This is documentation to the series of events that are taking place 'Under the Staircase'. The events were conceived as an alternative encounters between audience and artists in non-institutional setting.
The events attempt at challenging the highly specialized and elitist contemporary art scene that produces, disseminates and promotes a specific economy of art and excludes the involvement and engagement of all kinds of audience and artists.
The first event was held in my grandmother's dining room with about 6 attendants. The work of London-based artist Nina Alexopoulou, 'Suck my Lolly' was screened.
The opening debate to the event was centred around the history of contemporary art in Egypt and its relation to other mediums and practices. A comparison was made between contemporary literature and its development through the 90s and whether a similar development took place in the fields of contemporary art. There was a consensus that the literary output that was produced in the 90s was almost exclusively produced and consumed by a very small margin of people unlike the current situation for the literary scene, where the the concept of a bookstore was reintroduced and the notion of 'generic audience' of readers became mainstream.
The 90s was seen a point of shift in literary interests and concerns. The slow withdrawl of the state as the centre of art and culture and the notion of a 'personal space', an 'individual space', that somehow 'free' from the state is a clear manifestation of the gradual implementation of Neoliberal economic policies at the time of Sadat. Suddenly the concerns of the state were no longer personal concerns, suddenly there was the individual, away from the state. And what happens when is left to ponder her own existence? A lot of sex.
Yes that is right, a lot of sex. That seems to be the key concerns of 90s writers and authors, the personal domain vis-a-vis a society on the cusp of great change. And the first thing that comes to mind when such an impending change is about to happen, is the freedoms and agency of the individual. Nationalism might not be the guiding state-ideology any more and the slow demise and ossification of the left, leaves us with little or no ideological affiliation worth adhering to. So what do we do in this post-ideological moment? We enjoy a free respite from overbearing colonial and statist discourse and for a moment (a moment that lasted a whole decade) we write about the inner state of the no-longer-political citizen.
But what happens when you selectively liberalize state control over certain of aspects of the economy? Creating a false sense
The events attempt at challenging the highly specialized and elitist contemporary art scene that produces, disseminates and promotes a specific economy of art and excludes the involvement and engagement of all kinds of audience and artists.
The first event was held in my grandmother's dining room with about 6 attendants. The work of London-based artist Nina Alexopoulou, 'Suck my Lolly' was screened.
The opening debate to the event was centred around the history of contemporary art in Egypt and its relation to other mediums and practices. A comparison was made between contemporary literature and its development through the 90s and whether a similar development took place in the fields of contemporary art. There was a consensus that the literary output that was produced in the 90s was almost exclusively produced and consumed by a very small margin of people unlike the current situation for the literary scene, where the the concept of a bookstore was reintroduced and the notion of 'generic audience' of readers became mainstream.
The 90s was seen a point of shift in literary interests and concerns. The slow withdrawl of the state as the centre of art and culture and the notion of a 'personal space', an 'individual space', that somehow 'free' from the state is a clear manifestation of the gradual implementation of Neoliberal economic policies at the time of Sadat. Suddenly the concerns of the state were no longer personal concerns, suddenly there was the individual, away from the state. And what happens when is left to ponder her own existence? A lot of sex.
Yes that is right, a lot of sex. That seems to be the key concerns of 90s writers and authors, the personal domain vis-a-vis a society on the cusp of great change. And the first thing that comes to mind when such an impending change is about to happen, is the freedoms and agency of the individual. Nationalism might not be the guiding state-ideology any more and the slow demise and ossification of the left, leaves us with little or no ideological affiliation worth adhering to. So what do we do in this post-ideological moment? We enjoy a free respite from overbearing colonial and statist discourse and for a moment (a moment that lasted a whole decade) we write about the inner state of the no-longer-political citizen.
But what happens when you selectively liberalize state control over certain of aspects of the economy? Creating a false sense
