Art Review by Marco Mann
What is this?
When I first read this word as the title for a new exhibition in Cairo I was offended; because in light of the current situation in the Middle East, it seemed to be in pretty bad taste.
In fact I didnt go to the opening, and I am glad I didnt as it was like a Cairo Bus before privatization in rush hour, or so I heard.
I went tonight, it wasnt as artificial as the brochure suggested to me.
Simply because a large number of the Artists were good and some were very good. In my opinion only one
was very weak and deserves his work to be recycled into grocery bags.
All the others were interesting in one way or another. It was a good
experience and although I hate to admit that I was wrong in my
prejudgement, but it was the best exhibition I attended since I moved to Cairo.
Occidentalism according to Wikipedia "is a term for stereotyped and sometimes dehumanizing views on the so-called Western world, including Europe, the United States, Australia
and even modern Japan. The term was popularized by Ian Buruma and
Avishai Margalit in their book Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of
its Enemies (2004). The term is an inversion of Orientalism, Edward
Said's label for stereotyped Western views of the East. A number of
earlier books had also used the term, sometimes with different
meanings."
To me, the meaning of that work and therefore the meaning of the
exhibition can be confusing and can lead to mixed emotions. 1. I am no
one's enemy and I dont like to associate with people who make enemies
of other people, 2. I dont like divisions, because really there are no
sharp lines between East and West.
But from the 20 Artists who were participating, many just
expressed their own personal notions and issue and possibly delusions
that circle around that notion of East and West (and not necessarily
the notion of Occidentalism, which I personally find hard to summarize)
what I enjoyed most was that many artists were totally off-topic but
their work was still interesting, it was like 20 exhibitions on the
same floor in a building (another clever choice by mr curator was to
host the show in an old Downtown Cairo Hotel, in rooms with sinks and
common bathrooms .. sort of where some westerners will likely stay on
prolonged trips to Cairo,
adding another flavor to the mix) ... It was good .. below I will write
vaguely about some artists and I will mention two or three names, which
i think are worth my mention.
Adel El-Siwi is the only one who captured the
true meaning of the word with keen intelligence. And translated it
visually with superb fluency; I was impressed by what I saw, more so,
because I was not so sure why so many people say that Mr El-Siwi (or
shall i say Dr) is one the important Cairo
Artists, having seen his work often, it has always been the same type
of portraiture, the same strokes and blending of colors, I felt that
nothing changed. But this Exhibition Changed my mind, because he showed
me something I didnt expect. In huge larger-than- life portraits he
ingeniously satirises the whole concept of occidentalism (or to be more
precise the inversion of orientalism) into what he sees as cliches of
western culture. At first glance. I looked and though, what is that?
this is so cliche!! The when I realised that it was intended, I took
off my hat in secret. He transforms those cliches into a distinct
species Homo Occidentalis (with differing spellings) and into
subspecies according to the cliche of the artist, tourist,
archeologist, mariner, diva, detective and therefore takes stereotyping
into a whole new dimension, a whole new dogma (could it possibly
become?)
Hazem el Mistikawy is almost the opposite, he
looked at the concept from inside (I think) and translated it into his
very own, very skilled, very precise, geometric mathematical language,
and created a whole world that he claims, in his cleverly positioned
disclaimer, to be totally based on fiction. I dont think it requires a
high IQ to figure out what he was (not) talking about; but it requires
a keen eye to realize that he is not so sure himself and that his
apparent precision and exactitude in technique, belies a deep confusion
and generality about the meaning of the context into which he was
thrown and the beauty of this confusion is that it faithfully mirrors
that general human uncertainty towards this concept.
Another artist .. projects this confusion onto the wall and thus
onto the viewer .. She claims that the viewer doesnt know and cannot
define and that his definitions will ultimately be incorrect .. Well
Done
Huda Lutfi .. but this is you and not me.
Some artists are still thinking WAR!! with all its the suspense
and threat of a helicopter's roar and the romantic heroism of a soldier
writing letters to his wife .. as much as I enjoyed being in both
rooms, as much as we have to agree, that this is not occidentalism. And
that this is a narrow view of the West. Maybe justifiable, but still
narrow. In other rooms there was so much techno and little meaning, and
alot of attempts to recreate ideas of occidental technique, while
losing track of how to use it to convey meaning. Interesting
nonetheless.
Then there was an artist who reminded me of "little boy turtle"
because he had a shiny brass pistol in one of his installations :) I
must check the member list to see if he is on it. And another who is
confused, very confused whether he is an oriental or an occidental ..
his work is a mix of ugly looking oriental sluts (very stereotypical,
as if he was in the wrong exhibition) and deformed francis bacon like
figures; his work is good in one direction and terrible in another ..
depending on which direction he takes, he could become a midget or a
giant. Then there was an artist who translated the whole notion into a
visual concept of good and bad, villain and victim and another who lost
context all together and did the same work that she would do anywhere
else. Then there was another something out of context that was very big
beautiful and kitsch and another thing that was too ugly and slimy and
disgusting, yet put on a plate ready to be eaten. I wonder; would you
eat it, if you were hungry. Oh yeah and in a busy room there was a nice
female artist called sabah (I think) who asked visitors to interact by
taking photocopies of photographic portraits and adding their touches
to them, if you look in the big box in the center of the room, you'll
find my contribution.
2:36:18 PM 
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By Laura. [
