hotel and he looks to me pretty normal, but Zeba says that he is a very unfriendly man who uses his wife a slave.

The exhibition of our work is on the 7th February. Mohammed wants to talk with us all the time. He loves to see our work and he wants to go out with us. Ruby is fed up and turns her face to the wall so she has a little more privacy and can concentrate better on her work. Everybody is working and doing their job. You can hear Arabic, English, French and German talking. Mohammed gave Mary a copper horse which she is making a painting of on canvas. Nivin is busy with 2 huge paintings on canvas with ‘Female Art’ writ-ten on them. She probably worked on them at home before the workshop even started, because she couldn’t have done that only in these last few days.

Dorothy is making a battle dress from white organza with white frills. She tells me that, at home she wears a battle dress all the time. Nicola is coming

over to me and tells me that she is waiting for the toilet, which is good infor-mation to put on my blog. Everybody is walking around and Mohammed has found in Nivin a new friend to talk with.

I show Dorothy, Mary and Caroline the video I made of them and they can’t stop laughing when they see it. Simge is back again from looking for a shop where they wanted to buy hand made paper but they couldn’t find it. Simge asks me if I would like a cup of Nescafe and that is what I want right now. Simge asks me to give her a hand. In the kitchen there is a man on the floor praying on his knees. Simge makes coffee as if the man isn’t there at all. The man stands up, bends over and gets down on his knees again.

With Mary I look for some nice photographs of her work for the web site. Suddenly an old man comes to sit next to us on the table who we can’t un-derstand. To me he looks drunk. He stands up to kiss Simge and I - 2 times on the cheek. The man is crazy, we found out later. Simge was so polite to him and she said to him: nice to meet you and thank you very much, and very kind of you.

Nicola asks me to go back to the hotel and we do.

Welcome to Egypt

CAIRO04-02-08

Yesterday we went to Cairo. We should have left at 7 in the morning but the bus came one hour later so we were standing outside waiting for an hour. First we went to the pyramids where we had exactly 1 hour to walk around. Some people even saw the king’s chamber in the pyramid, and walked around the 3 pyramids and the sphinx as well within that time. Mary, Dorothy and Caro kept us waiting because they had to ride on a camel and horse.

After the pyramids we went to the Egyptian museum where we had exactly 1.5 hours to look around. I had been in Cairo when I was 18 and memories were popping up in my head. In the museum, I visited the royal mummies department with Ruby. When I was there way back, the mummy department was closed because the mummies were in such a bad shape. It put me at ease that some famous mummies like Ramses II are kept well now.

Zeba said that Egypt gave a mummy to Bangladesh as a present and a lot of people come specially to the museum only to see the Egyptian mummy.

We went to have a koshary meal somewhere; this is a speciality of the Egyptian kitchen. Rice, chick peas, lentils, spaghetti, and fried onions all mixed together with a red sauce on top of it. We all got a can of 7-Up with it. We were by then already totally exhausted but our next stop was the Town-house Gallery who send me e-mails sometimes at home. The Townhouse Gallery is a big place; the walls had black and white drawings all over them. They run an artist in residence programme and they have a shop where you can buy all kind of things like jewellery, photographs and leather. Then we went to see an exhibition in the Opera House; a big exhibition where Moataz and Reem are participating artists with a lot of other artists as well. The show had an Arabic sense and atmosphere. Al Husein Tarek was our next stop where the famous mosque is surrounded with a lot of little shops called the souk. I bought rose and lily oil perfume and a huge golden scarf becau-se I couldn’t say no to the salesmen.

At 23.00 we headed home to Alex where we arrived at 2 in the morning. Im-mediately I went straight to my room and there I was already in my pyjama when the phone rang; it was reception with the message that dinner was being served. That was the last thing I wanted to do right then, I wanted to

just go to sleep.

Marie asked me yesterday if I wanted to pose for photographs in the wed-ding dress as well. I had heard about her project already and I wasn’t inten-ding to dress up like bride so I gave her a big no no. Today someone told me that everybody who won’t participate with her wedding dress project, then she will put a picture in black from that person in her art work. I have confronted Marie with this and I said to her that I made myself very clear that I don’t want to be in her wedding dress project - meaning also not with a black picture in it. No means no.

