Grantees of the Second Round of Wijhat 2025

Culture Resource is pleased to announce the grantees of the second round of Wijhat 2025, a program that supports artists and cultural actors through travel grants that enable them to participate in artistic and cultural activities in the Arab region and abroad.

The Wijhat team received 70 applications for this round. Of these, 54 were for international travel, 14 for regional travel, and 2 for both international and regional travel. The jury selected 11 projects based on the program’s evaluation criteria, taking into consideration geographical and travel destination diversity.

Grantees

Alaa Al Minawi, Palestine / Director and installation artist

Destination: Netherlands → Lebanon
Itinerary: Alaa will participate in a two-month artistic residency at Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture in Beirut to develop his new theatrical performance titled “No Man’s Land”, which will be presented to the public at Al Madina theatre in Beirut for one week.

Bahaa Ansary, Egypt / Composer

Destination: Egypt → United Kingdom
Itinerary: Bahaa is set to participate in Tête à Tête – The Opera Festival as part of the Joy of Opera series, where he will debut “Sebastian”, an expressive, AI-powered talking piano. The project originated from Schokolade, a short opera initially developed with support from Culture Resource. This early version used voice-to-MIDI technology to translate human vocals into piano melodies. Currently, Bahaa is evolving “Sebastian” into an intelligent, interactive system capable of engaging directly with the audience. The performance will serve as the first live test of the model, allowing the audience to interact with “Sebastian” both musically and dramatically.

Gaza Film Unit, Palestine / A collective of writers, researchers, artists, and filmmakers from Gaza

Destination: Egypt → Italy
Itinerary: Members of the Gaza Film Unit will participate in a panel discussion on archiving and technology as a tool of killing, as part of the 24th Concorto Film Festival in Italy. They will also curate a screening program of films from and about Gaza and participate in a community event focused on Gaza and cinema.

Ghida Hachicho, Lebanon / Artist and choreographer

Destination: Lebanon → Germany
Itinerary: Ghida has been invited to participate in the PACT Zollverein residency program titled “The Platform” at the Choreographisches Zentrum NRW. The program supports interdisciplinary exchange among artists, academics, and students, fostering critical dialogue and reflection on artistic processes and outcomes, and features a curated program of innovative, high-quality theatrical performances. The residency offers Ghida an opportunity to dedicate time and space to develop a new artistic project, with the possibility of presenting it at a later stage.

Jathb, Tunisia / Band

Destination: Tunisia → Egypt
Itinerary: The Jathb band is set to take part in the BAB EL BAHR Festival, where they will perform “Weliya” a Sufi musical experience inspired by the world of the Tunisian Hadra and the Sufi orders of North Africa. The performance features a collection of musical pieces that blend spiritual folk music with modern techniques, offering an immersive exploration of Sufi culture. With its fusion of tradition and innovation, Weliya invites audiences into a reflective, introspective experience that goes beyond conventional musical boundaries. The project aims to shed light on historical figures of revered Sufi saints in the region and seeks to reconnect different generations with their past and cultural heritage. This work is an attempt to present an artistic experience rooted in spirituality and identity, offering a non-traditional musical vision of North African Sufi heritage.

Nada Hesham, Egypt / Founder and creative director of 40 Mustaqel and Isdar Mustaqel

Destination: Egypt → USA
Itinerary: Nada has been selected as an international keynote speaker at the “Hundred Points” conference, a distinguished global event celebrating contemporary graphic design, taking place at the Visual Arts Center in Austin, Texas, during the fall of 2025. The full-day program will open with her lecture titled: “Contemporary Graphic Design in Cairo: a Conversation with Nada Hesham”, which explores the influence of culture, history, and local communities on visual identity in Cairo. This opportunity will allow Nada to connect with designers from around the world, discuss the latest developments in the field, and highlight the impact of graphic design in shaping cultural identity in the Arab region.

Ramzi Laamouri, Tunisia / Film producer

Destination: Tunisia → South Africa
Itinerary: Ramzi will join the director Rami Jarboui at the Durban Film Mart’s Pitch and Finance Forum, held as part of the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa, to present their film project “The Salt of the South”. The aim is to enhance the film’s prospects of securing partners and supporters who share its artistic and social values, while also exploring new avenues for collaboration on future projects.

Salma Kossemtini (Curator) and Aziza Gorgi (Multimedia artist), Tunisia

Destination: Tunisia → Italy
Itinerary: Salma has been invited as a curator representing the Mediterranean and North Africa to contribute to the programming of a Mediterranean-focused series at Periferico international festival of site-specific performance practices, organized by the Collettivo Amigdala in Modena. The festival revitalizes peripheral spaces through performances and installations that merge contemporary art, civic design, and collective memory. Salma invited the artists Aziza Gorgi and Emily Sarsam to present a special edition of their project, “Shaping Narratives”, a performative installation set to be presented in Modena in October 2025.

Sarri Elfaitouri, Libya / Architect, multidisciplinary artist, and curator

Destination: Libya → Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro
Itinerary: Sarri will participate in the fourth edition of the summer school titled “Revolutionary Roads: Destination—Comradeship”, jointly organized by Moderna galerija Ljubljana, the Museum of African Art (Belgrade), and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro. The program will take him on a journey through three Balkan cities – Ljubljana, Belgrade, and Podgorica – to explore the legacy of Yugoslav socialism, anti-fascist monuments and landmarks, solidarity movements, and the cultural ties of the Non-Aligned Movement. This journey will include lectures, workshops, discussions, and performances, with a special focus on “locally situated knowledge.” The participants will engage with three distinctive museum collections that challenge conventional Western art narratives and the established norms of art history.

Tarkib, Iraq / Art collective

Destination: Iraq → Italy
Itinerary: Tarkib has been invited to a one-week artistic residency at Villa Romana in Florence, Italy, a platform for contemporary artistic production and international cultural exchange. The collective was invited by the German artist Raul Walch, a participating artist in the 2025 edition of the residency, to collaborate on a performance exploring the cultural exchange between Florence and Baghdad through three historical connections: the influence of Muslim scholars on the European Renaissance; Iraq’s modern art movement, symbolized by the Freedom Monument in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, whose bronze sculptures were cast in Florence; and the contemporary art scene representing both Tarkib and Raul Walch, who explore new artistic forms through collaborative practices.

Youhana Nassif, Egypt / Founder and director of Animatex Festival

Destination: Egypt → Jordan
Itinerary: Youhana will travel to Jordan to participate in the Atelier for Young Festival Managers organized by the Festival Academy, Studio 8, and the International Dance Encounter Amman. While there, Youhana will participate in a workshop and a conference, allowing him to network with other festival directors in the region, explore potential collaborative projects, and further develop Animatex festival, which aims to support the animation industry in Egypt and the region.

Jury:

Abdalla Daif , Egypt /Performing artist, cultural practitioner, and producer
Bochra Triki, Tunisia /Cultural manager and artist
Marielise Aad, Lebanon /Theater maker and cultural manager

*Image from the participation of the project “In Praise of Silence” by visual artist Iman Al Abdullah (Oman) in TOKAS Art Residency in Japan, supported by the Wijhat program 2024.