"FRTR Two"
'WoMen by the Sea' Arts Festival - EL Gouna  
From April 1 till April 30, 2018

​Coming out of Cairo, the project From Rags to Riches
(www.projectfrtr.org) makes an important new and
exciting step towards the diffusion in Egypt of the idea
that underlies it: transforming waste into works of art
conceived for public spaces.
With its wide open spaces well outlined, its rhythm
of life that invites calm and contemplation, El Gouna
appears as the ideal destination to host some of
the works realized within the project.
 
To the artists who contributed to its first phase
were added others, coming from Mashrabia Gallery
of Contemporary Art. Those artists  have widened
the concept of "re-use", thus relaunching the practices
of contemporary art, based largely on citations and
manipulations of pre-existing elements, and
reaffirming the nature of art in general, which feeds
on loans from authors and previous eras.
 
In fact, from the recycling of waste materials or
unusual materials, well exemplified in the cars made
out  of colored plastic caps of Hatem Mousa, in the
hieratic characters of palm leaves of Ahmed Askalany
or in the totems of wooden pieces and frames of
Ibrahim El Haddad, we arrive to the re-edition of old
family portraits by Ahmed El Leithy, to the Amazigue
writing by Fadwa Ramadan transformed into the
background of her  compositions, or to the conceptual
photomontages of Qarm Qart, where cheese
and light bulbs appear.
 
Conceived on the invitation of the El Gouna Library,
this exhibition reveals above all the metaphorical
nature of all the places where books are collected,
places where the sum of all human experiences is
found as the result of a continuous re-elaboration
​of thoughts, revisiting ideas, reuse of writing techniques.
 
Stefania Angarano
Curator
2/3/2018

Facebook Event : https://www.facebook.com/events/994323920734605

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"FRTR ONE "
From November 6 till January 31, 2017

​For the first time in Egypt, this exhibition presents 20 artworks conceived to be displayed in public spaces and created using recycled materials. Many of them have an interactive purpose or a functional one.

The wide variety of materials used necessarily affects the essence of the artworks: if on the one hand glass, metal and plastic are meant to last over time; paper, textiles and wood give shape to ephemeral works but nevertheless fascinating. The colors and the shapes purposely selected to have a high visual impact on the monotonous gray of the city, introduce the viewer to a playful dimension, intentionally plucked from his everyday experience.
 


The result is an exhibition that gives the public the chance to discover the potential of the hidden aesthetics of the waste materials and offers a platform for discussion on the role of artworks in the public space.  All the pieces of art that have been created for this project were brought together in the exceptional garden of the Swiss Cooperation, before they will be moved to the public spaces for which they were initially conceived.


Not only do we want to give a demonstration of the immense possibilities offered by the use of such diverse materials, but also we hope to stimulate other artists to experiment with new modes and techniques and encourage those who decide on the display of public and open spaces to select one of these artworks or to commission other such pieces.

Thanks to the willingness of the Swiss Cooperation to open to the public its wonderful garden in Garden City, the exhibition will run for about three months, after which the individual works will reach their final destination and be set up in different public places in the city.


The exhibition runs until 31 January 2017 weekdays from 9am to 4pm

Embassy of Switzerland
Office for International Cooperation
24, Gamal El-Din Abou El-Mahasen St., Garden City, Tel: +20 2 27951536, +20 2 27943638
www.projectfrtr.org

​For the first time in Egypt, this exhibition presents 20 artworks conceived to be displayed in public spaces and created using recycled materials. Many of them have an interactive purpose or a functional one.

The wide variety of materials used necessarily affects the essence of the artworks: if on the one hand glass, metal and plastic are meant to last over time; paper, textiles and wood give shape to ephemeral works but nevertheless fascinating. The colors and the shapes purposely selected to have a high visual impact on the monotonous gray of the city, introduce the viewer to a playful dimension, intentionally plucked from his everyday experience.
 


The result is an exhibition that gives the public the chance to discover the potential of the hidden aesthetics of the waste materials and offers a platform for discussion on the role of artworks in the public space.  All the pieces of art that have been created for this project were brought together in the exceptional garden of the Swiss Cooperation, before they will be moved to the public spaces for which they were initially conceived.


Not only do we want to give a demonstration of the immense possibilities offered by the use of such diverse materials, but also we hope to stimulate other artists to experiment with new modes and techniques and encourage those who decide on the display of public and open spaces to select one of these artworks or to commission other such pieces.

Thanks to the willingness of the Swiss Cooperation to open to the public its wonderful garden in Garden City, the exhibition will run for about three months, after which the individual works will reach their final destination and be set up in different public places in the city.


The exhibition runs until 31 January 2017 weekdays from 9am to 4pm

Embassy of Switzerland
Office for International Cooperation
24, Gamal El-Din Abou El-Mahasen St., Garden City, Tel: +20 2 27951536, +20 2 27943638
www.projectfrtr.org

Participating artists: 
Ahmed Askalany
Hatem Mousa
Ibrahim El Haddad
Fadwa Ramadan
Qarm Qart
Ahmed Le Si

Participating artists:
Afrodite El Seesy
Ahmed Askalany
Ahmed Salah
​​Shaima Atef
Ramy Beshr
Abdulrahman El-Taliawi 
Monica Michel
Akeel Khreef
Alya El Chiati
​Sama Waly
Ammar Abu Bakr
Azza Ezzat
Hend Moaaz
Florence Mohy
Hatem Mousa
Kamila Bassioni
Mahitab Hassan
Medhat Benzoher
Mustafa El Husseiny
Rania Atef
Said Kamel
Samia Talaat