Venus Fouad takes a look at an outside view of local legacy How do Spanish artists view Egyptian culture and civilisation? The answer, or part of it, can be seen in the ongoing exhibition of Ancient Cultures and Diversities now on at the Modern Art Museum at the Opera House compound until 28 April. The exhibition, organised jointly by the Artistas de la Carpa, an art association in the Spanish city of Getafe, and the Ministry of Culture, is a melange of modern interpretations of Egypt's past and present. It will be reciprocated in the near future when a group of Egyptian artists will be invited to Spain to offer their own take on tSpanish civilisation and culture. The 30 paintings in Ancient Cultures and Diversity by the 21 Spanish artists who toured Egypt on an invitation from the Ministry of Culture offer an unusual insight into Egyptian art and culture. Some artists used postcards, blowing them up and adding another layer of their impressions. Others employed an approach of cut and past, juxtaposing images that invoke both Egypt's history and the country's current transformations. Others went for a minimalistic interpretation, focusing on one iconic aspect of Egypt's multilayered reality. In Nefertiti, Eugenio Ramon Alvarez blends some of Egypt's most recognisable touristic landmarks. We see the pyramids, Nefertiti's head, folk themes and pharaonic symbols blended in one seamless composition of antiquity, a mosaic of imagery complemented with motifs familiar to Cairo's tentmakers. In the Holiness of Man, Temoteo Diez Rozas combines the Pyramids and the Sphinx with other emblematic elements of architecture, including Islamic, Coptic, and modern symbols. In this tantalising composition we see the sun rising on a countryside scene with the Nile dominating the background. Juan Lopez's Meeting of Civilisations focuses on the links between ancient Egyptian and Greek and Roman heritage. With ancient Egyptian murals interlaced with Graeco-Roman art, the Mediterranean is reduced to a lake of overlapping cultures. Adding the Eiffel Tower to the composition takes it on two millennia in time, then comes a robotic symbol to take it to present day, or beyond. Jose Luis Lopez's Soul in a Rock is also a composite structure of the abstract and the ancient, with modern characters dressed in pharaonic gear and a background pyramid asserting the country's stature. In Roman Forum, David Diaz explores the Roman influences still visible in today's Alexandria, perhaps as a way of commenting on the implications of modernisation. Sonia Casero's Land gives us an aerial view of Egypt as if from far above, thus infusing realism with emotive abstractionism. Curated by Yehia Youssef Ramadan, a University of Murcia art professor, the exhibition offers a rare glimpse in how contemporary artists see Egypt and how they assess its continuing process of change. Ministry of Culture officials hope the exhibition, "Egyptian", will usher in a period of sustained cooperation among artists in both countries. More workshops are planned as part of an exchange programme for Egyptian and Spanish artists. Culture Minister Shaker Abdel Hamid and two of his top aides, Salah El-Meligi of the Fine Arts Sector and Hossam Nassar of the Foreign Cultural Relations Sector, attended the opening night. Artistas de La Carpa, an art association involved in a wide-range of initiatives aimed to promoting artistic endeavour, is only six year old, but it has managed, in cooperation with the municipal authorities, of Getafe, to launch several artist programmes inside and outside Spain.
