Everyone seems to be celebrating in Egypt these days. Poetry readings, musical nights and photography shows are being staged at every imaginable artistic platform, from the prestigious Bibliotheca Alexandrina to the glamorous Opera House, the community-based Sakiet al-Sawi and the versatile Townhouse. Even market-oriented galleries, such as the upscale Safarkhan, have started exhibiting revolutionary art.
Wherever you look, you'll see tear gas and smoke, smouldering vehicles and fluttering flags, children with painted faces and teenagers climbing on tanks. The imagery of Tahrir Square is just too powerful to dismiss, too haunting to shake off. A month or two after the revolution, and we're still paying tribute to the 18 days of turmoil that changed the face of Egypt. It's our victory lap, our homage to the martyrs, our way of turning a new leaf.
This, one has to admit, has been a well-documented revolution. When I went with my wife to Tahrir Square during the protests, we had produced a simple poster featuring a coloured photo of the ousted president. Every time we unfurled this poster, cameras started clicking in our direction. Dozens of people took our picture. Ours wasn't the most artistic poster or the funniest, but it must have been photographed hundreds of times. So by now every home in Egypt must have its own gallery for the revolution. Each home can stage a show.
But it is more fun to celebrate in the company of revolutionary-minded people.
Darb 1718 is an avant-garde art space in the pottery-making section of Fustat in south Cairo. Of all the art spaces in Egypt, this is the only one that is actually named after a revolution. The 1718 part of the name is a tribute to the bread riots of January 17 and 18 in 1977.
In mid-March, Moataz Nasr, the director of Darb 1718, curated a revolutionary exhibition of photography, video art and installations.
The exhibition featured a set of self-portraits by Nabil Butrus, in which the artist appears in various guises, including a Muslim sheikh and a Christian priest, to make the point that "We're all Egyptian." The set of self-portraits made several appearances in Tahrir Square during the protests.
Participating in the same show, the art critic Yousef Limod contributed a pile of rubble. He calls it an "incomplete pyramid", and it is all made up of the stones used by the rebels to defend their positions in Tahrir Square.
Another intriguing display, by the Swedish artist Goran Hassanpour, involved a ballot box hanging from the ceiling, with the audience asked to throw darts at it. The darts are made of ballot papers, and they tend to fall from the box unless you throw them really hard, an allegory perhaps to the difficulty of keeping democracy on the right track.
As part of the exhibition at Darb 1718, the Choir Project delivered fresh songs about justice and hope. All members of the choir are volunteers. They get together every two months or so for a week, during which they collectively write a new song lasting five to 10 minutes.
"It's not a band," said the impresario Salam Yosri, who has been running the Choir Project for some months now. The choir, which started with 20 volunteers and has grown to nearly 50 performers, is a work of love. No one gets paid, everyone gets yelled at by Yosri and they all keep coming back for more. Their lyrics are offbeat and colourful. A lot of clichés are spun around, old sayings recycled, and the whole thing comes across as irreverent, folksy and offbeat: think Sheikh Imam meets Sayyed Darwish.
The experience of that particular choir shows that the revolution was not that simple, or even over yet. One of the choir's members was picked up by secret services linked to the army three days before the concert at Darb 1718. So the choir performed while bearing signs that said, "Aly Sobhy is our friend; he is not a thug; he is an artist."
Sobhy was released the next day, having been beaten and tortured. His story, now posted on the internet, is painfully poignant for two reasons. One is that it happened after the revolution and the other is that the culprit was the army, for which many revolutionaries still have high regard.
But this doesn't dampen the spirits of Yosri, the choir's director, who maintained that once the secret services stopped muzzling intellectuals, the art scene would flourish. "The revolution has brought out the best in the people," Yosri said.
Other artists are equally sanguine about the future.
Although creativity exists even in restricted societies, when freedom arrives, art changes as a result, the photographer Hesham Labib said.
Artists may still experience some forms of censorship, including self-censorship, but the whole scene will be different, Labib added. "Take for example the fact that you'll be able to take photographs in a public place without being asked to obtain a permit first. How great is that?"
Adel al-Siwi, one of Egypt's most-acclaimed painters, believes that revolutionary art is just a phase. Soon, the full impact of the revolution would be felt, he said, and the outcome would be far more profound.
"The revolutionary art you see around the country is not what matters," al-Siwi said. "What really matters is the public is becoming more attentive, and their attentiveness is going to change everything, especially culture. We used to have a small elite interested in the arts. From now on, we'll have a lot of people, especially the young, getting involved in culture."
Egypt used to resist change because the old regime wanted everything to stay the same, he added. Now that the regime is gone, change would become unstoppable.
Artists are not only speculating about the future, they are making sure their voices will be heard.
In the Coalition of Art Institutions, a recently formed gathering of nearly 100 Egyptian art groups, artists are discussing such issues as government control, unionist laws, art sponsorship and intellectual rights. Their aim is to recommend policy and keep the government accountable and transparent.
One member of this coalition is Hoda Farid, a much-respected photographer and art administrator. Like al-Siwi, Farid is dismissive about revolutionary art. In fact, she discourages artists from pandering to the current international interest in revolutionary imagery.
"Taking money from donors to produce revolutionary art is not necessarily a good thing," Farid maintains. "We're in the middle of creating a new identity in this country, and we need to remain focused on what matters most."
For more information about the Darb 1718 gallery and the Choir Project, go to www.darb1718.com and www.thechoirproject.webs.com.
RACECARD
4.30pm Jebel Jais – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (Turf) 1,000m
5pm: Jabel Faya – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (T) 1,000m
5.30pm: Al Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m
6pm: The President’s Cup Prep – Conditions (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club – Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m
7pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m
7.30pm: Jebel Hafeet – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
SPECS
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs: 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio
Price, base: Dh198,300
Engine: 2.0L in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 280hp @ 5,250rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 2,250rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7L / 100km
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog
Marital status: Separated with two young daughters
Education: Master's degree from American Univeristy of Cairo
Favourite book: That Is How They Defeat Despair by Salwa Aladian
Favourite Motto: Their happiness is your happiness
Goal: For Nefsy to become his legacy long after he is gon
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2015%20PRO%20MAX
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
