CAIRO - After showing them some unusual white-and-red photos, Emad Farouq, an art director, multimedia designer and scenographer, asked his audience: "Would they look nice on your wall at home?" They all said yes. Emad then revealed his secret: "These are photos of a rotten tomato." What he was trying to do was to get them to look for the good in something bad. Emad, along with Hatem Hassan, a theatre director and culture projects manager, and French artist, architect and scenographer Alexandre Cubizolles, were giving a ten-day workshop entitled ‘Street Multimedia Theatre'. The workshop, which took place in Alexandria last month, ended with a big multimedia presentation attended by many people. It had been proposed by Alexandria Forum for Independent Theatre and Contemporary Arts (AFIT), ZINC and SEE Foundation, in the framework of the Liverato programme, a cultural programme allowing Egyptian and other Arab artists to participate in artistic workshops, residences and much more. For ten days, the 15 participants from Alexandria and Cairo worked in an Alexandrian slum called Kom el-Dikka, a district where legendary Egyptian composer and singer Sayyed Darwish was born. Some of the training was held in the street and the rest in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, while there were a few visits to the premises of AFIT, a non-profit initiative, based in Alexandria and supported by the Dutch Embassy. Although Kom el-Dikka is a poor district, oozing rubbish, it has many beautiful things, like the doors of the old buildings, the smiles of the children, the kind elderly people and the intimacy between them. The participants tried to capture all the goodness of the place in their artworks, displayed at the end of the workshop. Participation was open to artists motivated by the street and multimedia approach, with skills or backgrounds in every artistic field, including theatre, acting, photographing, filmmaking and related activities. The workshop focused on the integration of multimedia art in the street, where the participants tried to inspire the popular imagination and change their attitude in certain ways. "The aim of this workshop is to hone the skills of the artists involved and to encourage them to work in the streets," said Alexandre Cubizolles, who was visiting Egypt for the first time. "In fact, I love the place [Kom el-Dikka]. It's very inspiring. The old houses, streets, qahwas [coffee shops] and people are all lovely," explained Alexandre, who was sitting in one of the qahwas there, with a group of Kom el-Dikka residents, who of course couldn't understand his language but enjoyed being with him. During the workshop, Alexandre liked working in the place itself. He had to think where to place his projector, so as best to use the available light. "The workshop has also transformed public spaces into spaces for free expression and sharing our knowledge, joys, ideas and experiences," added Alexandre, who loved taking photos of the people there. As for the above-mentioned multimedia presentation, it was held in Kom el-Dikka itself, with people coming from all over the place to attend the event. The presentation consisted of the photos of the local people taken by the attendees and which were displayed in the streets of Kom el-Dikka. There was also a short movie about the children there and their dreams, directed by your writer. Three storytellers told stories about the revolution, while Am Mohssen, a Kom el-Dikka resident in his forties nicknamed ‘Sha'ara', sang an improvised song about Kom el-Dikka and its people. "We all love and like to help each other. You sit here in safety; no-one's going to bother you. Maybe you won't find this kind of security in other slums," said Am Sha'ara, who guided the participants during their time in Kom el-Dikka. Am Sha'ara isn't in a band but he's been singing since he was a child. He likes to sing in the local weddings held in the streets of Kom el-Dikka. Like millions of his fellow Egyptians, he cannot read or write, but he composes his own songs and is wonderful at improvising. "I've been offered lots of jobs in nightclubs, but I don't like singing alongside bellydancers, which is why I've never turned professional. I prefer singing independently," explained Am Sha'ara, a very obliging man much loved by the people of Kom el-Dikka.
