Grants for Artists 2021

Aly Khamees (Egypt, b. 1986) for participation in the Atlas Program as part of ImPulsTanz 2021, organized by the Vienna International Dance Festival, to conduct choreographic research around traditional street-fight dance practices in Egypt.

Ibrahim Nehme (Lebanon, b. 1986) for the research and writing of a mediated performance reflecting on Arab Futurism through the reconstruction of a poetic journey undertaken by the artist Etel Adnan in 1966.

Batool Desouky (Egypt, b. 1990) for a series of computational art works that look at the talismanic magic square, revisiting its long history with medieval Arab mathematics and occult practices, and challenging norms of working with technology and Western assumptions about magic.

Dala Nasser (Lebanon, b. 1990) for a project with filmmaker Jad Youssef, composer Mhamad Safa, and diver Jawad Al Amine in the southern region of Tyre. The project includes a film and a series of sculptures that investigate the effects of toxic waste along the coastline in the aftermath of conflict, and the impact of militarization on marine wildlife and ruins.

Sara El Adl (Egypt, b. 1989) and photographer Yazan El Zubi (b. 1989, Morocco) for the production of a collaborative artistic publication on pleasure/waste aesthetics, which will depict pockets of leisure and include writing that oscillates between creative prose and essay.

Youness El Mouaffaq (Morocco, b. 1993) for a hip-hop theater performance that explores the question of representation through dance, and which focuses on narrating and sharing intimate stories.

 

Amany Atef (Egypt, b. 1989) for an artistic residency to conduct choreographic research for an upcoming dance performance on social and individual mental health.

Marwan Kaabour (Lebanon, b. 1987) for the production of The Queer Arab Glossary, a publication that explores perceptions of Arab queer identities that will compile and reflect on language used to refer to the LGBTQ + communities across the Arabic-speaking world.

Sarouna Mushasha (Palestine, b. 1995) for developing Tawleef, an alternative sound and music platform for women artists from Palestine to experiment with, collaborate on, and produce and develop their own musical practices.

Engy Mohsen (Egypt, b. 1995) and Soukaina Joual (Morocco, b. 1990) for the publication of a book researching art-related terminologies using a comparative linguistics approach to Arab colloquial languages.

Christina Skaf (Lebanon, b. 1991) for the design of a kit of resources, exercises, tools, and materials that invites children to engage with repetition as a practice that incites daydreaming, inspired by patterns in embroidery, weaving, and culinary practice, to experiment with the deconstruction and reconceiving of patterns.

Islam Shabana (Egypt, b. 1988) for creative research into how technological devices carry a potential to shape speculative methodologies of the future, and which will examine the confluence of worshiping practices and technological innovation through the invention of a new technological talisman that can be programmed to manifest a desired outcome.

These projects were chosen from over 420 applications from the Arab world and elsewhere. The selection committee comprised Noura Seif (performer, choreographer, and co-founder of nasa4nasa, Cairo), Sarah Bahgat (cultural manager and curator, Cairo), Sido Lansari (visual artist and director of La Cinémathèque de Tanger, Tangier), Urok Shirhan (visual artist and researcher, Utrecht), and Noha Ramadan (choreographer, dancer, and performer, Amsterdam/Berlin).