In the heart of downtown Cairo, Minister of Culture Emad Abu Ghazi inaugurated Noskha Rakam Wahid (Artists' Prova) exhibition at Atelier de Caire gallery on Sunday night, 30 October.

At 7:30pm sharp, Dr Emad Abu Ghazi, Egyptian Minister of Culture, toured the entire gallery and greeted all artists exhibiting at the gallery. He admired the works of the young first-time participants as well as those who hold some fame within Egypt's art scene.

The collective exhibition, Artist Prova, joined more than 180 artists from all over Egypt; those attending were delighted to get noticed by the minister himself, in addition to the general public, of course.  

The exhibition featured one art piece from each artist, including abstract paintings, photography, graphics and sculptures.

According to Atelier de Caire, “We try to decrease the gap between the old and young generations in this exhibition giving them equal chances in one space, allowing exposure and promoting freedom of expression through art with all its fields.”

Dina El-Rihany, assistant teacher at the faculty of arts in Alexandria tells Ahram Online, “Those collective exhibitions give more exposure to young artists, like ourselves, among the public, as well as among each other.”

Displayed in Artist Prova is El-Rihany’s vision of ancient Egypt’s famous pyramid, crafted in wood and engraved by the artist. Her vision gave a new artistic look to the over 3,000-year-old pyramid. “I wanted to give our history a new style and shape of what we already know about the Pyramids of Giza,” she explains.

El-Rihany’s works have been previously displayed among several art exhibitions in Alexandria, however “it is my first in Cairo with the minister of culture as my audience; making it my official first exhibition,” she delightfully comments.

“It is a great opportunity for us to present our work,” says Yara Hatem, a junior student at the Faculty of Arts in Cairo.  CDs make up the canvas on which Hatem displayed her abstract art, depicting the evolution of the human mind. Hatem chose a CD as the canvas of the human mind because to her, "The human mind is where we keep our thoughts and ideas, just like the CD where we store or backup our documents," she explains.

CDs are placed on a black blackground and are coloured in beige, just to neutralise the piece and give more emphasis to what's added on them. Making her canvas, Hatem scattered some colourful shapes of different sizes on the CDs, depicting the ideas and thought stored inside the human mind. She continues, talking about her illustrations, "Those shapes of squares, circles, and even shapeless pieces are the thoughts being exposed; they reflect the ideas stored in mind." 

Thrilled to be among the artists presented to the Minister of Culture, Hatem tells Ahram Online, “Finally we have such invitations… It is my first official exhibition through an invitation on Facebook...I participated before with a collage and in school, but never in public exhibitions with the attendance of the minister,” she says.

“It is very exciting that such big names like Atelier de Caire are now open without any boundaries to upstarting, young artists, without any restrictions,” Hatem states.

Some young photography artists still, to this day, want to emphasise Egypt's January 25 Revolution, nine months after the ouster of former President Mubarak. Displayed on the walls of Atelier de Caire were a few photos capturing the demonstrations at Tahrir Square last winter.

Artist Prova exhibition attracted many from the media, a large, young generation crowd also admired the collections displayed.

Programme:
Atelier de Caire
Open now until Saturday, 12 November
10:00am - 1:00pm and from 6:00pm - 10:00pm
2 Karim Al Dawla Street off of Mohamed Bassiouny Street
Talaat Harb Square, Downtown Cairo