Action for Hope Theater Group (Lebanon): received support for 17 members of its troupe to travel from Lebanon to Scotland to participate in seven performances within the Arab Art Focus program at Edinburgh’s famed Fringe Festival.
Tamer Said (Egypt), Film director: received funding support for himself and Khaled Abdallah, actor and producer, to travel from Egypt to France, Britain and the United States for film screenings of their critically acclaimed film, The Last Days of the City.
Mohamed Yousry (Egypt), Contemporary Dancer: received funding to travel from Egypt to Vienna to participate in Dance Web, which is a series of workshops part of Vienna’s International Festival for Dance.
Ramia Beladel (Morocco), Visual artist: received funding support to travel from Morocco to Bolivia to participate in Kiosko, a program that focuses on contemporary arts with the aim of providing opportunities for exchange between local and international artists.
Tariq Rimawi (Jordan), Animation Filmmaker: received Tajwaal support to travel from Jordan to Croatia to screen and discuss his short animated film, Surprise, at the Zagreb Festival for Animated Films.
Bahaa Ansary (Egypt), music composer: The grant supports his travel from Egypt to the United States of America to perform in a concert at the MATA music festival in New York. Billed as “the city’s leading showcase for vital new music by emerging composers”, the MATA festival this year features projects selected from the works of 1,100 composers worldwide.Arij Abou Harb/Me’zaf (Lebanon), founding member and director of the ‘Me’zaf’ musical and cultural initiative: Me’zaf obtained a grant to support their travel from Lebanon to France to perform their album “Sharki” in the framework of the Babel Med Music festival. An international annual event with concerts and seminars, Babel Med Music offers young musical bands the opportunity to perform before a large audience that includes music festival directors and other music professionals from around the world. In addition to the chance to present their works, participants also have the opportunity to build professional relationships and find potential venues for future performances.
Bassem Yousri (Egypt), visual artist and independent filmmaker: the grant supports his trip from Egypt to the United States of America for a fellowship residency at the Vermont Studio Center. This is the second residency he was awarded by the organisation, which invites around 50 artists in each round of this programme. During the coming residency, Bassem Yousri will develop two new artistic projects, one of which he started last year, entitled “The Artistic Guide”.
Ali Chahrour (Lebanon), contemporary dancer and choreographer: the grant supports the trip of a group of performers from Lebanon to Dublin, Ireland, to perform May he rise and smell the fragrance at the Dublin Dance Festival. Chahrour will also take part in a discussion and conduct a workshop there. The festival brings together dancers and choreographers from around the world so that they can stage their works, take part in discussions and workshops, and present studies on contemporary dance. It also aims to create an annual forum for cultural exchange and to promote the works of young choreographers among the more established choreographers in the dance world.
Omar Fatmouche (Algeria), writer/International Festival for Theatre in Bajaia Company: The grant helps make it possible for the company to travel from Algeria to Berlin, Germany, in order to present a theatrical work in collaboration with the German theatre company Suite 42. This collaboration is part of the activities in the Change of Scenes programme which is supported by the International Theatre Institute in Berlin and the Robert Bosch Stiftung foundation.
Asmaa Azaizeh (Palestine), poet and journalist: received the grant in order to travel from Palestine to Barcelona, Spain, to take part in a translation workshop in the framework of the Anthology of the Poetry Yard Project. The project brings together ten poets from the Arab world, Spain and Catalonia, selected by a committee of experts from the Arab world and Spain, and invites them to compose works on a specified theme. These are then translated by a team of professional translators in a workshop that is held in Barcelona.
Ayman El Gharbi (Tunisia), architect, artistic producer and artist/Interference Group: the grant partially supports the travel of several members of this group from Tunisia to Germany to take part in the EVI-LICHTUNGEN light arts festival in Hildesheim. Held every other year, the festival features light art works by artists and students around the world. The works themselves are displayed in various locations around the city, promoting diverse exercises in the use of public spaces. The event also includes a programme for artistic curation and a forum for artists, artistic producers and representatives of international art events to compare and exchange experiences in order to improve work in the field of art.
The jury members for this round were:
Heba Saleh (Egypt), journalist and cultural activist
Reem Gibriel (Libya), visual artist and cultural manager
Mourad Kadiri (Morocco), poet and academic