Tips from the culture desk: History speaks and a big festival starts

Cairo is quite happening in terms of arts and culture this week. We highly recommend the third monthly Slow Food Downtown day at Eish w Malh on April 1. Zawya is showing acclaimed UK documentary Amy (2015) until Wednesday, but also offers a rare chance to watch 2015's Homeland (Iraq Year Zero), a 334-minute epic documentary about before and after the US invasion of Iraq (in Arabic with English subtitles) at 3 pm on March 26.

On Monday at 1 pm, AUC assistant professor of Islamic art and architecture Ellen Kenney gives the intriguingly named talk "Islamic Art and its Intradisciplinary Translations" at the Center for Translation Studies at AUC’s new campus. The Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, one of our five main tips below, opens with a splash, and of course the annual Flower Show continues at the Orman Botanical Gardens.

Imane Ibrahim at MASS Alexandria — Saturday

As part of MASS Alexandria’s “young artists” series, Alexandria-based artist Imane Ibrahim talks about her project SYMMETRIC, ISOMETRIC AND EQUIVALENT, which explores mathematical conundrums and the relation between architecture and prisoners’ memoirs through drawings, small sculptures and artist books. Ibrahim was born in 1990 and studied at Alexandria University, MASS Alexandria and Ashkal Alwan’s Home Works Program. Talk and discussion in Arabic with English translation.

6 pm, March 26, 2 Al-Madina al-Monawwara Street, Miami, Alexandria. Free entry, register by emailing [email protected].

Not So Secret Saturday — Saturday

DJs Omar Foda (with a 1980s post-punk playlist), Habiba (who is also Mada Masr staff) and Zeina are promising good vibes at downtown venue Zigzag in aid of forthcoming film Colors of Water. Architect-turned-VJ Mohamed Talaia contributes with stop motion and visual loops. Entrance is LE100 but all proceeds go to producing the film.

10 pm, March 26, 6 Qasr al-Nil Street, downtown Cairo. Facebook event here.

On the Speak, History workshops — Wednesday

Alia Mossallam talks (in Arabic) about the Speak, History workshop series, which have taken place so far in Aswan, Cairo and Port Said and explore the popular politics of communities marginalized in the writing of Egyptian histories through field trips, field work and exploring creative ways of re-telling histories. The talk introduces the series’ methodology as it has been applied in the Nubian Island of Suhail, in Port Said and in the Cairo neighborhood of Ghuriyya, and the outcomes.

7 pm, Megawra al-Khalifa (for map see here). Free entry.

I’m Now Dead — Friday

I’m Now Dead was first staged at the French Institute’s Jeunes Créateurs (Young Creators) theater festival in 2005. The piece still felt relevant to director Hani Afifi in 2014, so he reunited its cast and crew to start showing it again. Consisting of several sketches connected by an overarching theme on young people and how they are caught up in a dire state of neutrality, the show is darkly funny and insightful, reflecting the current state of affairs rather well.

8pm Friday April 1 at Hanager Theater, Cairo Opera House grounds, Gezira. Facebook event here. Image courtesy: Hani Afifi.

D-CAF opening weekend — starts Tuesday

The fifth Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival opens this week with a variety of events in Cairo’s city center. While the opening concert by Dina El-Wedidi (Egypt) and Khansa Batma (Morocco) won’t take place until Thursday, the visual arts component, Sounds As If, curated by Gypsum Gallery’s Aleya Hamza opens to the public Tuesday in three downtown venues. On Friday, Catalan artist Roger Benat presents the interactive performance Nomax Fagor Plus at Falaki Theater, while on Saturday the first reading in the festival’s new literature program takes place on the rooftop of the Old French Consulate. It features excerpts from a new, yet-to-be-published collection of short stories by novelist and culture journalist Ahmed Naji. Naji is currently in prison serving the maximum two-year sentence for “violating public decency” when a chapter of his published novel The Use of Life appeared in in state-run magazine Akhbar al-Adab.

D-CAF continues for three weeks. For the full program and ticket prices visit the website here, and for our summary of the upcoming events and their highlights see here.