Culture Resource announces the grantees of the third round of Wijhat 2023, 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 89 applications for this round. Of these, 59 were for international travel and 30 for regional travel. The jury selected 8 grantees.

Grantees

Danseurs Citoyens Sud, Tunisia / A Progressive Youth Movement for Performing Arts

Destination: Tunisia → United States
Itinerary: Danseurs Citoyens Sud is set to participate in the opening of the WADEintoACTIVISM festival in New York, where they will showcase the artwork “Say Her Name.” The work delves into the experiences of women who have been subjected to violence, drawing inspiration from a true story in El Kef, a city in northwest Tunisia. It’s the story of Ms. Refka Cherni, a young mother and the wife of a policeman, a member in the Tunisian National Guard, who shot her 5 times with his police-issued weapon. In response to this tragedy, the organization launched the initiative “Say Her Name” to honor the memory of Refka Cherni and all women who have been silenced by violence. The artwork’s primary focus is to shed light on issues related to masculinity and the suffering of women within conservative societies.

Fatimah Hamid, Libya/ Multidisciplinary Artist

Destination: Libya → France
Itinerary: Fatimah will travel from Libya to France to take part in an art residency at La Maison De Beaumont to work on producing her album (Wanesni), which includes issues such as mental health, displacement and the impact of war on the youth in Libya and North Africa. While at the residency, Fatimah will compose two tracks for the album and create a visual representation that aligns with the project’s artistic vision. Fatimah will collaborate with artists from various artistic and cultural fields. The residency will give her the opportunity to collaborate and rehearse in order to create an elaborate artwork by working in an integrated music studio. At the end of the residency, an open studio will be organized to present her work to a broader audience.

Ghadir Taira, Yemen/ Impact Producer and Journalist

Destination: Yemen → United Arab Emirates
Itinerary: Ghadir will travel from Yemen to the United Arab Emirates to participate in an event titled “The Role of Storytelling and Filmmaking in Climate Action Forum”, which will be held on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai. The event aims at highlighting the importance of storytelling and filmmaking in addressing the issue of biodiversity loss. Ghadir will participate as a speaker to talk about her role as an impact producer in the film Crocodopolis, a creative feature length documentary directed by Omar Manjouneh. The film follows the journey of a researcher from Southern Egypt and his team, who aim to protect the fragile balance of Lake Nasr’s ecosystem by uncovering illicit fishing nets responsible for crocodile extinction. In the film, the world of young researchers intertwines with the lakeside community of fishermen, and the world of day and night in a magical environment.

Noor Abed, Palestine/ Visual Artist

Destination: Palestine → Netherlands
Itinerary: Nour will participate in the art residency program at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. She will create new artworks, explore various topics and experiment with available modern techniques and materials. Nour will have access to a private studio, artistic laboratories, an extensive library, as well as workshops run by professionals in painting, printing, audio-visual materials, wood, ceramics and electronics. Her work will be showcased at the end of the residency during an event organized by Open Studios 2024.

Rasha Al Jundi, Jordan/ Visual Storyteller and Documentary Photographer

Destination: Jordan → United kingdom
Itinerary: Rasha is set to travel from Jordan to the UK to participate in an art residency and visual arts exhibition in collaboration with P21 Gallery in London. The exhibition is titled “When the Grapes were Sour: Embroidered Palestinian Stories in Exile.” It’s a multimedia documentary photography project that combines photography and traditional Palestinian embroidery. The event will include an interactive exhibition, serving as a platform to engage with new participants residing in the UK. This will create a space for an art residency that will run for 4 weeks to document new stories.

Rain Singer Theater, Palestine/ A Theater Group That Presents Interactive Performances

Destination: Palestine → Tunisia
Itinerary: Rain Singer Theater Group will travel from Palestine to Tunisia to participate in the International Neapolis Festival for Kids’ Theater in its 36th edition. The group is set to deliver 4 shows of the play “The Rain Singer for Kids.” The play was reproduced through an artistic performance combining music, storytelling, shadow play, drawing and puppets. The shows will be presented at four distinct locations within the festival to engage both children and their parents. The performances aim to harness the talents and experiences of artists, creating an interactive artistic performance for kids and their families. This will create a creative and educational space that encourages active participation by children. At its core, The Rain Singer embodies a profound social message: all people are the same.

Shenouda Rizkalla Youssef, Egypt/PhD and Researcher in Egyptian Archaeology

Destination: Egypt → United kingdom
Itinerary: Shenouda is set to participate in a residency at the Robert Anderson Foundation in London to work on a scientific research project aimed at developing regional museums in Egypt. The project is titled: Cultural Heritage in the local communities of Egypt: Developing a mission status for the Akhenaton Museum in el-Minya. Shenouda will visit specialized libraries in London, as well as English museums such as the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the National Museum of Liverpool. These visits will allow Shenouda to learn about the latest museum exhibitions and interview the archivists and the curators in order to exchange expertise in this field. The goal is to leverage this knowledge in the development of the Minya Museum, one of Egypt’s regional museums currently under construction.

Stories, Palestine/ An Art Collective Specializing in Visual Arts

Destination: Palestine → Italy
Itinerary: The art collective Stories will travel from Palestine to Italy to take part in an art exhibition titled “A Story from the Camp”. It’s a project that aims to tell the story of migration through contemporary art, shedding light on tales of fragility, empowerment and hope. The project will select 150 refugee artists from around the world and invite them to participate in the exhibition to express themselves and document their testimonies collected from inside the camp using a canvas presented by the project’s organizer. The artworks will be displayed in a series of international exhibitions at the premises of Fondazione Imago Mundi, Gallerie delle Prigioni in Treviso, Italy and elsewhere. A catalog of the exhibition will be produced and distributed to Fondazione Imago Mundi, as well as to Italian and foreign libraries.

Jury

Amjad Abu Alala, Sudan/ Film Director and Producer
Salah Salhi, Algeria/ University professor and associate researcher at the University of Toledo, Faculty of Humanities, Spain.
Mahassen Ajam, Lebanon/ Consultant and Researcher in Management and Cultural industries and a member of Culture Resource’s General Assembly.

The Wijhat 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.