Through the eyes of Van Leo
An evening on the past, present and future of Egypt on 29 September, start: 20:00
€ 8.50 / € 6, - with discount (CJP/Student/Stadspas/65 +)
Tickets at the door or through www.debalie.nl
In the 50’s the Egyptian revolution made Cairo into the cosmopolitan center of a vibrant society. Can the city once more have that role in the aftermath of today's Arab Spring? Prominent and original photographer Van Leo (1921 - 2002) knew at the time how to capture the zeitgeist with his advanced photography. On Thursday 29 September the Prince Claus Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts in collaboration with De Balie, organized an evening related to the work of Van Leo, providing a unique look at the Cairo of the past, the current situation and the Cairo of the future.
Addressing this, in a diverse panel of experts and artists led by Kirsten van den Hul (freelance change agent), were among other, Maria Golia (Middle East correspondent and author of Photography and Egypt), Ahmed Kamel (Egyptian artist, uses photography, video and drawing to address social issues) and Nat Muller (independent curator and critic, works in Europe and the Middle East).
With a thriving music and film industry Cairo was for decades the base of the Arab intellectual and artistic elite, who paraded in front of the camera of Van Leo as a flamboyant procession. Among the people he portrayed were strippers, journalists and soldiers as well as renowned singers like Farid al-Atrash, film stars such as Omar Sharif, Abaza Rushdie and the iconic Egyptian writer Taha Hussein. In addition, Van Leo also shot hundreds of self-portraits, that were both in style and technique far ahead of their time. Van Leo was granted Prince Claus Award in 2000 for his work. During this evening the work of Van Leo will be shown and interpreted through his photographs and the documentary Her +Him Van Leo, made by the award winning artist Akram Zaatari (Arab Image Foundation). When Zaatari finds a nude portrait of his grandmother he sets out to find the photographer, and ends up at Van Leo. Not only is the film a captivating portrait of Van Leo, but it also offers an important insight into the development of art in Cairo, and the social transformations in Egypt during the second half of the twentieth century. The panel will discuss the Cairo of past and the Cairo of the future. Is the modern Cairo portrayed by Van Leo nearby or harder to attain than ever?
This evening is organized in the framework of the exhibition "Becoming Leo, A Work in Progress" with works by Van Leo. The exhibition and the program at De Balie are part of International Art in Amsterdam, a programme of the Prince Claus Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts in which where they join forces. Special persons from around the world come to Amsterdam and highlight topical issues through fashion, art, photography, film, media, music and dance. www.internationalekunstinamsterdam.nl The exhibition
'Becoming Leo, A Work in Progress' is curated by Negar Azimi and Karl Bassil of the Arab Image Foundation and can be seen until 11 November 2011, in the Prince Claus Fund Gallery, 603 Herengracht, Amsterdam.
"His photographs create a unique document of cosmopolitan Cairo"
Report Prince Claus Awards Committee 2000
Van Leo, self portrait
Van Leo, “Sherihan, actress”
Van Leo, night club dancers
Van Leo, Mariam Fakhreddine
Van Leo, self portrait 1943
Through the eyes of Van Leo, panel. Photo: Najib Nafid
Through the eyes of van leo - maria golia presentation. Photo: Najib Nafid
Kirsten van den Hul and the audience. Photo: Najib Nafid.
Through the eyes of van leo, nat muller. Photo: Najib Nafid
Maria Golia
Maria Golia is the author of Cairo, City of Sand and Photography and Egypt, permanent correspondent for The Middle East (UK) and columnist for the New Internationalist (Oxford). Has been living in Cairo for 20 years now.
Ahmed Kamel
Ahmed Kamel is interested in domestic and urban life. He uses photography, video and drawing to address social issues. He was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1981, where he studied painting and received his BFA in 2003. Kamel is the recipient of a number of residencies including "Mediamatic" Amsterdam, Netherlands, "Prohelvetia", Bern, Switzerland, "Land NRW", Dusseldorf, Germany and "Amongst Neighbours", Istanbul, Turkey. He has participated in various solo and group exhibitions in the middle east and Europe.
His work is mainly concerned with how society constructs and idealizes its identity through means of visual representation that can act as markers of peopleʼs social and cultural background.
Nat Muller
Nat Muller is an independent curator and critic based between Rotterdam and the Middle East. Her main interests include: the intersections of aesthetics, media and politics; media art and contemporary art in and from the Middle East. She has held staff positions at V2_Institute for Unstable Media in Rotterdam and De Balie, Centre for Arts & Politics, in Amsterdam. She is a regular contributor for Springerin, MetropolisM and other art publications. She has curated video screenings for projects and festivals in a.o. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, New York, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Grimstad, Lugano, Dubai, Cairo and Beirut. With Alessandro Ludovico she edited the Mag.net Reader2: Between Paper and Pixel (2007), and Mag.net Reader3: Processual Publishing, Actual Gestures (2009), based on a series of debates organized at Documenta XII. She has taught at the Willem de Kooning Academy (NL), ALBA (Beirut), the Lebanese American University (Beirut), A.U.D. in Dubai (UAE), and the Rietveld Academy (NL). She has served as an advisor on Euro-Med collaborations for the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), the EU, and as an advisor on e-culture for the Dutch Ministry of Culture. She is currently working on her first book for the Institute of Network Cultures and Nai Publishers. She serves on the advisory board of the Palestinian website project Artterritories (Ramallah), the arts organisation TENT (Rotterdam), and seats in the selection committee of the Mondriaan Foundation.
Through the eyes of Van Leotitle
Through the eyes of Van Leotitle
An evening on the past, present and future of Egypt on 29 September, start: 20:00 € 8.50 / € 6, - with discount (CJP/Student/Stadspas/65 +) Tickets at the door or through www.debalie.nl In the 50’s the Egyptian revolution made Cairo into the cosmopolitan center of a vibrant society. Can the city once more have that role in the aftermath of today's Arab Spring? Prominent and original...
