Tips from the culture desk: Charlie Chaplin, video art and the Constitution

The Cairo Book Fair is still ongoing this week with some great bargains and new releases (check out our video walk through the secondhand book section), while the Cinedelta documentary film festival continues its screenings for the coming days in Alexandria and Rosetta. It’s also a good week to catch some award-winning films, with British drama I-Daniel Blake screening at Zawya, and a one-time re-screening of Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-nominated The Salesman at Zamalek Cinema this Tuesday.

Cairo Video Festival – opens Sunday

Launching three weeks of video art and experimental films screenings, the Cairo Video Festival’s opening night will feature a live video performance by Japanese artist Masayuki Kawai at downtown Cairo's Rawabet Theater. The coming weeks will feature 119 works from 63 countries, which will be shown at Medrar for Contemporary Art in Garden City as well as a rented space at 29 Hoda Shaarawi, while screenings will take place at Zawya and the French Institute.

7 pm, February 5, Rawabet Theater, 3 Hussein El Meamar Street, downtown Cairo. Exhibition open daily at Medrar and 29 Hoda Shaarawi from 3 to 9 pm except Fridays. More information about the program and films here.

Opening of Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear exhibition by Aya Tarek – Monday

Alexandrian artist Aya Tarek shot to fame at the peak of the revolution with her street art, which she had been practicing since 2008. Since playing herself in Ahmad Abdalla’s hybrid film Microphone, the artist has developed her signature style and worked on massive murals around the world. Surveying Tarek’s career to date, Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear will display some of the artist’s previously unseen paintings and murals.

Opening 7 pm, February 6, SOMA Art School and Gallery, 14 Maraashly Street, Zamalek, Cairo. Opening hours daily except Fridays from 12pm till 9pm until 17 February. More details here.

Two politically driven talks (Salman Abu Sitta’s Mapping My Return at NVIC + Creativity in the Constitution at AUC) – Tuesday

Two seemingly fascinating lectures will take place concurrently this Tuesday, leaving us feeling rather torn.

Renowned Palestinian author Salman Abu Sitta will speak about his new memoir, Mapping My Return. As an acclaimed cartographer responsible for crucial mapping work on Palestine, Abu Sitta will discuss the personal narrative he conveys in his memoir, from Gaza to Cairo to Canada and Kuwait, as well as the personal and cathartic value of dedicating your life to mapping out a nation that is slowly being erased.

At the same time, The American University in Cairo will be holding a roundtable discussion between former Minister of Culture Dr. Emad Abou Ghazi, filmmaker Hala Lotfy, and lawyer Mahmoud Othman on “Creativity in the Constitution.” This public lecture is organised by the Law and Research Society Unit at AUC, and will bring to light the relationship between artistic production and the laws governing it, an especially important issue in light of recent closures and restrictions.

Salman Abu Sitta’s Mapping My Return: 6-7:30 pm, Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 1 Dr. Mahmoud Azmi Street, Zamalek, Cairo. More information here.

Creativity in the Constitution:  6-9 pm, February 7, Oriental Hall at The American University in Cairo’s downtown campus, Mohammed Mahmoud Street, downtown Cairo. More information here.

City Lights at Falaki Theatre – Thursday

A remake of Charlie Chaplin's 1931 masterpiece City Lights, this piece of musical theater will bring together choreography, live singing, and a dramatic musical score to bring to life the narrative of this classic from the silent film era.

8 pm, February 9-11, 24 El Falaki Street, downtown Cairo. More information here.