According to Zeba there are 150,000,000 Bangladeshis. We ate lunch toge-ther and Zeba gave me a tea bag so I could make my own cup of tea in the kitchen. In 1972 my mother bought the 3 double album with that famous song on it from George Harrison, ‘Bangladesh’, that was all about the big hunger disaster at the time. I tell Zeba who knows the song as well. All the money from that album went to the people in Bangladesh.

Ruby has nearly finished 3 babies. She gives birth easily. Ruby, Moataz and Reem will give a presentation about their work today. Mohammed comes in to tell us what time it is right now. The window from the Atelier is open so you can see a group of children who are working with clay in a workshop. The teacher works in the Alex library and organises the ceramic exhibitions there. Elgin comes to sit next to me with her big lunch box and starts eating.

We are waiting for the presentations so I can’t go back to the hotel right now. In the background the imam starts again with his praying. Evguenia comes to sit next to me as well with a catalogue from Reem. We have dinner at 19.30 because we are invited for a party at Sandy’s. In the Atelier there is no internet and there is no internet in the hotel either, because of the storm, and right now half of the Arabic world is without internet. A very important cable was broken under the sea, so no internet in Egypt for now. Zeba says to Ruby that it goes well with her work because she has already finished 3 babies but Ruby is not satisfied yet and wants to finish at least 6 babies. Aliaa is still busy building her huge tent from fake cheap leather and her friends all give her a hand. Sonya asked me to put a video on a USB stick to import on my laptop. Nicola is looking for a digital print shop in Alex. Hayriye went back early to

Welcome to Egypt

THE ELEVATOR 05-0208

The waiter sweeps the carpet with a broom. The television is turned on really loud. The famous Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum is on the television who stole the hearts of kings and a lot of other famous people who gave her loads of expensive presents like jewels. She is still very popular in the Arabic world. Ask any Arab about Umm Kulthum and they fall in love imme-diately, says Aliaa.

Egypt won the football match against Angola yesterday, 2-1. The Egyptians shouted with joy and you could hear it everywhere during the match in Alex. Yalla, yalla! All the men were watching television in the cafes.

When you get into the New Cabry elevator, suddenly an old man steps out from behind a curtain wearing a nice deep red costume with gold braid and a cap. He opens the door of the elevator and pushes the button. Immediate-ly the imam starts his call to prayer and calls ‘Alaa Akba’ through the loud-speakers in the elevator. Always the same prayer whether you are going up or down. There can’t be any more then 4 persons in the elevator otherwise it gets stuck half way, but there is a trick to move the elevator again by turning on a tiny propeller a bit. Hayriye made a video of the elevator with sound as well. Because the elevator has a glass window you can see the floors passing by. Hayriye’s video is called ‘The Elevator’. Even Aliaa, the Egyptian, never heard a prayer in an elevator before.

Evguenia leaves to paint in a cafe in the neighbourhood. She makes lovely paintings. Sonya wants to buy a painting from her and put her in contact with a gallery in Cape Town. Evguenia is from St. Petersburg where I have wanted to go all my life. This morning she invited me to come over to St. Petersburg. In 2006 I was working for 2 months as an artist in residence in Finland. Ekenäs is only a 2 hour drive from St Petersburg. Evguenia wants to go as well to Pro Artibus so I gave her the address for the artist in residence.

The weather is glorious today and the sea is cobalt blue. The sound of the honking from the cars is there all the time. The waiters are walking around with a full tray and call at reception. The glass tinkles and suddenly a horn sounds. A waiter is humming while he dusts the furniture. In this hotel, toilet


the hotel because she prefers to work in a quiet place. Ruby and Zeba are talking all the time while they are working sitting next to each other. We ex-change some good artist in residence addresses in Pakistan, USA and India, where she has been herself and where Ruby had very good experiences. Trans Artist is a good website, says Ruby. Reem and Big Mama are walking in with several veiled women. The German flute player Mohsen Abd Rabbo walks to his private atelier and starts playing.

paper is difficult to get. Every time you have to ask for new toilet paper at reception and there are at least 3 waiters or a desk clerk present. Then they beep something so loud that you can it hear through the whole hotel. They say ‘later’, but I say I need the toilet paper now. They send someone out to get toilet paper for me. Yesterday evening I asked for new toilet paper and I kept on waiting at the reception for 5 minutes and then the clerk said that they would bring the toilet paper to my room. So I went upstairs and there is the waiter running down the stairs towards me, waving, with the toilet paper in his hand.

