Critical Writing Workshops on Contemporary Art and Ancient Heritage

Pro Helvetia invites Egyptian artist Amr Fekry and Swiss artist Guido Reichlin to participate in the fourth workshop of a series, tackling critical writing on contemporary art, which will take place on 17- 19 January 2012, at 5:00 PM at the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center (2 Saad Zaghloul St., next to Dareeh Saad, El Sayeda Zeinab, Cairo). This workshop focuses on contemporary art works that respond to the local interest in the society while they’re based on ancient heritage and art traditions.

Fekry’s work is known for its strong relation to the Egyptian and Islamic/Sufi heritage. He will give a presentation on images and texts from his four phases serial art project, namely "The Holy of the Holies", which relies on meditations and analysis of ancient wisdom texts, hoping to reach new conceptions through rebuilding images in a centralized form, based on the laws of sacred geometry. Fekry will explain how ancient and Islamic/ Sufi art can be strongly connected to contemporary art as well as to the present everyday life. "Between words and images, I travelled on the search for wisdom ... and to assure my faith I wanted to show the vitality of wisdom, the firmness of its presence beyond the limits of time and its ability to appear in any form, be it in the form of contemporary art", says Fekry.

On the other hand, the work of Guido Reichlin and Karin Waelchli (Chalet5) is a contribution to an ongoing discussion on values and meaning of ornament. As western artists they are strongly interested in widening the horizon of western art reflection, reconsidering thoughts, categories and verdicts of modernism as well as the position of the artist and his work within society. “Our researches on contemporary patterns and abstractions lead us towards a stage where cultural exchange occupies a most vital and central point in our works. By taking a closer look into non-western conventions we come to a deeper understanding of the tension lying in the crossovers between ornament and image, between outward appearance and content”, says Reichlin.