Art Al-Lewa is inspiring creative dialogue between artists and residents in one underprivileged area of Cairo and serving as a model for other community arts projects, writes Rasha Sadek A labyrinth of narrow, crowded streets, with sometimes rudimentary houses and shops crammed next to one another, Ard Al-Lewa, an underprivileged area of Cairo, lacks much in terms of providing a decent living for its inhabitants, the possibility of a good education and even basic sanitation. Yet, Ard Al-Lewa is the setting for "Art Al-Lewa", a pioneering project that aims to show what art can do. Ard Al-Lewa, an informal residential neighbourhood, is located between Imbaba and Boulaq Al-Dakrour in Giza, its name meaning "the General's Land" in Arabic. Here, Art Al-Lewa, an independent, non-profit project that started in 2007 and is the brainchild of Egyptian artist Hamdy Reda, is encouraging local residents to become interested in the arts with the support of other Egyptian and European artists. Reda, a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo and an artist with a long list of awards and solo and group exhibitions behind him, became interested in the relationship between people and their environment following a scholarship spent in Switzerland. With very few funds, but with the help of many friends, including artists, journalists and academics, Reda established an art centre, Art Al-Lewa in Ard Al-Lewa with the intention of running workshops, exhibitions, lectures, concerts and film screenings for local inhabitants. Situated in a modest building in the district, the centre's ground floor is used as an exhibition space for works by artists associated with the project, while its rooftop is used for associated programming activities. Reda was lucky in that he had a wide circle of friends, including many international artists, who were enthusiastic about becoming part of the project. Today, many local and foreign artists are invited to the centre, residing there for months at a time in order to produce works that can then be exhibited in the Art Al-Lewa centre. The Artists in Residence programme has been a success for Egyptian and foreign artists alike. According to Reda, it has "helped to facilitate cultural exchange and it has expanded the horizons both of hosts and visitors, with both parties realising that there was very much more to be found behind stereotypical images of either 'visitors' or 'locals'." "The project is all about encouraging creative dialogue," he says. Now active throughout the year, Art Al-Lewa uses the creative energies of the district's young people, some of whom were sceptical about the project at the beginning. However, now that the project has established itself in the area, many younger residents have realised that Art Al-Lewa can help them to express themselves and realise their potential. "When the project proved that it was able to bring about positive interaction between people of different backgrounds and cultures, the residents of the district were further encouraged to participate with new ideas," Reda comments. One case in point is Hani Saleh, an Ard Al-Lewa resident with an interest in cinema, who was able to create and manage the centre's film programme. Thanks to Reda's determination and its staff's diligence, Art Al-Lewa has survived the hurdles that have had to be negotiated during the years of its existence, prime among them the almost permanent shortage of funds. Worries about funding have not caused the project's managers to lose their faith in the community arts model that it represents, however, with every activity offered by Art Al-Lewa being free of charge. Art Al-Lewa organises workshops led by Egyptian and foreign artists to teach young people photography, filmmaking, video animation and painting. During the summer, an open atelier offers amateur artists the possibility of seeing their works on show. Music is also on the centre's agenda, with concerts held at exhibition openings and musicians invited to perform in the streets of the neighbourhood. Since its founding, Art Al-Lewa has held some 30 exhibitions of different forms of art. Two are currently on show, running until 20 July. The first, "Stop", features works by Saudi-born Jordanian artist Raed Ibrahim. A beneficiary of Art Al-Lewa's Artists in Residence programme, Ibrahim is exhibiting his work in the district's streets, showing how street signs can be occasions for art. Ibrahim's work takes conventional traffic signs and rewrites them to produce messages bearing on social and political life, with the messages of ordinary road signs being replaced by new ones, such as "Road to Heaven", "No Beating", "No Police Vehicles" and "Beware of Children Attempting to Fly". The second of the current exhibitions at the centre is of works by Spanish artist Arnau Llobet Gelabert. This exhibition, entitled "Passport", is also the result of a period of residence at Art Al-Lewa, during which Gelabert spoke to neighbourhood young people of their dreams of seeking a better life abroad. Gelabert strongly believes in people's right to the freedom of movement, and he cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The logo he has chosen for his exhibition captures something of that vaunted freedom in the image of a kite.
