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Culture Events: Picks for the weekend Ahram Online's arts and culture team pick out their recommendations from the diverse array of cultural events happening in Cairo this weekend, Thursday through Sunday (18-21 April)
Thursday 18 April Screening of Exit Through the Giftshop by Banksy in Nabta Centre at 7pm Graffiti artist Banksy's first film follows a French man obsessed with filming every moment in his life. When he started dabbling with filming graffiti artists to document the movement, Banksy turns the camera on him. The film poses various interesting questions on contemporary arts in general and graffiti in particular in a light-hearted manner. Read more here. 6 El-Shawarby Steet, First Floor, Downtown, Cairo SMSlingshot Digital Graffiti Show in Elwy Street at 7pm German artists VR/Urban create a slingshot designed to take text messages people write and project them as a digital colourful graffiti in public space. The event is part of the visual arts programme of D-CAF and will be repeated on Friday 19, and Saturday 20 April in the same location. Find D-CAF's full programme here. 10 Elwy Street, Under EMDP, behind the Egyptian Stock Market, Downtown, Cairo White Rabbit, Red Rabbit in Falaki Theatre at 8pm White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour (Iran) will be performed in English by Ramzi Lehner. The performance is entirely improvised by the actor on stage as he only gets the screenplay in front of the audience. On Friday 19 April, Salwa Mohamed Ali will present the performance in Arabic on the Falaki stage as well. The performance is part of D-CAF festival, taking place between 4 and 28 April in a variety of venues in Downtown Cairo. Check the festival's programmehere 24 El-Falaki Street, off Mohamed Mahmoud Street, American University in Cairo (Downtown Campus), Cairo Karim Ziad Quintet and Rami Atallah Quintet concert in El-Geneina Theatre at 8pm Karim Ziad is a jazz drummer from Algeria who lives in Paris and mixes oriental, berber and Western sounds. This concert marks the release of his new album. Opening for Ziad is pianist Rami Atallah from Egypt who is highly influenced by Brazilian and Latin music in his compositions. Read more on El-Geneina's programme here. Azhar Park, Salah Salem Road, Darassa. Yacoub Abu Ghoush with Zaman Al-Zaatar band concert in Beit El-Raseef at 8pm Zaman Al-Zatar from Jordan fuses Western and Oriental music elements, topping it with many arrangements. Their music is testimony to the band's emotional and spiritual growth within Amman's social scene, and going beyond to the region level. Read more here. 9, Street 151, off El-Horreya Square, Maadi, Cairo Friday 19 April Mashroua El-Mareekhon, 'Failure' in Makan at 6pm Founded by young artist and culture advocate Mariam El-Quessny,Mashroua El-Mareekh (The Mars Project) tours Egyptian cities, promoting cultural development and expression by providing an open mic platform for a wide range of artistic performances, including music, poetry and dance recitals. This edition of the open mic comes with the theme of "Failure". Read more about Mashroua El-Mareekh here. 1 Saad Zaghloul Street, in front of Saad Zaghloul Tomb, Mounira, Cairo The Living Newspaper performance in Artellewa Art Space at 6pm The Living Newspaper is a 15-minute theatre and puppetry performance that was repeated on a bi-weekly basis, responding to current events in a spontaneous way. This edition marks the last performance in the series. The project as a whole provides a space to interpret the news in a creative and meaningful way by involving activist groups and socially engaged organisations to bridge the gap between art and action. The project is curated by Nini Ayach. Watch Ahram Online's coverage of their first performance here. Studio El-Khalat, 13 Mohammed Ali El-Esseary Street, Ard El-Lewa, Cairo Life of Pi screening in Sufi Bookstore at 7pm Multi-award winning film Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee follows a young man who survives a disaster at sea and gets castaway with an unexpected companion: a tiger. The duo venture on an incredible journey of self-discovery and adventure. 12 Sayid El-Bakry Street, Off Hassan Sabry Street, Zamalek, Cairo All Night Cinema, 'In the Eye of the Storm' in Radio Cinema at 10pm Three back-to-back documentaries on peaceful resistance and civil disobedience movements around the world will be screened. The films featured are: 'The Thing Next Door,' documenting the anti-nuclear movement in Germany, 'Tous au Larzac,' on the 1970s French rural uprising, and a portrait of world-renowned Chinese artist and activist in “Ai-Weiwei: Never Sorry.” The films will be screened individually the following week. See D-CAF's programme here for more details. 24 Talaat Harb Street, Downtown, Cairo Saturday 20 April Masr Tegamaana Festival in Darb 1718 at 9am This all day festival organised by the Silmeya (Peaceful) movement will feature a number of performances, including a theatrical performance by 'We Lessa' Theatre Group, in addition to musical performances by Mai Abdel-Aziz, Sout El-Sharee and the Hip Hop Project. The event will also feature a number of art workshops for children and adults, including graffiti and photography. 