Documenting Egyptian surrealists evolution and global perspective
Georges Henein. Photography by Boula Henein, one of the important pieces in the conference. (official press release)
In collaboration with the Institute for Comparative Modernities at Cornell University and the Visual Cultures Program at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Sharjah Art Foundation(SAF) will be organizing an international conference entitled “The Egyptian Surrealists in Global Perspective”, from November 26 – 28, 2015, with the sessions taking place in the American University of Cairo.
Focusing on the history and the evolution of the Egyptian Surrealist group and their relationship with their western and international counterparts, this project will document one of the most interesting chapters of modernism in the late 1930s up to the early 1960s, highlighting the multifaceted aspects of modernity and its global interconnections in the 20th century.
The conference will be followed by a travelling exhibition entitled When Arts Become Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists(1938-1965) to be inaugurated at Sharjah Art Foundation in 2017 in Sharjah, UAE, followed by an exhibition in Cairo, Egypt.The proceedings of the conference will serve as a base for the first of a two-volume publication to accompany the exhibition, with the second to serve as the catalog of the proposed exhibition.
The conference and curatorial team includes: Hoor Al Qasimi (Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE), Salah M. Hassan (Cornell University, USA) Bahia Shehab (American University in Cairo, Egypt), Ehab Ellabban (Ufuq Gallery, Cairo, Egypt), Nagla Samir (American University in Cairo, Egypt), Lydie Diakhate (Paris, France)