Osama Kamal on the monthly festival to commemmorate the revolution The euphoria that followed the Egyptian revolution has found artistic expression. A festival of art, one that has all the trappings of a traditional mouled, or saint�'s feast day, is being held every month by members of the Independent Culture Coalition (ICC). We all know how fascinating mouleds in both the city and the countryside can be, and how disorderly they tend to become, and this one �ê" albeit organised and attended by the urban intelligentsia �ê" is no exception. The ICC, a coalition of 85 independent art groups and intellectuals, is eager to keep the spirit of the revolution alive while establishing a new tradition for stimulating cultural activities and making that culture is accessible to all Egyptians. Taking culture to public space, the ICC has for the past three months held a cultural festival, which they have named "Art Square", on the first Saturday of each month. This is usually held in Abdin Square, and the organisers say that similar events were being organised simultaneously in other cities, including Alexandria, Assiut, Suez, Minya and Port Said. The event typically involves musical and theatrical performances, poetry readings, book fairs and impromptu art exhibitions. From the moment I set foot in the Abdin Square for the last festival, I felt the buzz of energy that only a mouled can generate. The square had two stages. The one closer to the entrance was referred to as the Pavilion Theatre. The other, set right in front of Abiin Palace, was where the main musical performances are held. On the sides of the festival area books, art products, dolls, paintings and caricatures, along with food and beverages, were displayed at makeshift stalls. The titles of the books displayed on the stands were unrelated to the revolution. Instead, they represented the recent releases of private publishing houses, such as Kayan, Merit, Afaq, Al-Dar, and Abgadiah, as well as publications by the government-run Cultural Palaces and Higher Council for Culture. All around, children were having fun, running around, listening to music or taking part in art workshops brought to the square by painters Houria El-Sayyed, Nabil El-Sonbati, Hanaa Nasr, Hanan El-Sheikh, Omar Jhane, and Baher Abu Bakr. Mohamed Fawzi, one of the artists at the marionette show at the Sawi Culture Wheel, organised a marionette-making workshop. Fawzi is a veteran puppeteer who has helped produce numerous marionette shows including Umm Kalthoum is Back and The Nightingale, the latter about the singer Abdel-Halim Hafez.The famous story teller Abir Suleiman ran a children�'s story-telling group. Soliman has staged some of the country�'s best story-telling projects, such as The One Thousand and One Nights, Natural Killers and The Cinematic (the last two adaptations of fictionional works by Makkawi Said), and Violence in Upper Egypt, which she wrote as an original story. Each of the bands was given an hour-long set. Some of the acts were inspired by cultural heritage, as in the case of Al-Jaafera, a band specialising in the the Jaafari singing of Aswan, said to go back to the Arabic tribes that settled tin Aswan right after the Arab conquest of Egypt. Sayed Rekabi, Al-Jaafera�'s founder and lead singer, is famous for hs avoidance of changes or additions to the musical tradition of Aswan, of which he is extremely protective. Classical folk singer Badr El-Aswanti is also averse to "remodelling" the old tunes. His performance of "The Girl is Fair Skinned, and I Am Helpless"; "Take Me with You"; "I Am Thoroughly Upper Egyptian"; and "You Love Someone Else" was as authentic as it was riveting. In addition to his Jaafari heritage, Badr is a leading member of the Nile Band for Popular Art, a band which specialises in countryside singing. The revolutionary songs of Sheikh Imam, written by Ahmad Fouad Negm, inspired more than one performance. The band Habayebna offered a modern interpretation of the songs, jazzing up the 1970s rhythm and enlivening the beat. Singer Azza Balbaa, who was once married to Negm, whipped the audience to a frenzy with her riveting performance of "Bahiya", "Haha" and "Banned from Travel". The fusion of oriental music with Latin, jazz and rock which the band Salalem brought to the stage proved popular with the young crowd. Other bands, such as Maraya, Meshwar, Dima and Microphone also offered a wide range of folk and modern songs, many with a revolutionary flavour. The comic duo of Mohamed Ali Hashem and Doaa Ramadan was also a big success. The two started performing in 2005 under the name Claquette, but later took the name Masr Al-Qadima (Old Cairo). I tried to sit in on the poetry readings of Ibrahim Abdel-Fattah and Shaaban Yousef, whose names were on the programmes the organisers handed out, but neither appeared on time. As in all mouleds there was an element of spontaneity that was sometimes pushed too far. The shows listed on the programme often did not run on time, and on some occasions did not happen at all. The whole experience was like an open buffet at which dishes were served at random. The event lasted from midday to midnight and one was guaranteed a fantastic show at any given moment, but not necessarilyly the one that one expected to see. One could say that the audience was as familiar as the artists. Just as many of the bands have performed in various venues around Cairo and Alexandria, such as the Sawi Culture Wheel, the Townhouse, Rawabet, Makan and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the audience was the same audience that frequents tthese shows. The main goal of Art Square, as I understand it, is to keep the revolution alive and recapture the spirit of conviviality that it inspired. It is a worthy goal, and it calls for more discipline on the part of both the organisers and the performers. The next event will be held on XXXX July
