Major

Thu, Jul 10, 2008 | 7:00 PM

New Museum theater, Museum as Hub space (directions)

Museum as Hub: “Antikhana” preview featuring Ayman Ramadan’s project Koshary min Zamman

Part of Museum as Hub, Exhibition Related
 
Discussions

The New Museum is pleased to announce the opening of "Antikhana," the Museum as Hub project on the topic of neighborhood by the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo.

The exhibition, organized by William Wells, Director, features the work of the following artists:

Susan Hefuna
Ayman Ramadan
Jan Rothuizen
Tarek Zaki

The concept of neighborhood in Cairo stretches far beyond a simple geographical designation on the city map. Cairo’s neighborhoods are urban structures that have incorporated the specific characteristics of their inhabitants in their identities. Downtown Cairo amalgamates architectural patterns of various eras, modifying and sometimes obscuring their original characteristics. Despite the urban disorder, this incongruity of styles and histories pave the way for an unusual and intriguing mixture of identity. In their works, artists Susan Hefuna, Ayman Ramadan, Jan Rothuizen, and Tarek Zaki capture this fusion of different historical eras, architectures, and inhabitants by using physical objects and the actual surroundings of the neighborhood. The artists look at the neighborhood as a symbol, a microcosm of Egyptian society with its inherent contradictions.

During the exhibition opening, visitors are invited to participate in artist Ayman Ramadan’s  Koshary min Zamman, an installation based on koshary shops that features stacks of disposable bowls emblazoned with a fictitious restaurant logo and photographs capturing international political figures eating koshary—a staple carbohydrate meal of the working class in Egypt. The photographs evoke a criticism on the short-lived peace negotiations that, like koshary, satiate the appetite very quickly and give a temporary feeling of self-satisfaction and contentment. Visitors will have the opportunity to taste koshary and socialize in this simulated shop in the New Museum theater.

The Townhouse Gallery’s project is on view in the Museum as Hub space on the fifth floor of the New Museum from July 11–September 21, 2008.

Banner image:
Ayman Ramadan, Koshary Min Zamman, 2008
Installation view, photographs, koshary cups, t-shirts, stickers
Courtesy Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo

Sponsors TOP

The Townhouse Gallery’s participation in the Museum as Hub program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Mondriaan Foundation.

Museum as Hub is made possible by the Third Millennium Foundation.

Seeds of Tolerance

With additional generous support from Metlife Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the Asian Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum.

Profiles TOP

Susan Hefuna

Susan Hefuna (b. 1962, Germany) takes up everyday aspects of life in her work, exploring the indeterminacy of location and identity and her negotiation of her own identity through photography, video, drawing, sculpture, and digital media. Much of Hefuna's work is informed by her dual heritage (German–Egyptian), and often features striking images of family, interior spaces, and cityscapes in and around Cairo. Hefuna has exhibited her work internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including: the Sharjah Biennial, 2007; “Contrepoint,” Musée du Louvre (2004–05); “DisORIENTation,” Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2003); and “Navigation Xcultural,” The National Gallery South Africa, Cape Town (2000). Hefuna lives and works in Germany and Egypt. Hefuna’s work is also on view at Albion Gallery in New York through August 1.


Ayman Ramadan

Ayman Ramadan began to produce his work after participating in workshops and building relationships with visiting and resident artists at the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cairo, where he had been employed since 2000. Informed by his immediate surroundings, Ramadan’s work spans an extraordinary breadth of media and influences, from Minimalist sculpture to photography, video, and performance, often involving residents of downtown Cairo. In 2001, he had his first solo exhibition at the Townhouse Gallery. In the last six years, he has had five solo exhibitions at the Townhouse Gallery and has exhibited his work in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Ramadan’s video work Iftar was screened at the Tate Modern in London, and his installation Baladi Bus was part of a group exhibition at Kunstmuseum, Bonn. He is currently studying art and living in San Francisco.


Jan Rothuizen

In his work, Jan Rothuizen (b. 1968, Amsterdam) employs photography, drawings, texts, and on-site infiltrations where the boundaries of the personal and communal shift constantly. His work has been exhibited at Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York, 2007; Singapore Art Museum, 2007; Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, 2006; Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, 2004; Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessalonica, 2003; Artforum Berlin with Ellen de Bruijne projects, 2003; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2002; and Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 2001. Rothuizen lives and works in Amsterdam and Beirut.


Tarek Zaki

Tarek Zaki (b. 1975, Riyadh) is an Egyptian visual artist born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who lives and works in Cairo. He graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Helwan University, Cairo, in 1998. Zaki has exhibited at Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland; the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo; De Appel, Amsterdam; Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut; and the Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim. He is currently in residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.