At Darb 17/18 El Fostat, the Kalb Baladi group exhibited paintings whose subject is as one of Egypt's hardest periods through its history. After all we have been through, politically, socially and economically, all our triumphs, disappointments, illusions and disillusions, art is one of the ways in which we can still express ourselves freely and spontaneously, according to Hervé Pourcines: “Egyptian street art has become a phenomenon, voicing the feelings of a nation. It is a new form of art that has imposed itself very strongly on the walls of our streets throughout the turbulent events, expressing anger, hope and enticing everyone to think.” The revolution and the young, he feels, are only really manifesting themselves in art. And it is in the spirit of art that Hervé, a Frenchman, has tried to be proactive through mentoring street artists in Egypt — a country that has become a part of him. Before settling in Egypt, Pourcines lived on almost every continent, working for large multinational enterprises. His last position was president and country senior officer of Alcatel-Lucent in the Philippines. “Today I am a management consultant providing strategic and operational leadership to organisations in the Middle East,” he explains. He is also a professor of strategy in the executive MBA programme of Nile University. And he has been an active member of every community in which he lived. “Beyond work, I've always had a true love of art in its many forms,” he recounts. “So, after I met the young Egyptian street artists who creatively transposed the struggles of the revolution onto the walls of Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Cairo, I immediately decided to create the Wust El Balad (WeB) Studio, an art incubator that supports and promotes the skills development of young and creative artists in Egypt.” He believes that the best people can do in life is to create and share — and hence his dedication to helping these young creators to share their fresh and engaged art. The Kalb Balady initiative has developed in tandem with the revolution, its genesis starting back in 2011 when street art began to overtake the downtown walls. To support the emerging community of young and enagaged talents and to provide them with empowering opportunities, Pourcines used the WeB Studio to facilitate innovation through residencies and exhibitions. “The objective is to show the Egyptian public in general, and the youth in particular, that art is an active and necessary component of society and that it is not something arcane and confined to galleries and museums”. He strongly believes that the art scene in Egypt should not be alien to the majority of its own people. Thus the Kalb Balady group was formed: a number of young people working together both at the studio and, notably, outdoors across cities in Egypt. The artists called themselves Kalb Balady, which literally means “Local Dog”, because they identified with the wandering street dogs that no one pays attention to; those dogs survive despite the harsh conditions. Pourcines explains that street art is also called “urban art”, “guerrilla art”, “post-graffiti” and “neo-graffiti”, defining it as a form of visual art created in public locations and outside the context of traditional venues such as galleries and museums. Spray-painted graffiti, stencil graffiti, pasted poster art or sticker art and street installation are all common forms of contemporary street art. “In fact, street artists choose the streets as their gallery to communicate directly with the public at large, free from the formal codes of the art world,” he said. They present socially and politically engaged content infused with aesthetic value in order to attract attention to a cause or as a form of “provocation”. However, Pourcines makes it clear that the Brain Damage exhibition is not about street art and not trying to put street art on canvas. “It is all about the ideas of the revolution, the same ideas that were on display in Mohamed Mahmoud Street: the rejection of the status quo, the need for change and justice, the demand for a brighter future where sexual harassment and corruption have no place...” How can such projects help to resolve the issues facing young Egyptians these days, however? According toPourcines, this project showcases unconventional works by young Egyptian artists with powerful messages. They demonstrate that the Egyptian youth has not only talent as such but something interesting to say and fresh ideas to contribute positively to society. “Hopefully, this will help in changing the current perception of youth as socially, economically and politically irrelevant”. Pourcines believes that people in power should realise that the future of Egypt is in its youth. As long as the problems of the youth are not solved, and as long as they are barred from the political process, no sustainable solutions to the various problems will be forthcoming.With more than 35 large paintings by Mohamed Khaled, Haitham Sherif, Fagr Suleiman, Razan Said, Maghraffiti, Amr Okasha, Ghadir Wagdi and Fadi Galal, Brain Damage is meant to reflect the crippling effects of years of neglect by the Egyptian education system on society's ability to think properly and progressively with regard to human development and to the status of women. This experience is added to many others Pourcines has collaborated on with young Egyptians. One involved interior and furniture designer Ramzi Ebeid, graphic designer Hossam Driar and a master craftsman from Sayeda Aisha to create decorative outdoor sculptures. “The objective was to combine modern designs and traditional crafts techniques. A few years back, I also started to revive the traditional hand-painting of vintage Egyptian movie posters. These movie posters from the 1950s to the 1980s are fantastic icons of Egyptian culture and history. I love them! So far, I have done on my own as much as I could do to help and, therefore, this endeavour must find the support of sponsors in order to continue.” He hopes that Egyptian organisations and philanthropists rather than foreign NGOs will start reaching out to young artists, providing mentoring and budgets so that they can take their rightful place on the international art scene tomorrow.“Vive la Liberte,” Pourcines concluded, “et vive l'art.”
