Culture Resource is pleased to announce the grantees of the second round of Wijhat 2026, 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 190 applications for this round. Of these, 156 were for international travel, 26 for regional travel, and 8 for both international and regional travel. The jury selected 9 projects based on the program’s evaluation criteria, taking into consideration geographical and travel destination diversity.
Grantees
Audioclopedia (Afef Omri and Mehdi Guermazi), Tunisia / Participatory digital audio platform
Destination: Tunisia → Spain
Itinerary: The Audioclopedia team will participate in the Expanded Mediterranean research and production residency at Konvent in Catalonia, an international platform that brings together artists and researchers to explore cultural and spatial connections across the Mediterranean. While there, the team will pilot the “ecology of listening” methodology in a new local context, collect audio material that links place and memory, and further develop and activate the platform’s digital tools through knowledge exchange with fellow residents. This experience will expand the project’s scope and consolidate its presence within an international artistic and research network. Set within the historical industrial colony of Cal Rosal, the residency offers a distinctive environment for research and creative practice, encouraging participants to re-examine collective memory through contemporary art. It also provides an ideal context for the Audioclopedia project, enabling it to place its research on southern Tunisia into dialogue with other Mediterranean and European experiences, within a collaborative setting curated by artistic directors and involving artists and researchers from diverse backgrounds.
Aya AlShaer, Syria / Visual and sound artist
Destination: Syria → Germany
Itinerary: Aya will attend the Festival Singers – Berlin Opera Academy, an intensive professional training program designed to develop the skills of opera singers. The program includes daily rehearsals, vocal and acting coaching, masterclasses, German language classes, and professional public opera productions. While there, Aya will perform the role of La Ciesca in a production of Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi. She will also study the role of Hänsel and participate in individual coaching sessions and auditions before agents, allowing her to further expand her practice within an international operatic environment.
Esraa Elfeky, Egypt / Visual artist and filmmaker
Destination: Egypt → Jordan
Itinerary: Esraa is set to participate in the 2026 Artist in Residence program at MMAG Foundation in Jordan, where she will further develop her project When the Sea Fell Silent. The project examines landscapes once submerged beneath the ancient Tethys Sea, exploring their relationship to environmental change, extinction, and geological memory. During her stay, Esraa will conduct field research in Wadi Araba and Ajloun Mountains, visit the American Center of Research (ACOR) and natural history museums, and collaborate with local geologists, researchers, and artists, including Architect, Artist, and Geologist Ammar Khammash. The project combines scientific research, artistic practice, and speculative storytelling in an attempt to produce visual artworks and a hybrid documentary that examines the relationship between geography, memory, and climate change.
Fairouze Nastas, Palestine / Visual artist, theater director, and cultural actor
Destination: United Arab Emirates → Norway
Itinerary: Fairouz will take part in States of Encounter, a year-long artistic residency that brings together Palestinian and Norwegian artists to develop a collaborative, movement-based performance project that stems from the need to understand how artistic practice can continue amid the ongoing violence and genocide in Gaza. The project uses choreographic practice to reflect on what it means to bear witness to genocide across different geographies, colonial structures, and socio-political privileges. Fairouz’s participation will include research sessions and performances in Oslo and online, as well as contributions to the project’s artistic research, development process, scenography and visual direction, rehearsals, technical preparations, and production planning for the final performance and research outcomes. The residency will expand Fairouz’s international artistic network and further develop her visual and research-based practice, supporting her future work in theater, performance, and performance design.
Hussein Eddeb, Libya / Documentary filmmaker and Media Consultant
Destination: Libya → South Africa
Itinerary: Hussein will participate in Talents Durban 2026 at the Durban FilmMart, an initiative of Berlinale Talents in South Africa, with his documentary The Birth of Derna, currently in the production phase. Running from June to October 2026, the program offers online training and tailored mentorship, followed by in-person participation in Durban, including workshops, project pitches, professional meetings with producers, industry experts, and international film institutions. Hussein’s participation aims to support the development of his documentary, while opening opportunities for international collaboration, production, and distribution, as well as professional networking within the documentary film sector.
Noha Fekry’s band, Egypt / Music band
Destination: Egypt → India
Itinerary: Noha and her band will perform at the 2026 Soundscapes of India Showcase, an initiative by the Indian Performing Right Society in partnership with MusiConnect India. Recognized as one of India’s leading multi-genre music showcase platforms, the event brings together a curated selection of artists to perform before Indian and international organizers, festival directors, and music industry professionals. The platform is designed to foster cross-border performance opportunities while encouraging dialogue and strengthening global cultural networks.
Palestinian National Theater – El Hakawati, Palestine / Theater troupe
Destination: Jordan → United Kingdom
Itinerary: The troupe will travel to London to perform the El Manshiyyeh play at the Pleasance Theatre as part of its international program, which will help bring Palestinian artistic experience to London audiences, fostering cultural exchange and engagement while shedding light on Palestinian identity and lived experiences.
Raghad Resres, Jordan / Visual artist, researcher, and art facilitator
Destination: Jordan → Sweden
Itinerary: Raghad will take part in Väst på fjället, a contemporary art program in rural northern Sweden, with her project Resistance is an Amulet. The project will be presented as part of three concurrent solo exhibitions hosted inside a former school building in Karlsbäck. As part of the program, Raghad will showcase her solo exhibition Recite the Love Language of my Ancestors, which celebrates indigenous healing practices and reimagines them in contemporary contexts as living acts of healing and knowledge. The work explores the effects of anti-colonial resistance on both the matter and the psyche, examining how these experiences can be embodied through contemporary spiritual amulets that serve as forms of protection and healing from Israeli and American colonial violence. Her participation will foster artistic and research exchange with Swedish and international artists and institutions within an environment dedicated to experimental practices and sustained dialogue.
Ziad Naitaddi, Morocco / Visual artist
Destination: Morocco → Brazil
Itinerary: Ziad is set to participate in an artistic residency at Pivô for contemporary art in Salvador, Brazil, to develop his research project The Interdependence of Things: A Reverse Fertilization Between Sahara and Amazonia. The project explores the biological and political connections between the Sahara and the Amazon through the phenomenon of transatlantic dust movement and its fertilizing effects. Serving as a pivotal phase for field research and creative production, the residency will enable Ziad to connect his previous research in Morocco and Germany to the Brazilian context, in collaboration with researchers from Brazilian universities, which will foster artistic and intellectual exchange across the Global South. During the residency, Ziad will produce a series of photographs and experimental films, alongside conducting a workshop and a lecture performance to present his preliminary findings.
Jury
Aser Al-Saqqa, Palestine / Creative director, festival programmer, producer, and founder and director of Arts Canteen, London
Dounia Benslimane, Morocco / Cultural manager
Reem Gibriel, Libya / Visual artist, cultural activist, art educator, and artistic director at Arete Foundation for Culture and Arts
*Image from exhibition “445 Days” by Basera (Egypt) at Galleri Image (Denmark), supported by the Wijhat program 2026.
