The rich online resource, spearheaded by researcher Nicola Pratt, reveals how culture was “an outlet” for political views during the revolution and its aftermath.
Egyptian revolution
Posted inArt
The Universal Humanism of Emancipatory Struggles
Jehane Noujaim’s The Square is a cinéma vérité-style documentary offering an electrifyingly intimate, character-driven perspective on Egypt’s political uprising and ensuing turmoil.
Posted inOpinion
Homophobic Egyptian Mural Transformed With a Pro-Gay Message
Global Voices is reporting on a new social media hashtag that is demonstrating that pro-LGBT proponents in Egypt are not afraid to speak out. The hashtag #ضد_رهاب_المثلية (Against homophobia) has been generating conversation between LGBT supporters and opponents, but its very existence points to a broadening of Egyptian debate on the topic of LGBT rights.
Posted inNews
Major Egyptian Library Devastated by Fire
La Libération newspaper has confirmed that the 213-year-old Institut d’Égypte, which was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, has been ravaged by fire.
Posted inOpinion
Battle for the Legacy of the Egyptian Revolution in Ads & Street Art
NPR’s Eric Westervelt looks at the legacy of the Egyptian Revolution and how corporations are using it to promote their brands … but not everyone is thrilled, particularly street artists …
Posted inArt
Photos from the 54th Venice Biennale, Part 3
More images from the world’s oldest and largest art biennial event, the Venice Biennale, including photos from the American, Egyptian, Iraqi, Israeli and Polish pavilions, view of various social events and other random sightings.
Posted inNews
Egyptian Antiquities Minister Sentenced to Prison, Under Fire for Fashion Faux Pas
The bad news keeps rolling in for Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass, who yesterday was sentenced to one year in prison for his failure to enforce a court ruling. In other news, many Egyptians are outraged that Hawass used ancient Egyptian artifacts to promote his own menswear line.
Posted inOpinion
Egypt’s Representative to Venice Biennale Was Killed in Tahrir Square
Artist Ahmed Basiony was to represent Egypt in the 2011 Venice Biennale in an exhibition at the country’s national pavilion, curated by Shady El Noshokaty. Yet the artist will now be representing his country’s art community posthumously — Basiony died in gunfire in Tahrir Square while documenting the recent revolutionary protests.
Posted inNews
The Mummy Returns … Zahi Hawass Becomes Egyptian Minister
The egotistical Hawass is baaaack! Less than a month after leaving his post as Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities due to revolution fallout, Zahi Hawass has returned to the job.
Posted inNews
Final Report Says 54 Objects Missing from Egyptian Museum
Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities has released the final list of the historic objects that have gone missing from the Egyptian Museum since the January 25th revolution began … while in Spain, a museum finds a van Dyck in its basement.
Posted inNews
Egypt’s Antiquities Not So Safe?
The New York Times is reporting on its ArtsBeat blog that the Egyptian Antiquities head, Zahi Hawass, may resign after a month of defending his work as the head of antiquities and, in more troubling news, he has revealed some facts that suggest Egypt’s ancient heritage isn’t exactly safe … [NYTimes’ Artsbeat blog]
Posted inNews
The State of Egyptian Antiquities, According to Zahi Hawass
On February 2nd, a post published on now-Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass’s blog categorically stated: “I would like the people of the world to know that today all of the Egyptian monuments are safe.” The post assures us that no major Egyptian archaeological sites have been seriously damaged besides the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, at the epicenter of the protests that recently overthrew Mubarak’s government (of which Zahi Hawass was a prominent part). Oh, but there was also the “looting of the storage magazine in Qantara,” during which an unknown amount of antiquities were stolen, though 288 were reportedly returned. Hawass’s blog gives a uniquely skewed perspective on Egyptian lootings over the past weeks, not to be trusted, but certainly not to be discounted either.