Culture Resource is pleased to announce the Wijhat grantees of the October 2018 round. The jury selected 13 grantees out of 82 applications, including 7 international travels and 6 regional travels.
Grantees:
Asia Madani, singer and percussionist (Sudan):
The grant enables the Sudanese vocalist Asia Madani and her band of Egyptian musicians to travel from Egypt to Zanzibar, Tanzania, to perform in concert at the Sauti Za Busara Music Festival. One of the largest music festivals in East Africa, the Sauti Za Busara festival offers a diverse and dynamic program of local Swahili music and regional music from different African countries.
Tamer Nassar, musician /Al Raseef band (Palestine):
Al Raseef was awarded the grant to travel from Italy to Morocco to perform in the fifth edition of Visa for Music, the first professional music festival in Africa and the Middle East. The band’s music blends influences from Arab and Balkan heritage arranged in original and contemporary styles, using a variety of different rhythms and instrumentation.
Ahmed Hossameldin / Comics Week in Egypt (Egypt):
The Comics Week initiative received the grant to travel from Egypt to Denmark to take part in the Norrebronx Comic Days Festival in which it will display some of its work and participate in the festival’s seminars and workshops. The festival aims to support and develop the art of illustrated stories, to create a link between independent artists and writers from different countries, and to help promote cultural exchange through an array of workshops, seminars and exhibitions.
Haisam Abdelhamed, film director (Egypt):
The grant enables him to travel from Egypt to Morocco to screen his short documentary, My Name is Nour, at the Meknes International Film Festival. A director and screenplay writer, Haisam has received numerous awards at international and local festivals and his works have been screened in more than 55 film festivals around the world.
Ghassan El Hakim / Jouk Attamthil Albidaoui (Morocco):
The theater troupe obtained the grant to travel from Morocco to the UK to stage Kabareh Cheikhats
at the Shubbak Biennale, the largest contemporary Arab cultural festival in London. Kabareh Cheikhats
was selected to perform for Shubbak audiences in order to spread awareness of the music of the “Cheikha” (a Moroccan female singer/dancer) which is sung in the Moroccan dialect and is especially indigenous to the Greater Casablanca area.
Emad Mabrouk, graphic designer, film director and cultural director (Egypt):
The grant enables him to travel from Egypt to Sudan to take part in the Sudanese Independent Film Festival, to design a street art display on the walls of the buildings of a street in Khartoum, and to attend a workshop on the techniques of interactive visual art displays for filmmakers in Sudan. Emad has worked on interactive visual arts displays for more than five years.
Hamza Ben Ashour, rap singer (Tunisia):
Hamza obtained the grant to travel from Tunisia to Morocco to present a concert at the fifth edition of the Visa for Music Festival, which includes performances, conferences, workshops and training classes. This is the first time that he will be taking part in a festival in the Arab world and is therefore a unique opportunity for him to perform, network and promote his artistic project and Tunisian rap music outside his country.
Samer Jaradat, music producer and researcher (Palestine):
The grant enables him to travel from Palestine to Norway, Sweden and Finland to produce, the “Music of People” project in collaboration with the Norwegian artist Heildigan Owest. The project includes the production of a documentary film, two songs and a research paper, and is based on the similarity between the causes of the Palestinians and the Sami people. Musicians from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Palestine will take part in the project.
Ahmed Fouad / Sufi Performing Arts Troupe (Egypt)
The troupe obtained the grant to travel from Egypt to Morocco to stage “Huis Clos” in the Khouribga International Festival for Theater Pioneers, and to take part in the festival’s seminars and workshops for the young theater-makers experiences in the Arab region.
Lina Al Abed, documentary filmmaker (Jordan):
The grant enables Lina to travel from Lebanon to Denmark and Slovenia to finalize the post-production of her full-length documentary film, Ibrahim. She received an award from the Sarajevo Film Festival to complete the image post-production in Slovenia, as well as an award from the Malmo Arab Film Festival to complete the sound design and mixing in Copenhagen.
Abdalla Daif, performance artist and cultural director (Egypt):
He obtained the grant to travel from Egypt to Austria where he will conduct a workshop to complete the staging of The Dialogue about the White Man which deals with radical changes in political rhetoric and the use of language. Abdalla Daif will be working with the artist Claudia Bossa on an anthropological study on the “White Man”, in attempt to address the problem of ethnicity and gender as a basis for discrimination and abuse in contemporary political rhetoric. In the process, they will also examine the colonial history of prevalent ideologies.
Mirna Bamieh, artist (Palestine):
The grant enables her to travel from Palestine to Morocco to participate in a workshop organized by a social support group called Sumano on traditional pottery techniques used by women in Fes. Mirna seeks to learn old pottery making techniques and the traditional pottery forms as part of her work in contemporary arts and her study of a Palestinian village that had once been reputed for its pottery.
Ahmed Mohamed, sculptor (Egypt):
He obtained the grant to travel from Egypt to France to participate in the Cassis Artist Residency and complete a series of sculptures presenting a contemporary vision of mankind. He will present an exhibit of his works during his residency.
The jury members for this round were:
Aliaa El Gready, visual artist and cultural manager (Egypt)
Boumediene Belkebir, novelist, academic and researcher (Algeria)
Khaled Hourani, visual artist and curator (Palestine)
The Wijhat program, launched in July 2018, 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 the region. The program offers artists the opportunity to take part in cultural events and activities and present their work to diverse audiences in wider regional and/or international contexts, to exchange knowledge and expertise with peers, and/or to build their professional capacities.
