Hindi and Urdu
The Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC), the cultural wing of the Indian Embassy in Cairo recently held a ceremony to hand certificates to 80 students who had successfully completed Urdu and Hindi courses for Hindi and Urdu.
The centre is currently conducting a screening of eight Indian films—among which is a collection of films on Indian history and folk epics—throughout this month, in addition to its regular Thursday screening of Amitabh Bachchan films.
Piano piano
Cairo Opera House audiences were recently treated to a special performance by the Japanese pianist Hibiki Tamura, who played with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Taha Nagui, in a repertoire that included works by Mozart, Rossini, Ponchielli, and Taha Nagui’s “Egypt the Peaceful”. The audience was enchanted by the 22-year-old soloist, who has already won local and international recognition including the First Prize at the internationally acclaimed Long-Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris in October 2007. Tamura now studies at Salzburg’s Universitat Mozarteum, and has given recitals in France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, China and elsewhere. His debut album was released in 2004, and his second in 2008.
The Cairo concert was organised by the Japan Foundation, a public organisation founded in 1972 with the purpose of promoting international understanding through cultural exchange. It has arranged programmes in a variety of fields, and in order to enhance the understanding of Japanese culture through the visual arts the foundation is collaborating with overseas museums on a wide range of exhibitions from traditional to contemporary arts.
Coiffeur Ashwaq
The sitcom series Coiffeur Ashwaq recently launched on Arab Radio and Television (ART) by Media Arts for Development, MADEV, within the framework of a project called Capture Life was 32 per cent co-funded by the European Union through the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt. Coiffeur Ashwaq enlightens viewers on various issues pertaining to women and their rights. The main events evolve inside a hairdressing salon owned by Ashwaq, played by veteran Egyptian actress Mimi Gamal, who through her work in the shop communicates with members of different social categories giving rise to comic struggles and situations. The sitcom series addresses problems such as early marriage, freedom in choosing a life partner, family violence and divorce.
Conserving antiquities
Italy’s ambassador to Cairo Claudio Pacifico earlier this month opened an exposition entitled “The Italian programme for conserving ancient Egyptian antiquities” at the Italian Cultural Centre in Cairo. The show was opened in the presence of Rosanna Pirelli, the programme manager Donatella Cavezzali, and director of the Egyptian museum in Cairo Sayed Hassan. It focused on the training of restorers, and displayed the results of preliminary scientific research and the restoration of some selected artefacts. The exposition was held within the framework of a project to reorganising the Egyptian Museum and aims at preparing a plan for the display of artefacts in the museum. The Italian Foreign Ministry has offered a 1,319,000Euros grant for the programme which encompasses five essential processes: conservation, repair, restoration, cataloguing, and computer use.
Bibliotheca Fun
Samira al-Mazahy
Big Read
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has launched the “Big Read: Egypt/US” Project. The project, which aims to introduce Egyptian readers to American literature and American readers to Egyptian literature, runs from January to August 2009 and features lectures, sessions, film screening, play readings, literary and artistic competitions as well as Internet activities. The launching ceremony began with a PowerPoint presentation about the project and the idea behind it; and a reading of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird which was translated within the activities of the project. A march was conducted on the Corniche Road—the main Alexandria thoroughfare which runs the length of the seafront—as part of the launching ceremony. The project is a collaborative Global Cultural Initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with Arts Midwest and the Institute of Museums and Library Services. The Egyptian partners are the American University in Cairo (AUC), the Egyptian Association for Educational Resources (E-ERA), and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA).
Creative Forum
The sixth edition of the Creative Forum for Independent Theatre Groups (Europe – Mediterranean) was held last week at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina with the participation of groups from 20 countries. Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Palestine, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Malta, Germany, France, Greece, Belgium, Croatia, Romania, and the Czech Republic took part. The Forum is an informal space for artists and aims at achieving an interdisciplinary approach in which creativity, education, dialogue, knowledge, publications, translation and building joint projects are blended together. As such, the Forum sheds light on the importance of cultural diversity and knowledge exchange. An art Exhibition entitled “Agenda” accompanied the Forum.