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Maged Mekhail transports us back in time and space from Ancient Egypt to Babylon, and from Mesopotamia to further East. Rulers, traders, warriors, men of sciences and prophets crossed roads, ports and oceans seeking larger empires, flourishing trade and the spread of religion. Thousands of years later, their great grand-children are crossing the roads again – this time heading West, seeking refuge and escaping civil wars and violence. Crossing is no longer the means to enlarge one’s home, but rather the prevalent means of survival – to escape from home. In Many Rivers to Cross, painter and sculptor Maged Mekhail choses to ignore the slow decline of our present and brings to light our past by exploring the traces left behind the convergence of national, racial and ethical lines that supposedly should bond us together. He embraces the endless possibilities of remembrance and provides a multi-dimensional representation of the Egyptian world.
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OPENING RECEPTION 12 OCTOBER 2015
6 - 9 PM
EXHIBITION12 OCTOBER - 15 NOVEMBER 2015
4
Fatenn Mostafa
Maged Mekhail transports us back in time and space from Ancient Egypt to Babylon, and from Mesopotamia to further East. Rul-ers, traders, warriors, men of sciences and prophets crossed roads, ports and oceans seeking larger empires, flourishing trade and the spread of religion. Thousands of years lat-er, their great grand-children are crossing the roads again – this time heading West, seeking refuge and escaping civil wars and violence. Crossing is no longer the means to enlarge one’s home, but rather the prevalent means of survival – to escape from home. In Many Rivers to Cross, painter and sculptor Maged Mekhail choses to ignore the slow decline of our present and brings to light our past by exploring the traces left behind the conver-gence of national, racial and ethical lines that supposedly should bond us together. He em-
Many rivers to crossAnd it’s only my will that keeps me aliveI’ve been licked, washed up for yearsAnd I merely survive because of my pride
braces the endless possibilities of remembrance and provides a multi-dimensional representation of the Egyptian world. The many different chap-ters across a span of thousands of years appear as fragments absorbed into Mekhail’s works, calling on a transcendent power to provide some mean-ing to guide our fragile present.
Instead of falling into nostalgia, remembrance turns into solace and Many Rivers to Cross playful-ly explores nonrandom moments, rituals and per-sonae where there is no political perspective but rather snapshots that cement our cultural chains and transform our feelings of belonging to pride.
In El Sebou bronze sculpture, survival and the number 7 are inextricably linked. It’s on the sev-enth day that a child’s existence is formally ac-knowledged to the world in a ritual that dates back to Pharaonic times. El Sebou links birth to gender symbolism, to folk beliefs, to womanhood, and to the importance of the timelessness of a tradition still equally practiced by followers of the two prevailing religions across Egypt. The thread is our common past and Mekhail insists on holding on to these rites of passage, instead of moving on to Western fashions of baby showers.
Kemet, the first nation of our modern day history and the ancient name of Egypt in 3100 BCE, is an-other bronze work deriving from a distant mem-ory and in which Mekhail superimposes a symbol of a different era. The Bible, in the Old Testament, repeatedly refers to Egypt as the “Land of Ham” (Khem / Kemet), which refers to its black soil. Me-khail then adds the Eagle of Saladin, the Ayubbid Sultan who ruled Egypt and Syria and defeated the Crusaders in the 12th century, and which is still used in the current Egyptian flag.
Womanhood continues to be a recurring theme in Mekhail’s work using his contorted signature de-piction of the body parts. Today, as during his last show in 2013, there is energy and rhythm, there is sensuality and nudity and there is love and ec-stasy. Maged Mekhail ushers the viewer into the intimacy of Ghazia, the modern gypsy folk dancer in rural areas and the semi-nomadic entertainer in moulids known as the beautiful temptress. Orig-inally from the Indian subcontinent, the ghazia came to work as Harem dancer in Middle Eastern courts, until Mohammed Ali banished them from Cairo in the nineteenth century – later to be ro-manticized in movies.
Recognizing the diversity in our region, Mekhail dreams up Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of love, war and fertility and imagines, as a bird, Theodore, the gift of God in Greek, whose name was popular among early Christians and borne by several saints. Mekhail carries on with Kawkab el Shark (Star of The East), the portrayal of Om Kolthoum and the only modern character that functioned fluently across the Arab world.
Beside references to the entrenched influences of Greco-Roman, neo-Pharaonic and Coptic art in Fatoun, Nashwa and Farah, Maged Mekhail takes us farthest east with Budda and celebrates the philosophical and religious correlations between Ancient Egyptian Religion and Buddhism culture that may not be known to many.
Many Rivers To Cross is, in part, a tribute to our ancient collective past that forms who we are to-day. Ever since he carved his own place in contem-porary Egyptian art, thirty-three year old Maged Mekhail has sought to say something, many things indeed, hoping that, whether we cross or not, our pride will keep us alive.
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SCULPTURES
MahMOUd daRwiSh
Don’t say to me: Would I were a seller of bread in Algiers That I might sing with a rebel.Don’t say to me: Would I were a herdsman in the Yemen That I might sing to the shudderings of time.Don’t say to me: Would I were a cafe waiter in Havana That I might sing the victories of sorrowing women.Don’t say to me: Would I worked as a young laborer in Aswan That I might sing to the rocks.
My friend, The Nile will not flow into the Volga, Nor the Congo or the Jordan into the Euphrates. Each river has its source, its course, its life. My friend, our land is not barren. Each land has its time for being born, Each dawn a date with a rebel.