Today we have a meeting at 1 in the Atelier. The opening of the exhibition will be at 18.00 on the 7th February. We are going to discuss who hangs what where. It is too short notice for an exhibition. My work is far from finished yet. I have to sort out my videos and photographs first. Also I am busy with my blog and website. I can’t upload the website here because the internet is too slow so I will do that at home. Also I have to go through the text I wrote for the website and translate it into English. There are a few peo-ple who I met in Alex who I want to invite for the opening of the exhibition because I promised them I would. Reem and Moataz asked me to invite the Dutch embassy as well and I did by sending them an e-mail. Reem, Moataz and Ruby will give a presentation in a minute about their work because yes-terday it didn’t happen.

Now there is no presentation because there is no time for that. Now it is 16.30 and we waited the whole afternoon for the presentation. In the me-antime I filmed the African ladies while they were dancing to African music. Everybody is walking around busy with their work for the exhibition. There is a lot of cleaning to do. Yesterday I made a video of Aliaa’s tent but it failed. Aliaa has a lot of friends who help her to build the tent which will have a video playing in it. I copied some great music from Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Africa today. Today Maha gave me a bookmark with Egyptian hier-oglyphs on it and Zeba gave me a beautiful hand made woven scarf from Bangladesh as a present.

Amelia has been drawing a copy for nearly four days of a little white drinks mat that protects the table from the wet glass with ‘I love Egypt’ on it. Katherine is busy Photoshopping Lynette’s portrait right now. Sonya has made her cement pillows. The plastic she used for her pillows was painted on by children from an orphanage in the neighbourhood. These drawings

are copied onto glass as well. Inci talks with Moataz about the best place to put her work for the exhibition. They know each other from the biennial in Tunis where they were both invited to exhibit their work. Inci showed there a huge paper tunnel inspired by the coal-miners that she keeps now in a box. Ruby just came back from downtown Alex. She went out to get new stuffing for her babies and right now she is looking for Mohammed the housekeeper. Nicola Gray walks around with her tripod. Simge is putting her art on the wall and is blowing her nose again. Nicola Muller sits next to her husband. Everybody walks around and talks with each other. The music from Ghana is still on and Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania are dancing the afternoon away.

After a good walk through Alex I drank a big glass of pomegranate juice. Lo-vely! You can buy lots of nice juices like mango, strawberry, oranges, apple, banana, and guava. When you walk across the street in Egypt men say all the time ‘Welcome to Egypt’. The pavements are all broken up, it is a big mess in Alex. There is hardly a pavement that is not all broken up. Only a few pavements seem to be paved. There are bumps in the road, stones, mud and mountains of sand everywhere. If you were moving around in an invalid chair in Alex, you wouldn’t get far. They start drilling in the middle of the night, driving around with trucks and digging everywhere and the hotel shakes so a lot of people can’t sleep because of that. The rumour goes around that the mayor of Alex has been fired because of this mess in the streets but later it seems that was a false rumour. The money that is supposed to be for fixing the streets is disappearing into the civil servants’ pockets so they tell me.