'Masr Tegmaana' is part of the movement's cultural campaign of the same name, which aims to create common spaces for dialogue, communication and joint action with a view to breaking the current state of polarisation in Egyptian society. Qasr El-Shamee Street, El-Fakhareen (behind the Hanging Church and the Amr Mosque), Old Cairo Experimental performance by Werren Neidich in the Townhouse Gallery at 2pm For several hours, until 9pm, Berlin and Los Angeles based artist Werren Neidich will orchestrate several Egyptian musicians from Cairo and Alexandria to improvise reactions to texts, art works, and music notes scattered on the First Floor space's walls. The 22 participating musicians include: Ayman Mabrouk, Adam Miller, Amr Mohamed, Mohamed Refaat, Michelle Rounds, Nadah El-Shazly, Hassam Shehata, Khaled Kaddal, Ayman Asfour and others. First Floor Space, 10 Nabrawy Street, off Champollion Street, Downtown, Cairo PreFORMANCE toolkit launch in the Goethe Institute at 8pm PreFORMANCE is an online toolkit put together by Meetphool.net (a community website for performing artists) to help artists document their work. The toolkit will be launched through a panel discussion bring together an array of individuals involved in the artistic documentation process: Rowan El-Shimi (culture journalist, Ahram Online), Hamdy Reda (photographer), Mohamed Allam (Medrar.TV), Ali Shaath (online archiving), and Sondos Shabayek (artist involved in Tahrir Monologues and Bussy Project). The talk is part of the Edutainment programme of D-CAF. Find D-CAF's full programme here. 5 Bostan Street, Downtown, Cairo Massar Egabri concert at Beit El-Raseef at 8pm The band, which has played together for years in Alexandria and Cairo, boasts a unique sound, fusing rock and funk with oriental beats and melodies. Their lyrics tackle social issues, while their concerts — especially in Alexandria — often prompt audiences to chant anti-establishment slogans. They have just released their first album this week. Read more on Massar Egbari and watch their first video here. 9, Street 151, off El-Horreya Square, Maadi, Cairo Symphonic concert for children at the Cairo Opera House at 8pm The Cairo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Magdy Boghdady will perform a special concert tailored for the youngest audience. The evening will include Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Bizet's Children's Games (Jeux d'enfants) and Saint-Saëns's The Carnival of the Animals (Le carnaval des animaux). Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek, Cairo Sunday 21 April Last day of Akshara - Calligraphy in crafts exhibition at Hanager Arts Centre, between 12 and 9pm An exhibition of crfts carrying Indian script — the exhibition is part of the ongoing 'India by the Nile' arts festival that aims to bring Indian culture closer to Egyptian audiences. Read more about the festival here and check the complete programme here. Hanager Arts Centre, Cairo Opera House Grounds, Zamalek, Cairo Memorial concert for Abdel-Moneim Kamel in the Cairo Opera House at 8pm A number of the Cairo Opera House's artistic companies, conductors and soloists will join a large memorial concert dedicated to Abdel Moneim-Kamel, father of Egyptian ballet and former director of the Opera. The evening will include renowned Egyptian soloists Ramzi Yassa on piano, Ines Abdel Dayem on flute, Osman El-Mahdy and Hassan Sharara on violins. Soloists from the Cairo Opera Company are soprani Iman Moustafa and Mona Rafla, mezzo-soprano Jolie Faizy, tenor Walid Korayem, baritones Mostafa Mohamed and Emad Adel, and bass baritone Abdel Wehad El-Sayed. The evening will be joined by the Cairo Opera Choir with choir master Aldo Magnato, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company, while the Cairo Opera Orchestra will be conducted by three conductors consecutively: Nayer Nagui, Hisham Gabr and Sherif Mohie El-Din. Read Abdel-Moneim Kamel's obituary here. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek, Cairo 'Spectacular Views on Qinghai Plateau' exhibition opening at 5pm in Chinese Cultural Centre 'Spectacular Views on Qinghai Plateau' explores the Chinese city of Qinghai and its many scenic views through young artists.Also known as the Himalayan Plateau, or the 'Roof of the World,' the Qinghai Plateau is the world's highest elevation and largest land plateau in terms of size. Located in central and east Asia, the plateau stands on some 2,500,000 square kilometres of land — an area approximately the size of Algeria, the largest country in Africa. The exhibition is ongoing for three days until 23 April from 5-7pm. 10 Ibn Battuta Street, next to the Nageya Centre, Haram, Giza Drums from around the world to perform across Egypt The performances are part of the International Festival for Drums and Traditional Arts, “The Drums Dialogue for Peace,” which takes place between 19 and 25 April 2013. Sunday, 21 April will see performances of groups from China, UAE, Pakistan and Egypt at the Citadel of Saladin between 8pm and 10pm. The festival also extends to other locations across the country, including Al-Ghoury Done, the Hanager Theatre, Banha Cultural Palace, and Al-Mansoura Cultural Palace, among other locations. Follow Arts and Culture updates on Twitter at@AhramOnlineArtsand on Facebook atAhram Online: Arts and Culture http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/69504.aspx
