It looks horrible from a distance; you really do think that the men are tucking into human flesh, served on a tray. You think that some cannibals are visiting Egypt, but, as you get nearer, you realise that this flesh is just sweets shaped like human organs. The scene is part of an installation by Ahmed Abdel Fattah, being displayed in a group exhibition entitled ‘Supermarket'. As his works suggest, Abdel Fattah thinks that the philosophy of buying and selling will change over time in Egypt, becoming like that in Asia, where man is linked to objects, making man cheaper than objects. His works feature sculptures of very realistic-looking human organs on a dining room table. Some of these sculptures are actually edible and visitors to the exhibition can eat them. "My works are about the idea of consuming things that are not supposed to be consumed. These things include human beings," Abdel Fattah explains. He not only focuses on ‘people who use other people', but on people who abuse themselves, for example by exerting much effort to buy trivial luxuries. “When I get my guests to eat sweets shaped liked human organs, I'm not talking about cannibalism, but focusing on the things that we treat as commodities, when really they have a value that we shouldn't neglect," he explains. Every few kilometres along the nation's highways, you find road signs advertising supermarkets and hypermarkets. In these vast shopping centres, commodities impose a new social reality that reshapes and re-centres the population of the surrounding areas, as if they are inevitably subject to a hidden power that controls their fate. The artists participating in the exhibition believe there is a hidden power which creates confrontation and that people are looking for answers to ambiguous questions, while the commodities in supermarkets and hypermarkets are like a group of tests. They pose a question that we should answer. The concept of the exhibition, organised by Studio Khana for Culture Development in co-operation with a group of independent artists, involves discussing the surrounding consumeristic reality by imitating the supermarket model, as well as exploring the ideas related to the philosophy of consumerism and transforming them into consumeristic commodities. The artists first came up with the idea of the ‘Supermarket' project two years ago. The aim was to study the thinking and behaviour of a consumeristic society that has come to largely dominate the life of Egyptians. The philosophy of global consumerism is addressed, along with an obsession for purchasing, and how this affects human beings, so that a consumeristic philosophy can become a lifestyle. But the exhibition was delayed because of the unrest in the region, especially Egypt. An interactive exhibition related to the political events and the revolution was a necessity. In fact the current exhibition was preceded by another interactive exhibition, ‘Shift Delete 30', held last January in the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Centre. The ‘Supermarket' team want to form an art group that creates installations and videos, holding two artistic exhibitions every year, encouraging young artists to join them, in order to find a language for communicating with society. "Everyone thinks that his religion is the best and that the way people dress reveals their religious inclinations. We find religious items on sale everywhere, including Islamic veils, while, for Christians, the photos of Pope Shenouda have been selling like hot cakes since his death in March," said May el-Hossami about her work, a photographic collage. "My work is an abstract that shows a man standing still while the people are moving rapidly around him, buying and selling," says another exhibitor, Aya el-Fellah. In his work ‘A pattern within the pattern', Mahmoud el-Hosseini shows how a group of people react to societal structures by creating an alternative one trying to break out of the pattern. "By breaking the pattern the group subconsciously create another one. This is not an attempt to break out," he explains. With their ‘Supermarket', the artists are arguing that a whole community should reshape its policies and strategies and improve its way of thinking.
‘Supermarket' is being held in El Gezira Arts Centre, 1 el-Marsafy Street, Zamalek. Featuring works by a group of modern visual artists, the exhibition is open daily until July 4.
