In keeping with the theme of this exhibition, I’ve been thinking about how to make a curatorial essay more fun to read. Wikihow suggests reading it upside-down, randomly selecting each page rather than following the page order, reading it out loud in crazy accents, or simply not reading it at all. So instead of making it a prerequisite to follow the above suggestions, I thought a more conversational curatorial text might address the stuffiness of academic-style writing.

 

Katie: "Let’s start by introducing ourselves and

explain why we’re doing this".

 

Dina: Ok. Sure. We are tamaniya w’ashreen, a curatorial collective consisting of

myself - Dina Jereidini - and Katie McDougall, and we are the curators of the exhibition “Where is the Fun in Contemporary Art?”.

 

Katie: This exhibition is both an introduction to the collective and a response to

some of the problems facing the contemporary art scene in Cairo. The first is a lack of engaging curatorial concepts and formats. Not all, but a significant portion of the exhibitions in Cairo are centred around identity (Egyptian or female artists), specific mediums (painting or photography), or in the case of group shows, a poetic title with no curatorial coherency. We wanted to make an exhibition that instead places an emphasis on concept and the overall experience of an exhibition. This means considering the design of the exhibition and how all of the elements such as lighting, art mediation, freestanding walls, the exhibition route, and artworks all work together to create a specific experience in line with the concept.

The second problem we are responding to is what we have experienced to be a negative perception of local contemporary art. While such perceptions may be the cause of a lack of work being exhibited in Egypt (which is a whole other topic), curation also affects how artworks are perceived. Consequently, we wanted to bring together an unexpected group of local artists and include some unseen, older and newly conceived-of artworks, to highlight the exciting work that has been produced over the last two decades and is being produced today.
 

Dina: Yes completely, and our interest in fun specifically was a reaction to the

dominant conceptual and aesthetic trends in local contemporary art-making. As a response to a limited number of avenues offered by state institutions to be taken seriously as a contemporary artist, and a cultural context that is often defined by political upheaval and trauma, local artistic production is conceptually and aesthetically somber, and jovial works are considered non-critical or less legitimate. So we were literally asking ‘where is the fun?’. In this way, the exhibition is an investigation into how our sociopolitical context is shaping our engagement with fun, while opening up a realm for artistic curiosity in order to ask ‘what is the virtue of the ridiculous?’.

 

Dina: That actually brings us to another question: what do you think the virtue

of the ridiculous is, then? Why is fun important?

 

Katie: Despite having worked on this for months, I still can’t fully articulate my

answer. Intuitively I see it as necessary - not least to make life more enjoyable!

 

Katie: By fun though, we aren't referring to capitalistic forms of play and

leisure, which mainly involve the consumption or possession of goods that are inevitably documented on social media, or leisure time that is justified only insofar as it brings about an increase in worker productivity. Rather, it is a particular type of fun that we think is important. While it may be part of an array of ad hoc and joyful pursuits, including game playing, sex, laughing, and dancing, it is the type of fun that always sits at the juncture of pleasure and impromptu possibility; the point at which fun has the ability to be a spontaneous, creative and subversive force. It is the type of fun which, - to quote Asef Bayat - has the capacity to open up alternative ways of engaging with the world because it enables individuals to “break free temporarily from the disciplined constraints of daily life, normative obligations, and organised power”.

Dina: The selected artworks are very much centred around this definition of

fun. Whilst making a distinction between humour and satire, play and imagination, the bizarre and the whimsical, the artworks explore the transformative potential of fun. Whether through the use of colour, scale, texture, or spectator involvement, many of the chosen works use ‘fun’ as a reaction to the current sociopolitical climate. In this way, ’fun’ becomes both a method to engage with pressing issues, as well as a form of escapism from the current political situation.

 

Katie: More specifically, Mohamed Ismail subverts authority and makes a

circus of the city by reimagining it as an inflatable bouncy castle. Ayman Ramadan gives us a taste of fun and mocks international elites with a large serving of Koshary. Deeper into the fun house, Yasmine ElMeleegy injects a little absurdity into the everyday causing giant tomatoes to spill out across the exhibition space, while Hany Rashed shrinks the metropolis into a miniature toy town, offering a more comprehensive vantage point to get to grips with reality. Sara AbouElWafa persuades us to abandon our inhibitions and roll around on her giant beanbag, while street artist Ammar Abu Bakr draws on the walls of the space and invites the audience to join in.

 

Katie: I think it’s necessary for an exhibition about fun to be a group exhibition.

While it’s not imperative, more often than not fun involves the company of someone else. Whether that is to play against, laugh with or share with, fun has this tendency to bring people together.

Dina: We should also add that the artworks are mostly installation pieces. This

was initially a very instinctive decision. Unlike video or painting, which are artworks that you passively consume, how one interacts with installation art is much less predictable. The uncertainty of the interaction makes experiencing these artworks particularly enjoyable.

 

Katie: The tactility of these objects can also illicit a very child-like response;

whether that is to touch, play, eat or climb upon the artworks, it coaxes the audience into liberating themselves from the restraints of socially expected adult behaviour.
 

Dina: That was particularly important for us and it is reflected in our choice of

exhibition space. We really wanted the audience to experience this idea of fun as ‘wholesome abandonment’.

 

Katie: Yeah totally! It is a very unconventional gallery space. It reminds me of a

ramshackle building that you would stumble upon as a child and wouldn't be able to resist the urge to play in. The strange decor, the obscure built-in furniture, the walls that twist and turn, the crooks and crevices that break off from the main rooms, they transport you to a whole other world.

Dina: The uncertainty of what this place once was, a pancake factory? a repair

workshop? also makes it all the more fun.

 

Katie: Is there anything else we should say before we finish?

Dina: I think it’s important to add one more thing. As well as considering the

role of fun for enhancing sociopolitical engagement, it must be remembered that fun is not didactic and it is precisely because it does not have to serve something beyond itself that it has political potential in the first place. And with that, the exhibition also embraces making art for the sake of having fun and having fun for the sake of having fun.