- Does contemporary art reflect society, individuals, politics or particular groups in society?
Contemporary art is by definition anchored in the present. Through a wide range of art practices, it raises questions about the world we live in, often addressing personal, social, and/or political themes, from gender to socio-politics, to climate change and other global issues.
- What is the main message conveyed through your artwork?
The work donated to the childhood foundation was made in 2000. It was a response to a commission by the Paris based ‘Fondation Cartier.’ The brief for the exhibition referenced early photography’s discovery of the desert and asked contemporary artists working with images to revisit the view of the desert at the turn of the 21st century. For me, this idea extended to photography’s discovery of the Arab world. I wished to challenge the early photographs that were destined to become orientalist clichés.
Beginning in the 1840s, shortly after the invention of the daguerreotype and calotype processes, photographers traveled to the Middle East, not least for the abundance of sunlight necessary for long exposures. Egypt and its monuments was a popular destination but so was the desert. For photographers, it was an adventure with space and light and for much of their public, the first glimpse of the deserts’ dream-like landscapes.
The Oum El Dounia collage’s narrative begins with a postcard of a hand-colored black and white photograph of three Bedouins sitting on a dune and pointing to the horizon. It was taken by Bohemia-born, Rudolf Lehnert (1878-1948), who photographed people and places in Egypt and North Africa. Lehnert’s partnership with Swiss business-manager Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878-1966) in a Cairo studio was immensely successful in catering to tourists and the international market for images of a generic orient.
Today, Lenhert’s photos seem clichéd (he himself may even be described as the ‘cliché’ of the Orientalist photographer) but the style of his work had a powerful influence on how certain ‘types’ and places are still perceived. Postcards are themselves clichés: the images that we use to summarize a place or experience and communicate/send to someone. In this case the postcard says ‘this is how you’re accustomed to seeing the desert’, i.e. an exotic place of solitude, an encounter with death or the unknown.
As an Egyptian-Lebanese having lived many years in France, I was aware of that rapport with Egypt, but also of the need, especially at that time, to break with the clichéd perspective that in fact prevented people from understanding the Arab world.
I’d been spending time near the Bahariyya oasis in Egypt’s western desert, travelling by jeep with friends and camping beneath the stars. The desert marked me: the striking sharp colours, the purity of the lines. At certain hours of the day, the blue sky was so clearly reflected in chalky white parts of the ground that it felt like walking on a sea. In fact you find fossilized shells everywhere, a reminder the earth was once covered in water, and you’re actually walking at the bottom of a primordial sea.
People and things stand out from the background so starkly, they look as if they’d been cut and pasted there, a ready-made collage. The mushroom-shaped rock formations added to this surreal cartoon impression and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. The caterpillar sitting on a mushroom philosophizing about existence, time and eternity, all questions somehow embodied in the desert.
Just as Egypt represents the birthplace of civilization, the desert (formerly a sea) is a place of origins. The collage evokes the Biblical reference to the ‘third day of creation’ when land was separated from water, using the harmonious horizontal line that defines the land and sky, which includes many visual references to the sea. In the course of Time, the story of humanity unfolds against a backdrop of sky and sand, with humanity as mediator between the heavens and the Earth.
- What do you communicate through art?
My practice questions the authenticity (and authority) of memory and time through a process of investigation into archives, personal histories, socio-political narratives and myths.
- Why did you choose this specific artwork for the “Happy Childhood Foundation” Contemporary Art Auction?
The playful nature of the collage—the innocence of humanity, which the work refers to through the use of archetypes from fairy tales, I believe, resonates with the purpose of this auction. Oum El Dounia is one of my most renowned works. It appeals easily to most, which is in this context, is essential. Buyers will acquire works primarily to support the Happy Childhood Foundation.
- You will be among many artists who will participate in The Happy Childhood Foundation’s second auction. Can you share with us your feelings towards this participation?
I feel honoured to be part of such a generous initiative and do hope the artworks attract those who love art but also generate interest for the higher purpose of the event.
- How can you describe your role in the world changing over time and during the Egyptian uprisings?
I come from a family of philanthropists. My grand mother was the founder of Caritas in Egypt. Growing up and working in Egypt as an artist has made me very aware of the necessity to engage with local communities and contribute as best as possible to the well being of others. What changed with the Egyptian uprisings is not my intention but the strategies I use for my art to help shift mentalities and generate resources for those in need.