Culture Resource is pleased to announce the grantees of the second round of Wijhat 2022, 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 56 applications for this round from Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Libya and Iraq. Of these, 44 were for international travel and 12 were for regional travels. The jury selected 8 grantees.
Grantees
Akram Hossin, Palestine / composer and music producer
Destination: Palestine → Sweden
Itinerary: Akram will travel to Sweden to take part in the Crossings training workshop as both a violinist and composer. During the workshop, he will create a complete musical performance that he will record using the high-quality facilities in the studio available. Subsequently, he will be able to use the result to market his project and prepare for recording the official album. The performance itself will be filmed using a multi-cam system and broadcast live. This experience will give Akram the opportunity to exchange expertise with artists and musicians outside the Arab region and to present his musical vision to new audiences.
Angele Keserwany, Lebanon / musician and architect
Destination: Lebanon → France
Itinerary: Angele will take part in an artistic residency in La Cité internationale des arts as both an artist and architect specializing in earthen architecture. She will develop a documentary project on the use of earth in architecture and the special characteristics and importance of this substance as a construction material. The residency will give her an opportunity to interact with artists and professionals in diverse fields. It will also contribute to the proposal she is developing for this documentary project and to finding the right production and filmmaking team to work with.
Cyrine Gannoun, Tunisia / director of Elhamra Theater
Destination: Tunisia → Lebanon
Itinerary: Cyrine together with the Elhamra Theatre company will travel to Lebanon to present Pieces of women as part of the Metro Al Madina’s Cultural Year Program 2022. The play treats themes directly related to creative women in the Arab region, such as the body, sex, family life, the costs of social prominence, violence and power. The performance in Beirut comes after a lengthy period in which the Elhamra Theater company had to suspend many of its activities due to the Covid-19 epidemic. Therefore, this experience will give the company a new opportunity to network.
Joe Daou, Lebanon / conductor with Les Cordes Résonnantes
Destination: Lebanon → France
Itinerary: Joe and the members of Les Cordes Résonnantes, a chamber music ensemble founded in 2018, will take part in the Les Musicales du Liban festival in Paris. Les Cordes Résonnantes will present three performances in this festival which showcases the wealth and diversity of Lebanese music. This will be the ensemble’s first activity abroad. This participation will help spread awareness of Lebanese classical music in France and introduce them to new audiences in Paris. It will also contribute to honing the ensemble members’ performance skills and significantly broaden their performance experience.
Khulood Basel, Palestine / director of the Khashabi Theater
Destination: Palestine → France
Itinerary: Khulood, along with members of the Khashabi Theater company, will travel to France to participate in the 76th edition of the Festival d’Avignon. The festival team selected the Khashabi company’s play, Milk, as one of the works the festival will co-produce. The play will premier in the Avignon festival and then go on tour in Palestine. This participation will offer the Khashibi Theater company the opportunity to network and forge future collaborations. It will also help give Palestinian theatrical works international exposure and introduce them to new audiences.
Reem Abdalrazig ElGuaily, Sudan / plastic artist
Destination: Sudan → Tunisia
Itinerary: Reem will travel to Tunisia to take part in the Young Masters Program – Art Mediation, a training program that aims to prepare participant art works for an exhibition at the end. Reem will act as the artistic mediator. She will work directly with the artists to help them carry out their projects and connect with the public through the ideas, concepts and processes involved in their work.
Souhad Najem, Iraq / music professor and qanun player
Destination: Belgium → Palestine
Itinerary: Souhad will contribute to an intensive training program at the Jerusalemite Youth Cultural Forum in Palestine, for which he will present 3 intensive workshops for students of the qanun at the beginner and advanced levels and for music teachers. The aim is to help participants hone their technical skills at the qanun and to apply the appropriate performance method to select pieces from the classical and contemporary Arabic musical repertoire, as well as some items from the Turkish repertoire. Another purpose is to develop professional educational staff equipped to teach the qanun and the Arabic musical heritage, in general, in schools and music conservatories. The workshop will conclude with performances, open to the public, featuring solo works by Souhad and ensemble pieces performed by the students and trainers at the workshop.
Youssef Soubai, Morocco / cultural policies researcher
Destination: Morocco → Belgium
Itinerary: Youssef will travel to Belgium to take part in the 12th International Conference on Cultural Policy Research. He will present a paper at the Young Researchers Workshop on “Cultural Policies in light of stakeholder analysis: A glimpse of the Moroccan context.” International experts in cultural policy studies and other professors from universities in Europe and elsewhere will discuss the paper and offer Youssef advice and observations to help ready it for publication in the next issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy.
Jury
Aliaa El Gready, Egypt / plastic artist, her primary concern is to empower women in marginalized communities by helping them develop their skills and realize their potential in creative community engagement. She is also a member of the Culture Resource General Assembly.
Mayada Hussein, Syria / professor of Arabic theater at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus. With extensive experience in the theater in Syria, she has conducted numerous drama writing workshops.
Yassin Adnan, Morocco / author, journalist and media personality. He is also a member of the Culture Resource General Assembly.
The Wıjhat program aims to promote the arts and culture from the Arab region, both regionally and internationally, by supporting the regional or international travels of artists and cultural actors from this region so as to facilitate their participation in cultural events and activities that enable them to present their work to diverse audiences in wider regional and/or international contexts, to exchange knowledge and expertise with peers, to build their professional capacities or to develop an artistic project.
* Photo from Khadija El Abyad (Morocco), from her participation with the “Caravan Ouadane” residency in Mauritania, supported by Wijhat 2021.