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“ال تقل لي:
ليتني بائع خبر في الجزائر ألغني مع ثائر!
ال تقل لي:ليتني راعي مواٍش في اليمن
ألغني النتفاضات الزمن ال تقل لي:
ليتني عامل مقهى في هافانا ألغني النتصارات الحزانى!
ال تقل لي:ليتني أعمل في أسوان حّمااًل
صغير ألغني للصخور
يا صديقي! لن يصب النيل في الفولغا
وال الكونغو، وال األردن، في نهر الفرات! كل نهر، وله نبع... ومجرى... وحياة!
يا صديقي!... أرضنا ليست بعاقر كل أرض، ولها ميالدها كل فجر، وله موعد ثائر!
عن األمنيات
98
Kemet, 2015
Bronze40 x 15 x 15 cm
1110
Kawkab El Shark, 2015
Bronze180 x 55 x 55 cm
1312
Farah, 2015
Bronze45 x 20 x 17 cm
1514
Nashwa, 2013
Bronze41 x 24 x 13 cm
1716
El Ghazia, 2015
Bronze170 x 80 x 70 cm
1918
Ishtar, 2015
Bronze140 x 60 x 65 cm
2120
El Khadem, 2015
Bronze48 x 40 x 25 cm
2322
El Fagr, 2015
Bronze40 x 25 x 15 cm
2524
Budda, 2014
Bronze40 x 25 x 25 cm
2726
El Sebou, 2010
Bronze17 x 15 x 15 cm
29
PaiNTiNGS
Samih al-qaSim is a Palestinian Druze poet living in Haifa
On the day you kill meYou’ll find in my pocketTravel ticketsTo peace,To the fields and the rain,To people’s conscience.Don’t waste the tickets.
“
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وعندما ٌأقَتل في يوٍم من األيامسَيعُثر القاتل في جيبي
:على تذاِكِر السفرواحدة الى السالم
واحدة الى الحقول والمطرواحدة
الى ضمائر البشر( ارجوك اّل ُتهمِل التذاكر
يا قاتلي العزيزارجوك ان تسافر..)
تذاكر سفر
3130
El Rakessa, 2015
Acrylic on pressed wood70 x 50 cm
3332
El Deeq, 2015
Acrylic on pressed wood70 x 50 cm
3534
Fostan el Akhdar, 2015
Acrylic on pressed wood50 x 37 cm
3736
Hanan, 2015
Acrylic on pressed wood70 x 90 cm
3938
Suzy, 2015
Acrylic on pressed wood90 x 70 cm
4140
BiO
Maged Mekhail Saied
Born december 1982
education
2008-2011 Ministry of Culture Scholarship2005-2010 Studied sculpture under Adam Henein 2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Helwan University in Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt
exhibitions
2013 ‘I Am Egyptian’, Solo, ArtTalks, Cairo Egypt 2013 General Exhibition, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt 2013 22nd Youth Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt2012 21st Youth Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt2012 Sodic Symposium, Cairo Egypt2011 20th Youth Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt2010 Group exhibiton, Boushahri Gallery, Kuwait2009 ‘Continuity’ Group Exhibition, Al Masar Gallery, Cairo, Egypt 2005 Aswan International Sculpture Symposium 2005
awards
20th Youth Salon, Sculpture award, 2011
ماجد ميخائيل سعيدولد الفنان فى ديسمبر من عام 1982
ودرس الفنون الجميلة بجامعة حلوان بالزمالك وتخرج بتقدير جيد جداً بالترتيب األول مع مرتبة الشرف فى عام 2004
ألتحق بأتيليه الفنان الكبير “أدم حنين “2005 وعمل وتتلمذ على يده .
شارك فى العديد من المعارض الجماعية )معرض جماعى بقاعه المسار بالزمالك تحت اسم “تواصل” - معرض جماعى بقاعه بوشهري بدولة الكويت(
قام بمعرضه االول الخاص2013 بقاعة”ارت توكس” باسم “انا مصرى” شارك فى )صالون الشباب الخامس عشر ,العشرون, الواحد العشرون, الثانى والعشرون- صالون القطع
الصغيرة السادس المئوية الخاصة بكلية الفنون الجميلة بقصر الفنون دعوة للمشاركة بالمعرض العام 2013(
كما شارك بسمبوزيوم اسوان الدولى للنحت بالدورة” الحادية عشر2005- والدورة العشرون2015” االعمال موضوعة حاليًا بالمتحف المفتوح بأسوان
كما شارك بسمبوزيوم سوديك 2012 حاصل على” جائزة صالون الشباب “ الدورة الواحد العشرون
كما حصل على منحة التفرغ فى النحت من وزارة الثقافة 2011-2010-2009-2008
8 EL KAMEL MOHAMEd STR.
ZAMALEK. CAIRO
OPEN dAILY FROM 11AM - 8PM
FRIdAY 3 - 8PM
+20227363948
Catalogue Published on the occasion of the showMaged MekhailMany Rivers to Cross12 October - 15 November 2015ArtTalks | Egypt
Graphic Concept & RealizationOmar Mobarek
TextsFatenn Mostafa
CoordinatorsCherine ChafikLisa LounisAynour Zeitoon
PhotographsGeorge AkhnoukhLisa Lounis
PrintingConcorde Press
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