Hala Halim looks forward to the Alexandria Biennale, and back across the chequered history of the event The session devoted to Taha Husayn (b.1889- d.1973) that took place on 23 November as part of the Eighth International Symposium on Comparative Literature organised by Cairo University's English Department attested to the passions some of his central propositions continue to arouse. At stake, particularly, were two books of his: the 1926 Fi 'l- Shi'r Al-Jahili (On Pre-Islamic Poetry) -- which subjects the Qur'an and pre-Islamic poetry to a self-avowedly dispassionate scrutiny to conclude, among other things, that part of the canon of poems consists in post-Islamic forgeries -- and the 1938 Mustaqbal Al-Thaqafa Fi Misr (The Future of Culture in Egypt) -- in which Husayn, in the course of outlining a programme for educational reform, advocates a "modernising" European identity for Egypt consolidated by the hyphen of the country's Mediterranean orientation whereby its historical relationship with the opposite shore was one of symbiotic cultural influence. A woman professor in the audience, citing and endorsing Islamist critiques of his work, declared that whereas whatever Husayn says about Europe, Islam and so on, could be bracketed out, scientifically-speaking his methodology was infallible. In defence of Husayn one of the panelists responded that even if you set aside what he has to say about Europe you should still give the man credit for a sound educational project much of which has yet to be implemented. The polemical edge of the discussion, however, could not hide from view the variously-motivated ambivalences of both positions. As the Paris-based journal Mediterraneans signals in its title, articulations of a cultural rather than solely geographical identity for the countries overlooking this sea basin are plural and heterogeneous. The 23rd Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries (1 December, 2005-28 February, 2006) summons one such trajectory interestingly unfolding in a moment when "Alexandrian cosmopolitanism," for what it was, was on the wane (see "On being an Alexandrian," Al-Ahram Weekly, 11-17 April, 2002). That the first biennale was inaugurated on 26 July, 1955, as part of the extended celebrations of the 1952 Revolution, does not strike , Alexandrian artist and commissar of this round of the event, as after-the-fact in terms of an Egyptian Mediterranean orientation. Alexandria was still cosmopolitan at the time of the first biennale, he says, so much so that a number of Mediterranean countries were represented at the 1955 event by Alexandrians; it was not until the 1956 Suez War and the subsequent sequestrations of property and assets of foreign residents that large-scale emigration began. Later in conversation Dawestashi mentions that from its inception the Alexandria Biennale's charter has had a statute to the effect that any Mediterranean country occupying another country is automatically disqualified from participating. If this might seem to elicit, in 1955, France vis-à-vis Algeria (although the former did participate), it primarily excludes Israel, which has never participated. The statute places the biennale's appeal to Mediterraneanism as curiously hyphenated by anti- and post-colonial projects. Al-Ahram of 27 July, 1955, which carries coverage of President Nasser's inauguration of the biennale, contains a heady mix of anti- colonial rhetoric, particularly in Nasser's speech delivered at Manshieh Square (given in the newspaper in alternation with its new name, Liberation Square) and traces of an ancien régime heterogeneity. Alexandria is still referred to, in a speech by one of the ministers outlining the revolution's projects for developing the city, as "the second capital" -- a carry-over from monarchical times when the cabinet moved to the port town in summer -- and the account of Nasser's inauguration of the biennale, which followed his inauguration of the Police Club on the Corniche, similarly foregrounds continuities with what had gone before. At the "Biennale Exhibition of the Arts of Mediterranean Countries," as it was then referred to, the hall of the Fine Arts Museum was "packed with guests from among the Egyptian and foreign notables and ladies of the city". Nasser proceeded to view the different wings, representing Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, France, Yugoslavia, Italy and Greece, before pausing in front of "a huge painting of the members of the Revolutionary Council". In the same issue much space is given to another piece of "Mediterranean" news, the success of Egyptian athletes who won 13 medals at the second Mediterranean Games, held in Barcelona. Although this is the 23rd round of the biennale it is also the golden jubilee of the event. That the figures don't tally is a function of, among other things, the way in which it is through individual charisma and single- handed efforts, rather than sustainable structures, that things happen. It was through the efforts of Hussein Sobhi, a patron of the arts and, in 1955, the director of Alexandria Municipality, that the biennale was launched, to be held since then at the Fine Arts Museum which he had helped found the year before and which eventually came to bear his name. As he explained in an interview with Dawestashi, when the idea of a biennale for Mediterranean arts was mooted, Sobhi, through his consular contacts, won the bid to host the event over other possible hosts, including Spain and Italy. Sponsored by Alexandria Governorate for many years, the biennale was able to establish itself regionally. But with Sobhi's death in 1987, says Dawestashi, the governorate showed a lack of interest in the event which was repeatedly postponed until the Ministry of Culture, at the behest of a number of Alexandrian artists, intervened to offer funding. In 1993, when the scheduled biennale