Culture Resource is pleased to announce the grantees of the first round of Wijhat 2024, 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 53 applications for this round. Of these, 38 were for international travel, 12 for regional travel and 3 for international and regional travel. The jury selected 9 grantees.
Grantees
Akram Abdulfattah, Palestine / Violinist, music composer and producer
Destination: Palestine → Sweden
Itinerary: Akram is set to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden, where he’ll be recording the debut album of the transcultural band “Abdulfattah Crossings” at Epidemin Studio. The band features Akram Abdulfattah – 6-string violin (Palestine), Per Anders Skytt – drums (Sweden), Johannes Lundberg – bass (Sweden), and Karin Nakagawa – 25-string Koto (Japan). It is a continuation of the 2022 project titled “Crossings.” As a violinist and musical supervisor, Akram will collaborate with band members to record tracks they have composed and arranged together in their previous encounters.
Another Kind of Girl Collective, Jordan / Media arts collective for young women
Destination: Jordan → France
Itinerary: The collective will travel to Pessac, Bordeaux in France, to participate in the annual Latin American Film Festival. The collective was invited to screen their film “Solo el mar nos separa” (Only the Ocean Between Us) at the 41st edition of the festival. The latter aims to introduce the Latin American continent, shedding light on its cultures, conflicts, and unique characteristics. It serves as a platform to showcase unrecognized works and foster the exchange of political and artistic insights among Latin American countries. Another Kind of Girl is a media arts collective for young women living in displaced, migrant, or transitory communities around the world, enabling them to connect and co-create multimedia artworks. Through its tours, the collective aims to encourage other artists to initiate similar collaborations. The film’s team consists of eight women from Syria, Jordan, Peru and the United States.
Eman Ali, Oman / Visual Artist
Destination: Bahrain → Japan
Itinerary: Eman will participate in the 3-month TOKAS research residency program in Tokyo, Japan. The program provides opportunities for conducting research on arts and culture in Tokyo. It targets international and local creatives across various fields, including visual arts, filmmaking, design, architecture, music, sound arts, performing arts, and exhibition management. Eman’s work includes photography, text, sound, and installations. It delves into the intricate interplay between gender, religion, and socio-political ideologies in the Gulf culture. During the residency, Eman will work on a project that explores the storytelling within ancient Japanese myths and folklore, drawing connections to contemporary issues related to the marginalized voices of Tokyo’s youth community, including women and the Muslim community. By focusing on these groups, the project aims to create a platform to spread their voices and share their stories.
Hayeli, Lebanon / Music band
Destination: Lebanon → France / France → Lebanon
Itinerary: Donna and Sary Khalifé will travel to France and Lebanon to record Hayeli’s upcoming album titled “Home”. The album includes five musical compositions presented in the contemporary Jazz quintet style, incorporating guitar, saxophone, vocals, double bass, and drums, inspired by poems of Mohammed al-Abdallah, Hassan al-Abdallah, Hovhannes Tumanyan, and Walt Whitman. The album also consists of five additional compositions in the style of chamber music combining viola, cello, double bass, and vocals, where free improvisation plays a significant role.
Ma3azef Publishing Ltd, Lebanon / Music magazine
Destination: Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany → Jordan
Itinerary: Four members of Ma3azef will travel to Jordan to join the rest of the team in Amman. Together, they will work on crafting courses for an educational program that focuses on training individuals interested in culture through discussions, round tables, group brainstorming sessions and intensive workshops. The curriculum encompasses fundamental aspects of cultural journalism writing, narrative journalism, music journalism, Oriental music history, writing about film and television, profile writing, and critique. The school aims to cultivate a cohort of writers capable of covering, analyzing and critiquing various forms of artistic and cultural works.
Resis-Trance, Morocco / Music band
Destination: Morocco, France → Mauritania
Itinerary: Resis-Trance will travel to Mauritania to participate in the ConverSons event, which seeks to cultivate cultural and musical exchange among Morocco, Mauritania, and France. The event focuses on documenting musical heritage and producing a collaborative music project and podcast series while focusing on fostering artistic and cultural interaction within the realms of electronic and traditional music in North Africa. Throughout their stay, the band, consisting of three musicians and two artistic managers, will blend traditional and electronic music elements while carefully maintaining the artistic equilibrium necessary to bring the project’s vision to fruition.
Sarah Ibrahim, Egypt / Dancer
Destination: Egypt → Senegal
Itinerary: Sarah is set to participate in the third and final module of the Training Diaspora Africa in Senegal titled “Where Are the Works of Black Creators?”. The training encompasses 25 dancers from Africa and its diaspora collaborating with instructors and researchers from Africa and the Caribbean. Spanning over a period of 10 weeks, the program focuses on exploring contemporary creation through the lens of Africa and its diaspora.
Studio 8 Collective, Jordan / Dance group
Destination: Jordan → Morocco
Itinerary: Studio 8 Collective will take part in the “On Marche Festival for Contemporary Dance” in Marrakesh, Morocco, where they will showcase their new performance titled “Crossing”. In addition to their performance, the group will engage in networking events, performances, and educational activities organized within the festival. These events offer a platform for artists from diverse backgrounds to interact, collaborate, and share insights.
Yousra El Gazzar, Egypt / Visual artist, graphic designer and filmmaker
Destination: Egypt → France
Itinerary: Yousra will travel to Caylus, France, to take part in a two-month art residency at DRAWInternational. The center aims to provide artists with a haven for research and experimentation in the field of drawing and its intersections with other artistic mediums. The residency also offers a space to engage with artists from different backgrounds, exchange expertise and ideas, and showcase the artwork to the audience through open studios and an exhibition at the end of the residency. This residency will be part of the production process of Yousra’s project, “Letters to My Travel Companion,” initiated in the United States in 2022. It is an art book that employs various mediums such as painting, photography and prose. It raises questions about travel, places and our evolving relationship with swiftly changing urban environments through personal reflections and stories of travelers she encountered during her travels, along with archival materials.
Jury
Ala Younis / Jordan, artist, researcher, curator and publisher
Hamdy Reda / Egypt, visual artist
Ghita Khaldi / Morocco, projects manager and founder of Afrikayna for Cultural Exchange, Development and Cooperation in Africa
*The photo is from the participation of Dust Collective (Jordan) in “Idea Festival” in the Netherlands, supported by the Wijhat program 2023.
