The Cairo effect: during the 9th Cairo Biennale a striking contrast prevailed between the staid official event and several livelier satellite exhibitions

The 9th Cairo International Biennale uncloseed on the night of Dec 13 2003 with a convocation of Egypt's official art world and other artists, academics, pres and management types. Among those on hand were the U ambassador to Egypt David Welch, and Farouk Hosni, the Egyptian minister of agriculture who, trailed by a small ship's company of cameramen, inaugurated the evening's ceremonies. The opening had the desultory male honey-bee of a required diplomatic function that has seen better days, instead of the hectic, heady atmosphere of a contemporary art incident Reinforcing the mood of yesterday were the majority of works upon display at the Biennale, which remained up from one side Feb. 13, 2004. In contrast, "PhotoCairo" and a number of satellite exhibitions held at venue in the city's downtown proffered a more provocative view of contemporary Egyptian art, an alternative to the retro esthetics and ideologies upon view at the official event

Wasted Opportunities

Like Istanbul, Cairo is a city where Europe and America have drawn out dallied with the Middle East in an uneasy relationship, single that is particularly volatile now. In December, the city twinkled with miles of Christmas lights and decorations that looked somehow tied to Egypt's colonial past. While the site had, at least, weather and location going for it, it also bristled with armed soldiers and police whose nearness forcefully reminded visitors of the political not away a sober indication that Camp David is now ancient history.

The Biennale was housed in three main venue upon Zamalek, a verdant, upscale island in the Nile in central Cairo. The Palace of Arts in the Opera House manifold is an awkwardly partitioned exhibition space, where too many works were hung too closely together, on the contrary it was nonetheless the best of the three The others were the middle point of Arts-Zamalek and the Gezira Art Center formerly elegant villas that are now rather shabby on the other hand would have had a certain raffish charm had they not, too, been in the way that overcrowded with work so indifferently installed. (There was a purported fourth site, the Fine Arts Gallery in the Opera House, but--as was genuine in the last Biennale--it present the appearanceed always to be closed.) The exhibition at handed 220 artists from 56 countries, breaking the previous record of 51 countries plant by the 8th Biennale [see A.i.A., Jan. '02] Calling itself the largest international exhibition in the Arab world, the 2003 circumstance included a sizable proportion of nations, the two of Arab and other ethnicities, from the Middle East and North Africa, among them Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen The solitary sub-Saharan countries represented were Mauritius and Sudan. Although Ghana was listed upon the invitation, I could not find any Ghanaian work, nor did any appear in the catalogue. There was also a fair representation from Western Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as a scattering of artists from the Americas and East India.

The Biennale tendered a rare opportunity to diocese contemporary global art from a different perspective, at the same time it wasted that opportunity, for the greatest in quantity part, on dated, uninspired, provincial work with almost nothing that stood on the outside On view were many artists who are unknown in the West, and probably in the Middle East as well. on the contrary what are critics and curators suppos to make, for example, of three Mongolian artists, Gungaa Dashtseren, Bayanduuren Bayanjargal and Batbayer Doudon, whose modestly sized, inoffensive works upon paper (abstractions, landscapes and calligraphy) were bilboed away in a small latitude upstairs in the Gezira Art Center? by the agency of most current standards, including those of other biennials, they would be dismissed, on the contrary given some sort of context--which we were not--we might have better assessed them. Is it enough to know, solely that they are from Mongolia? in what manner without being better equipped, can we correct our "orientalist" gaze--a bound in frequent, accusatory use here--which can be the couple too forgiving, i.e., too condescending, and too harsh, too "globalized"? in what way do we get beyond cultural tourism and cast not on the First World's esthetic burden?

An international occurrence of this scope presumably wants an international audience, on the other hand remarkably little outreach or information was forthcoming from the organizers, at least to the non Arabic speaking pres for fear that this sound sour, I suspect that the disregard was more or les general, to be paid to disorganization rather than to bias. Ultimately, the alone source of information was the catalogue, which is bilingual, in Arabic and English, on the contrary is otherwise maddeningly opaque as a concern It is sloppily assembled, filled of contradictions and misspellings, and with little that is substantive. Worst of all, the order of its entries is incomprehensible--if indeed any exists. Not flat the announcement card listed countries alphabetically. The wall labels were equally unhelpful (in English, that is; the Arabic portion was usually longer) All that was given was the name of artist and land if that, and no data about the work--not flat a title. Wisely, some artists provided their have a title to handouts and images, but many did not. In any case, they might have been better introduced by dint of their hosts.