Tips from the culture desk: Strong art, two lively markets in Cairo

Here are our recommendations for this week in arts and culture. It's a relaxed but rich week, culture-wise.

Visual arts

If you’re interested in visual art, there’s a lot to see this week in Cairo, both contemporary and historical.

The Nagy Shaker retrospective at the state-run Gezira Art Center, running until May 11, looks beguiling. Best known for his puppetry work, the 84-year-old Shaker was the chief designer for the celebrated Salah Jahine-scripted televised puppet musical Al-Leila al-Kebira in the 1960s. He has also worked in various art mediums, from scenography and film to painting and interior design, and teaches at the Helwan Faculty of Fine Arts. (Open from 10 am to 2 pm, then from 5 pm to 9 pm, except Fridays.)

Ongoing shows include Visual Memory, the Al-Ahram exhibition of part of its art collection at the bottom of its downtown headquarters on Galaa Street. Rumor has it that the more “expensive” works were removed from display after the opening, but it should still be worth checking out. Meanwhile, an exhibition of works by the influential, late Armenian-Egyptian cartoonist Alexander Sarokhan at Al-Masar Gallery has been extended until May 26.

On the more contemporary front, there is Berlin-based, Iranian artist Setarah Shahbazi’s Binary is a False Idol, a colorful exploration of photography and Photoshop, at Gypsum Gallery. There's also Chronic: On psychological exhaustion as a public state, the well-received second exhibition in the Contemporary Image Collective’s If Not For That Wall project. (Read Lina Attalah’s review of the first exhibition here.)

And for the first time, artist-run space Nile Sunset Annex will exhibit work from one of the two artists that runs it: Taha Belal (the other member is Mada culture editor Jenifer Evans). Belal’s I’m Not Obliged to Do This features collage and sculpture, opens on April 30 and runs for two weeks (Saturdays 12 to 6 pm or by appointment).

Mehdi Nassouli in concert - Tuesday

Moroccan musician Mehdi Nassouli is performing at this weekend’s Oshtoora festival in Fayoum — but if you missed his performance there, or saw him and are craving more, we'd recommend catching his gig at Geneina Theater. A versatile instrumentalist but essentially a guembri player, Nassouli has spent years travelling across Morocco to gain a deeper understanding of gnawa music from its masters, the maalems. The engrossing and joyful results bear the audible influence of Al-Daqqa’s sacred drumming and the Sufi, Andalusian-inspired malhun genre.

8:30 pm on May 3 at the Genaina Theater, inside Azhar Park, Salah Salem Road, Darassa, Cairo. Tickets LE30, early booking via Ticketsmarche advised.

A market weekend

This weekend there's not one but two exciting, eye-opening market events to check out.

On Friday, visit the food-centric Slow Downtown market at downtown Cairo’s most adventurous restaurant, Eish & Malh, which brings together shops and initiatives selling locally produced, organic and fair food. In addition to the market, which is co-organized with Slow Food Egypt and raises both freshness and awareness levels, there will also be live music from 12-4 pm and delicious meals created for the event by the restaurant's chefs. We especially have our eye on the house-made fresh ravioli filled with ricotta cheese, Ma7ali’s duck prosciutto and fresh asparagus. (To reserve a table, call 01098744014 or 01064138200.)

On Saturday, consider coming to the second edition of Mada Masr’s annual consumer event, the Mada Market, which will be held at Zamalek’s Fish Garden. With around 60 vendors, each carefully selected by the Mada Market team, you can peruse a variety of interesting products and engage in diverse activities. Besides shopping, the market features a playlist of alternative Arabic music curated by our music partner for the day, sound platform Dandin.me, a performance by Cairo’s energetic street clowns Outa Hamra, and a sunset jam that closes with a communal drum circle. The day is designed to have a park feel, with various activities and surprises waiting. It’s free. Although, it does cost LE5 to enter the garden.