Chocolate Lounge: Anas Al Alousi Exhibition

Published On: 17/04/2012

Chocolate Lounge in Kempinski Nile never fails to impress with their art collections, in collaboration with Zamalek Art Gallery a new artist is featured almost every month. Though up until now most of the works have been paintings by Egyptian artists, this month brings Iraqi born Anas Al Alousi. Apart from being a painter, Al Alousi is also a very gifted sculptor.

Chocolate Lounge and its adjacent foyer are filled with Al Alousi’s work. Even if you are not a big fan of sculptures you might find this collection interesting. Al Alousi is very creative and isn’t just another ordinary sculptor; as well as human figures he focuses on the more creative aspects too. We absolutely fell in love with his bronze ‘Jane Lamp’ piece. The piece is made up of a genie’s lamp with a figure coming out of it; the best part about it is that next to the lamp, at the foot of the sculpture, is a small bowl in which you can burn incense. The smoke rising up gives an extra mystic dimension to the sculpture. Further interesting pieces were ‘The Chair’; where some of the chairs are given human legs instead of chair legs; another one has a human torso as its back. We didn’t try the chairs out, but they didn’t look very comfortable.

Al Alousi combines his paintings and sculptures as well. He has one small painting with a sculpted human figure sitting inside the frame; this gives a 3D effect to the piece which is very pleasant. The painting itself wasn’t that spectacular, which is probably a good thing since it basically serves as a background for the sculpture. Most of Al Alousi’s paintings contain human figures; mostly long haired woman who seem to be balancing on another person or object. What’s striking is that these figures don’t have legs, instead they appear to be genie like. One of his best paintings is ‘The Immigrant’; in this piece there is a sole figure peddling on a boat at sea with a golden moon in the background. A closer look at the painting suggests there is a female figure lying down in the boat. This piece is available as a painting and also as a sculpture.

Anas Al Alousi’s pieces are very good but pricey too; prices for his sculptures can go up to 20.000USD so it’s probably best to appreciate his art while it's on display at Chocolate Lounge.

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Swan Lake: Timeless Ballet Comes to Cairo Opera House

El Borg Gezira, Zamalek

Let’s say you’re a swan. And a charming prince professes his eternal affections for you, only then to stray with another swan who he swears – despite having an entirely different complexion – looks just like you. Would you forgive him? Since the 1877 production of Peter Illyich Tchaikovky’s Swan Lake, ballet companies have presented different interpretations of the classic libretto; from its original happy-ever-after conclusion to a soap-opera tragedy – usually in the form of a watery grave. Powdered tutus, a lake for a backdrop and a romantic ending; traditions were held high at the opening night of Swan Lake at the Cairo Opera House. In a six-show engagement, under the direction of Abdel Moneim Kamel, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company staged the four-act ballet more or less true to the original scenario; employing choreography from an 1895 revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. In a story inspired by German folktale, archetypes reign in a hero-damsel-villain trifecta: Odette, a princess cursed by the sorcerer von Rothbart, transforms into a white cygnet by day. But when the bachelor Prince Siegfried falls for her feathers, von Rothbart succeeds in a ruse to break the prince’s oath of devotion by seducing him with Odillia – a black swan resembling the ill-fated princess. After a decisive battle between good and evil; the witch dies and true love is victor, the spell is broken and all is forgiven. Aside from a few opening-night jitters, false steps and a flying tambourine; the batterie of levitated foot switches – or ‘changements’, and the quick leaps and turns – or ‘fouettés’, by the cast were impressive. Noteworthy performances included Hazam Zakaria as the court jester, Anja Ahcin as Odette and Kateryna Ivanova as Odillia. Ivanova’s thirty-two-fouetté footwork in the black swan’s final appearance held the audience in mid-breath. At the heart of the ballet was the timeless music performed by the Cairo Opera Orchestra, conducted by Nayer Nagui. Solos on the oboe, clarinet, harp and violin struck a cord during the ballet's popular leitmotif, Song of the Swans; while the drum roll and brass carried a majestic and noble overtone. With full views of the stage and orchestra pit, loge and balcony seats, one can easily follow the on-and-off-stage ensemble. Apart from the fancy pirouettes and the awe-inspiring music, the scenery also merits a ticket. Creative license comes through in the use of a diaphanous screen, unconventional set design and the superb use of lighting in the final act – a treat worth discovering. Keep in mind that tickets are available for purchase only at the Opera box office. Attire is strictly formal; jackets for men are preferred. Before curtain call at opening night, a premature drama played out in the main lobby when security chased and shoved a member of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra - who was about to attend the show without a tie. But don’t be deterred, the information desk happily loans them out. After the 5th April showing, performances of Swan Lake will be held nightly at the Main Hall from the 8th to 11th of April 2012.

Related Review

Mashrabia Gallery: 'Missing Pieces' by Karim Bakry

As the second round of the presidential elections approaches, frustration, confusion and even resignation are widely felt across the country. “I don’t know what to do. If I knew, I’d tell you. There’s something missing, and we don’t really understand what’s going on,” says Karim Bakry, an Egyptian photographer and visual artist who from day one captured the revolution through his lens. Responding to a request by a gallery in Gothenburg, Sweden last September, Bakry compiled the images for an installation, now on exhibition at the Mashrabia Contemporary Art Gallery in Downtown.

Steps from the epicentre of the uprising, in a dark, cramped room, ‘Missing Pieces’ features a slideshow on loop of some hundred photos taken over the course of the revolution. The montage begins with portraits of optimism, in which youth pose and come together with their families under red, white and black bunting. The show then progresses, or rather regresses, into poignant images of the clashes between protesters and armed forces, tear gas, violence and curfew.

According to Bakry, ‘Missing Pieces’ represents the fragmentation of the revolution: “The spirit of the revolution ended up breaking down and as time passed the sense of unity was lost and divided into different sects.” He captures this fallout by projecting the photos onto staggered, cardboard boxes, forcing a metaphor blankly contrived.

“The boxes represent two things. First, they give a feeling of waste and consumption that exist in cities like Cairo. Also, the brown boxes when laid out together give a sense of Cairo and its brown, box-like buildings. The images projected onto the boxes are broken down by missing pieces,” Bakry explains.

Every five seconds, a new image emerges. Some pictures appear amateur and blurred; others are purposefully blotched by shadows from the boxed skyline. In one image, a bearded face is framed over a Nescafe box, and in another a woman is split by a gap between the cardboard. Below her it reads: “This Side Up.”

“That was the hard part. I had to go around to supermarkets, the huge markets like Carrefour and no one understood why I wanted old boxes. Here in Cairo, it was actually easy to just buy them. But in Gothenburg you had to be there at the right time and the right place before they recycled them,” Bakry says.

Outside the curtained room at Mashrabia Gallery are mounted images from Bakry’s Gothenburg exhibition for sale but not worth the bill. A free postcard by the entrance makes a better souvenir.

At first glance the installation looks like a haphazard stack of used boxes with a random mess of photos overlaid. And at second glance, the fact remains. But if we overlook the artist’s form, one can empathize with his statement on the aftermath of the revolution and the re-emerging protests to date. “A lot of missing pieces needed to be complete again. They made the mistake of dividing, that’s why the results now are terrible. People need to reunite again,” Bakry says.

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