Open Call for photos, banners and signs of the Egyptian Revolution!

Egypt Tue 08-03-2011

Open Call for photos, banners and signs of the Egyptian Revolution!
By a Correspondent

Darb 1718 is collecting banners and signs that all of you lifted in Liberation Square and photos you took throughout the days of the revolution to exhibit them in a contemporary art exhibition along installations by Egyptian visual artists on the topic of the 25th of Jan Revolution.

With this exhibition we intend to celebrate the revolution and honor its martyrs.

^{Protesters at Tahrir Square Cairo | Image from}^{kiaoragaza.wordpress.com}

Please help us collect as many signs, banners and photos as possible and become part of this exhibition!

Where: Please bring them to Darb 1718 Egyptian Contemporary Art and Culture Center Kasr El Sham 3 Street
Fustat – Old Cairo, Behind the Hanging Church and the Coptic Museum 5 Minutes Walk from the Metro Station Mar Girgis

When: Please bring the material between Sunday, 6th of March and Wednesday, 9th of March Every day between 11 am and 8 pm.

A word by the artist Youssef Limoud:

Protests signboards, slogans and chants are a translation of a state of mind shaped by a long accumulation of silent disapproval and anger from the actual injustice. It is also, in terms of form, an open space to reflect a kind of spontaneous and simple creativity not intended to be an art.

In the glorious revolution of January 25th, the Egyptian people geniality was manifested in the form of a modern epic with integrated aspects, starting from its inception, which no one would have predicted, to the civilized peaceful spirit faced by the barbaric regime, which astonished the world, ending with the revolution's martyrs and casualties, as a price of illumination and freedom.

Very important among the many aspects of this wonderful revolution is the little rectangle lifted by hands or hanging in the square: the sign!

It is the revolution's pulse, the demonstrators' thermometer, the reflective mirror of the revolutionist's determination, the screen that summarizes what is going on in the peoples’ collective mind expressed in one or two sentences, often in rhyme and music.

When we remove the sign out of its practical context in the square and put it in another context exploring its visual significance, no matter how primitive and simple its performance is, we re-produce the revolution pulse in an artistic form without the chanting or the shouting. It is the opportunity for a silent meditation of an ultimate event of noise.

For more information please contact us on info@darb1718.com

كلمة المعرض مع تحياتي يوسف ليمود :

اللافتات والشعارات والهتافات الاحتجاجية، هي ترجمة لحالة ذهنية شكّلتها تراكمات طويلة من الاستنكار الصامت والغضب تجاه ظلم واقع، كما أنها، من ناحية الشكل، فضاء مفتوح على تأمل نوع من إبداع عفوي وبسيط لم يُقصد به أن يكون فنا. في ثورة ٢٥ يناير المجيدة، تجلت العبقرية الشعبية المصرية في شكل ملحمة عصرية متكاملة الجوانب، بدءا من انطلاقتها التي لم يكن لأحد أن يتنبأ بها، إلى الروح الحضارية المسالمة التي واجهت بها بربرية النظام وأدهشت بها العالم، إلى ما قدمته من شهداء وجرحى، ثمنا للنور والحرية . ما يهمنا، من بين كل الجوانب العديدة لهذه الثورة الرائعة، هو ذلك المستطيل الصغير المرفوع باليدين أو المعلق في هواء الميدان: اللافتة. إنها نبض الثورة، ترمومتر حرارة المتظاهرين، المرآة العاكسة عزيمة الثوار، الشاشة التي تلخص ما يدور في العقل الجمعي للشعب، في جملة واحدة أو جملتين، بوزنٍ وموسيقى، غالبا.

حين ننقل اللافتة من سياقها العملي الميداني ونضعها في سياق آخر يتحرى ما فيها من دلالة بصرية، مهما كانت درجة بدائيتها أو بساطتها الأدائية، فإننا نعيد إنتاج نبض الثورة بشكل فني لا هتافات فيه ولا صراخ. إنها فرصة للتأمل الصامت في حدث هو قمة الصخب.

Related Links:

Egypt Unrest

"Curating a Revolution": Egyptian Artists Cry Out for Mubarak's Resignation

Egyptian artist dies in Anti-government Demonstrations in Cairo

Posted By: Maggie Otieno

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