Mahatat's art in public space project takes on video format
Ahram Online, Tuesday 6 Mar 2012
Mahatat Collective promotes video art and short films through a series of public screenings with the first one 11 March in Mounira


The Mahatat Collective was founded in 2011 on the vision that contemporary art should be an essential part of people's lives. Their main means is bringing art to people in public spaces.

Their project Shaware3na, launched in January with its first act Art of Transit where various artists performed at metro stations and on train carriages. Performances included pantomime, clowns, a monologue on sexual harassment and the status of women in Egyptian society in the women's cart and an interactive theatre show.

The second phase of the project is 'Public Screen' where Mahatat invites filmmakers to show their films in public sqaures in Cairo and Giza. The first of these events is to take place in Lazoghly Square in Mounira, with seventeen short films by both established and emerging filmmakers on a variety of topics and themes that were selected from among many artists who sent in their work. The films featured are not only by local artists, but also Tunisian, Palastinian, Iraqi, Morrocan, Lebanese and Emirati filmmakers.

The purpose of these screenings is to bring these films to diverse groups of audiences breaking through barriers of cultural spaces and galleries that might, whether intentionally or not, impose social class or cultural restrictions on their audiences.

The event will take place in on Sunday 11 March in Lazoghly Square (Next to Misr Bank), Mounira Neighbourhood at 6pm

The line-up:

Ines Jerray, Etiquettes (2010), 2:31 mins (Tunis)

Ibrahim Saad, Without Cover(2010), 14 mins (Egypt)

Ibrahim Jawabrah, Transit (2010), 4:07 mins ( Palestine )

Shayma Kamel, Transparent Black (2011), 14 mins (Egypt)

Nermine Hammam, Metanoia (2010), 7:23 mins (Egypt)

Soha El Sirgani, No Apologies(2011), 2:00 mins ( Egypt)

Ahmed Mohsen Mansour, Waiting(2011), 7:45 mins ( Egypt)

Alaa Edriis, Kharareef (2010), 5:24 mins (Emirates)

Assia Lakhlif, Sleepless(2003), 6:59 mins (Morocco)

Sama Alshaibi, Sweep(2010), 3 mins (Palestine/Iraq)

Mohamed Allam, Meeting with a Friend(2005) 9:28 mins ( Egypt)

Monther Jawabrah, News (2011) 4:18 mins ( Palestine)

Edward Salem, Beard Burn(2011) 00:55 sec (Palestine)

Khaled Ramadan and Larissa Sansour, Mobile Zones(2006), 12:20 mins (Lebanon and Egypt)

Karim Al Husseini, Lesson (2011), 2 mins (Palestine)

Khaled Hafez, Vision (2007), 5:45 mins ( Egypt)

Moustafa Ashraf, 3:30pm(2011) 2:16 mins ( Egypt)

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