As stated in the Cairo Video Festival's press release, this year the festival in its 7th edition “will showcase an official selection including works by 116 artists of video art and experimental film works from 38 countries, in addition to 24 works that were handpicked by Medrar’s team from Egyptian and international artists.”

The Cairo Video Festival started in 2005 with a collective of artists, including Medrar’s director artist Mohamed Allam, who were experimenting with new mediums, and later developed it to be a platform for video artists, curators and the public, capitalising on a growing interest in new media production.

“The first edition only had Egyptian artists and we realised that there is potential to expand this festival to a more international arena and allow artists and audiences in Cairo to not just see the work of their local peers, but also videos from all over the world,” says Allam in an interview.

Now a regular annual festival starting with its 5th round in 2013, which was held at the then freshly inaugurated Medrar, the Cairo Video Festival has established itself as an important event in Cairo’s art scene, and continues to expand.

“We've also been focused on creating screening programmes from the festival to show throughout the year in various screening spaces in Cairo and other cities.”

The selected videos from the open call are chosen by a jury, which this year is comprised of Hala El-Koussy, Egyptian visual artist and filmmaker, Mia Jankowicz, curator, writer and former director of CIC (the Contemporary Image Collective), and Morten Sysgaard, a Danish video artist, who pick the works based on quality and originality in investigating their subject matter.

Some highlights of the curated programme include The Scream from internationally acclaimed Serbian artist Marina Abramović, (2014), Three Love Songs by Iraqi artist Adel Abidin (2010), and War from Swiss artist Vincent Borcard (2014-2015).

Medrar and CIC will be hosting an ongoing exhibition of video art, while Zawya and the French Institute will hold selected screenings every other day.
 

7th Cairo Video Festival مهرجان القاهرة السابع للفيديو from Medrar on Vimeo.

Programme:
The festival opens on 10 December, 7pm at Zawya, and will run till 25 December.

Venues:
Medrar for Contemporary Art
7 Gamal El-Din Abou El-Mahasen Street, 1st Floor, Apartment 4, Garden City, Cairo.

Contemporary Image Collective (CIC)
22 Abdel Khalek Tharwat Street, 4th Floor, Downtown Cairo.

Zawya
4 Abdel Hamid Said Street, off Talaat Harb Street, Downtown Cairo

French Institute
1 Madrasset El-Huquq El-Frinseya Road, El-Mounira, Downtown Cairo