Welcome to Egypt

HAPPY BIRTHDAY06-02-08

Today it is my birthday. Katherine, Hayriye and Elgin congratulate me at breakfast. I don’t feel like it is my birthday. As a child you were excited for weeks when your birthday was coming up. Nicola Gray gives me a beautiful black and white photograph of flowers from Amsterdam that she took in a shop in Alex. Breakfast tastes a lot less nice since Adel told us that the Egyptians wipe their bottom with their hands and do not use toilet paper at all, but water to clean up. That is why the Egyptians are so mean with the toilet paper. Yesterday we had a koshary meal in the hotel and Adel said that is probably the only thing you can eat safely because they don’t have to stick their fingers in it. Adel was born and raised in Egypt but has lived for the last 15 years in California. He doesn’t have a good word for the Egyptians because he says that the Egyptians steal, lie, cheat, are dishonest, hypocrites, thieves, ob-sessed with money, dirty, and filthy - so Adel says. Egyptian society is totally disfunctional and crazy. How can you like it here? You are crazy if you like it here, Adel said. Adel is here to take care of his dying mother.

I recorded Evguenia today while she was painting in a cafe where the men smoke the water pipe and drink coffee. Suddenly the men she is painting stand up and go but she is not finished with her painting yet. In the Atelier, a woman walks around wearing a black veiled dress called a ‘burka’ where you only can see her eyes through a little slit. Mary and the veiled woman are standing next to each other in front of Aliaa’s tent when I ask the veiled women if I could take some pictures of her and she said ‘yes’. So I am making beautiful photographs of her and suddenly an old professor who has her private atelier in the building as well starts making a big scene. She shouts about the cartoons from Denmark, making a fool of Islam, disrespect for Islam, it is wrong to take photographs of the veiled woman who even wears black gloves when she goes out. The professor goes on and on that I am abusing Islam with my photographs and that the westerner has a chance this way to think negatively about Islam. The veiled woman is panicking and she asks me if I will delete, in front of the professor’s eyes, all the photographs that I took of her. Please, Please, she begged me. The veiled woman, who seems very young, nearly starts to cry as she is totally

upset like I am. I am trembling like a leaf as well and my nerves are shaking like crazy through my whole body. I feel sick in my stomach and my body is shivering. Reem and Moataz walk in and Reem tells me to delete the photographs, and in the end I do this in front of the professor. Moataz said that I don’t have to delete them but that I mustn’t put them on the internet. In front of the professor, I delete all my beautiful pictures. The professor is still upset as well and wants to get into a discussion with me which I don’t want to do because I am too nervous for that at that point. The old professor goes on and on that the veiled woman is free to do whatever she wants to do, and I say to her that that is no freedom and ask her again if she will look at the trash can on the camera so she can see for herself that I deleted the photographs. They call everyone a professor or a doctor in Egypt. In Holland there are no professors in drawing or painting, or doctors in sculpture or ceramics.

I say to the veiled woman that I am really sorry that I put her in any trouble and that I feel horrible myself. She tells me that she graduated from the art academy and that the old professor and Reem used to be her teachers. They can’t stand me, she said, and they look for anything to get me into trouble. What harm the old professor can do to the veiled woman and how she can make her life a misery, I don’t understand. From an incident like this my nerves are totally upset and my knees are shaking. Moataz says to me that I mustn’t worry and walks away and they all leave me standing there on my own.

Mary told me later that a woman in a burka has done something terribly wrong and that is why she walks totally veiled. She is punished for some-thing she did wrong and she has a huge problem. She is paying for her guilt by walking in a burka. When she has payed for her guilt she can wear a normal scarf again which shows her whole face and she will be back to normal.

Welcome to Egypt

THE LAST DAY 08-02-08

Today it is the last of the workshop. At 18.00 o’clock there will be the ope-ning from the exhibition in Atelier Alexandria. De imam starts his pray ‘Allaa Akba’ again through the loud speakers. The roof terras from the hotel does have a lovely view over Alexandria. The weather is beautiful, sunny and warm. Luckily the cold, rain and the wind are gone in Egypt. Sometimes you here 2 imams praying at the same time. Through different loudspeakers and one does have a louder volume than the other so you hardly can hear the other imam. They hooters of the cars are non stop. 2 cruise ships sail by.

