Cairo experienced its first contemporary art auction on Dec. 9 at the Townhouse Gallery. For two hours, the crowd poured into the factory space to peruse and silently bid on one of the 60 works of art that decorated the many walls. "Nothing like this has ever been done in the region, said Fiona Fox, fundraising manager for the Townhouse Gallery. The day prior to the event, she admitted that she was "excited to see how it will turn out. Judging by the turnout, it seems to have been a huge success. At least 200 tickets were sold leading up to the event, and a majority of the art admirers and collectors that attended purchased their LE 100 pass at the door. After receiving a catalogue and bidding instructions, spectators were greeted with complimentary drinks, canapés, and could even kick back and smoke a shisha after canvassing the gallery. The auction - which was sponsored by Orascom, EFG-Hermes, Trianon, Cape Bay and others - brought together 53 artists, 40 percent of which are Egyptian, and other internationally renowned artists from the region and abroad. The group included artists from Iran, Palestine, France, Britain, and Australia aged between 23 to 80. All pieces in the auction were donated by the artists to the gallery. An exhibition of the artists' work was held during the week, which, said Fox, "was really interesting because each artist has such different taste and we really tried to cater to that for the auction. Some pieces are quite conservative and many are more modernist pieces rather than contemporary in some ways. From Ayman Ramadan's doctored photo depicting President Bush being served koshary to Setareh Shahbazi's "Self Portrait with Owl (Inkjet on aluminum), there was something for everyone. Karina, an Egyptian lover of art, said that she was "extremely impressed with the overall atmosphere created at the gallery. "Everywhere I turned there was a new style to see. Ryan, an American artist, said, "I felt like I was at a silent auction in New York. The only difference was the shisha! It was really nice to see a mix of artists coming together like this in downtown Cairo. Fox said that one of the reasons that Townhouse held the auction was to boost the accessibility of contemporary art to all audiences. Many of the artists represented are fast sellers abroad, she added, but do not do as well in Egypt because there are no serious contemporary art collectors in the country. "Holding this kind of event was also a way to expose folks in the higher end wage bracket to an exciting moment in time which is exploding with really amazing young artists here in Cairo, said Fox. "It would be really tragic if in 20 years people look back and there s no work from this period, because they're all on the walls in banks. Fox said that contemporary art is going through a strange time internationally. "It is receiving attraction from two angles, she said. "One of it is more of an intellectual approach. The second is the socially glamorous approach. So we packaged it up to appeal to different audiences. If this was just a normal exhibition, everyone would say, 'So what?!' The Townhouse received quite a bit of publicity for the auction and art collectors flew in from Beirut and London. Judith Greer, a collector of contemporary art, spoke at a ladies lunch held in honor of the women artists the day before the auction. Representatives from Arts Dubai attended the affair and ended their night with a dinner in their honor at the Garden City Club. The lowest starting bid was $100 dollars. Regarding the piece with the highest starting bid of $7,000 (a black and white photograph by Egyptian/German artist Susan Hesuna named Landscape, Nile Delta Egypt ) Fox said, "this is actually a bargain because the commercial value for this work of art is at least $20,000. In the catalogue, Townhouse's director, William Wells, wrote "as a not-for-profit center, we depend on charitable donations but endeavor to go beyond stretching out our hands for money. Thus, the idea of the silent auction was crystallized and the Townhouse has been working on the project since June. Money raised from the auctioned pieces will go to the gallery's outreach program, which provides workshops for refugees, street children, and communities that would otherwise not have this sort of access to the arts. Proceeds will also help maintain Townhouse's theater space and generally keep the gallery up and running.