did not take place, Dawestashi was delegated by the ministry to direct the Hussein Sobhi Museum of Fine Arts and organise the event, which took place in 1994. But faced with bureaucratic obstacles Dawestashi eventually resigned, and the following biennale was also late (on the history of the biennale, see "The Biennale bounces back," Al-Ahram Weekly, 5-11 May, 1994; "When two into three does go" and "Art for the people", Al-Ahram Weekly 7-13 November, 1996). Since 1999 both the biennale and the Hussein Sobhi Museum of Fine Arts have come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture. Dawestashi (b. 1943) belongs in that category that may best be described as the artist- collector or writer-archivist, particularly prominent in parts of the world where heritage preservation is neglected. His own practice as an artist favours assemblage and collage, and as a writer he has made considerable efforts to document the work of older artists, whether well-known such as Effat Nagui (b. 1905-d. 1994)) or relatively obscure such as Wadie' Shenouda (b. 1923-d. 1967), figures to whom he has devoted two monographs as part of the series, Catalogue '77, published at his own expense. It is within this series that he published Biennale d'Aléxandrie (1955-1994): Etude historique, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary, to be reissued in more expanded form for the golden jubilee. Among the plans for the 23rd biennale is a documentary exhibition on the history of the event, to be held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which also hosts an exhibition of works by guests of honour and winners of golden awards in past biennales. Sixteen countries will be participating this year: Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, France, Spain, Croatia, Bosnia and Egypt. For the first time monetary prizes will be replaced by the Alexandria Golden Lighthouse Awards. A number of fringe activities, spread across different venues in Alexandria, including cafés, will accompany this year's biennale, comprising exhibitions, films, dance performances, workshops in public gardens and seminars. The seminar series, held under the rubric "Limpidity of the Universe, Enchantment of the Mediterranean," comprises a sub-section devoted to discussions of the biennale. Dawestashi has planned this as a forum in which to debate the future, if any, of the Alexandria Biennale. "In 1955 this was the only biennale in the Arab world; now there are several biennales in Cairo, and other Mediterranean towns, such as Naples, have their own biennales, so ours has been marginalised. The urgent question at this golden jubilee is whether the Alexandria Biennale has exhausted its raison d'être or whether it should continue but with new aims for the next half century," he says. Alexandrian artists, meanwhile, express polite reservations. Ali Ashour asserts that the event has declined over the past 15 years or so and no longer invigorates Alexandria's already depleted arts scene. Modern art, he adds, has become a façade divorced from the general conservatism of Egyptian society. Amre Heiba agrees that the event has declined, noting that the effort to document the event, as represented on this year's poster which reproduces a selection of posters from previous biennales, virtually overlooks the contribution for over a decade of the designs of noted Alexandrian artist Seif Wanli. Where would Dawestashi fix Egypt's coordinates vis-à-vis Mediterraneanism today -- towards, for example, the European Union, and the Euro- Mediterranean Partnership? On a practical level, replies Dawestashi, this orientation is already present: in addition to the LE50,000 donated to the 23rd Biennale by the Alexandria Governorate, he has secured LE20,000 from the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation. One of the members of the biennale jury, he points out, is German, which in itself attests to a rapprochement with a unified Europe beyond the purely geographical Mediterranean designation. And in more general terms, he adds, there is the appeal of the European Union as a counterweight to American hegemony, but the extent to which this appeal should be embraced still needs to be discussed and debated. One would add that the fate of last week's Euro- Mediterranean Summit in Barcelona, and the near absence of Arab representation, serves to demonstrate the precariousness of that particular hyphen. For his part, artist Adel El-Siwi is sceptical about the event in view of the very genealogy of the concept of the biennale. "The Arab artistic movement produces pale copies of what happens in the West. The concept of the biennale arose in Italy in the late 19th century with the rise of the nation-state in Europe, and it translated competition among nations into the artistic arena," says El-Siwi. But in addition to overlooking the internal heterogeneity of "national" artistic cultures and artists such as Picasso whose national ascriptions and artistic resources are hybrid, the model of artistic competition among nations came under strong critique after World War II, and also in 1968, he adds. El-Siwi cites examples of how different biennales and more sporadic exhibitions have reinvented themselves to avoid such pitfalls. And the potential cosmopolitanism of Mediterraneanism? "People ignore the history of wars and conflicts in the region, such as the Crusades, and don't develop Mediterraneanism much beyond poetic phrases about the texture of the light," he waxes ironical. Echoing Dawestashi, although doubtful this will actually happen, he also feels that it is high time that a reassessment of the Alexandria Biennale, including its administrative structures, took place. But whereas El-Siwi offers the chronicle of a biennale foretold, one should perhaps continue to balance on the tight-rope strung between scepticism and open-mindedness.