This morning Mary and Caro did ask watt that was all about with the veiled women yesterday. So I told them that I had to delete from Reem and the professor the photographs I made from the veiled woman. The old woman was making a scene and she accused me of giving the Islam a bad name by taking pictures from the veiled women. They didn’t want that the atelier Alexandria was associated with a woman in a burka - were you can only see a woman eyes through a little slit. But watt about the German Nicola Mul-ler? She made photographs from woman with a scarf as well? One photo she made from a woman with open eyes and the same woman in another photograph with closed eyes. Yes, but they were artists who did participate at he workshop and they only wear a scarf. They blow the whole thing out of proportion. They make from nothing a big deal. Just like the teacher from the UK who named a teddy bear Mohammed in Sudan and put in prison because of that. Maybe she would have got whipped as well. That was big news in Holland as well.

The imam starts his second pray. From the roof top I can see 6 men lying on the floor praying on green carpets. They stand up, go down on their knees and bow their for head and touch the ground with their for head - stand up and go down on their knees again. A lot of Egyptian men walk around with a black for head. Adel said that they do that on purpose so everyone can see how religious they are and how much they are praying all the time.

A few artists are still working for the exhibition. It does all look lovely. Before I came I didn’t knew that I suppose to exhibit my work watt I made in the these 2 weeks in Alex. At the exhibition I will show some videos which I made from some artists while they were working. Photographs I made a lot

in Egypt but they need some photoshop.

Elgin did move Aliaa’s complete living-room and built it exactly up again in the atelier Alexandria hall. Elgins art work does look very cosy.Marie is cleaning the fire place in the hall from atelier Alexandria. The fire place is super shiny and clean watt is Marie’s component in her art project. She will lid a fire during the opening. Marie is cleaning the wooden floor at the entrance as well watt is also a part of her art project.

Evguenia made a series huge portraits on canvas with oil paint. Rawia build an installation from boxes with dots on it. There are a lot of photographs an video’s to see, like Hayriye’s video the ‘Elevator’. An Egyptian artist put some coat hangers and angels hair in the air and and on the floor there are some broken pieces of mirrors. Dorothy shows her war dress. Upstairs Alicja shows a video from a cat wat is eating. Nicola showed the Egyptian women with the eyes open and the eyes closed all wearing a scarf with the title: ‘Open your eyes and see’. It is all to much to have a really good look of the show what is open only for 3 ours.

The sun is lovely. This morning I rubbed my face with sun-block because my face was burned a few times last days watt Caro found hard to believe from such a little sun shine. The summers are often in Holland like the weather is right now in Egypt. A huge ship comes in port Alex. The young girl who works in the hotel asks me my name. Her name is Emily. She wants to talk to me but I don’t understand her broken English very well. Is she talking about school, that she have a heavy job, - that she does have back pain,- or that she likes her work in the hotel,- I really don’t know were she is talking about.

Tomorrow the first few artists are going back home. My air-plain leaves on the 9 in the middle of the night from Alex. At the exhibition there were a lot of camera men, journalists, photographers, and other very important people. There was a singer with a guitar who sang and of course there was the speech. They hand over to all of the artists an official certificate that we successfully participate the workshop for women along with a hand shake.

It was already 9 o’clock wen we had to gather around for a final group talk were we could say watt we want about the workshop. The evaluation was a bit like thank you very much, nice, great time but watt you really wanted

to say there was not the time or the place for to get into a deep talk at this time. So I was very happy wen we finally could go to the hotel for dinner watt of course was much to late again.

Dinner was horrible! Wy the cook did such a terrible job in the end I really don’t know. Some said that is was because of the football match. Egypt won with 4-1 from Ivory Coast. The television volume was much to loud in the restaurant. There was a big jubilation wen Egypt scored each point and the Egyptians almost went crazy during the match. For desert we got a 5 foot cake were was written on with cream:’ Dwayer workshop for women’.At 24 o’clock we went to Aliaa’s fair well party were I just stayed for 1 our because I was much to tired. A nice Egyptian man drove us back to the hotel.

Special thanks to:Dr. Reem Hassan Director of the workshop Artist. Moataz El Safty Director of DWAYER Group Coordinator of Artistic programs external relations Atelier of Alexandria Nicola Gray - Artist and writer

Welcome to Egypt

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Welcome to Egypt