Cairo – The 3rd international exhibition Something Else, which took place at the Citadel of Saladin in Cairo, Egypt, featured Brazilian artists. The show was held from late November to last week and showcased contemporary artistic productions by artists from Egypt and elsewhere in a major celebration of global art. Over 150 artists from 36 countries participated.
Mônica Hirano was the curator of the Brazilian presence in the exhibition, besides having orchestrated the participation of some Europeans. Hirano said the exhibition highlights the art’s role bringing people from different countries closer together, as it is an expression of a universal language that connects people above all ideologies, regardless of their faiths, ethnicities, and political values. “It brings together all positive energies from around the world and helps us reconsider our priorities as human beings and artists,” she said.
Hirano, who is a Brazilian artist that had participated in a previous edition of the exhibition in 2018, said the event has greatly stepped up since, both in terms of organization and number of participants. She said the location of the exhibition at the Citadel of Saladin in the heart of Cairo has an important meaning and turnover, as it allows that the artists to showcase their works to an over 20,000 audience daily.
Hirano said that the exhibition is representative of the role of the art as an expression of the heritage and history of the peoples through contemporary art methods to tackle the efforts of Western countries to obliterate the original identity of other peoples across the world.
The artist says that the artificial intelligence only expresses the identity of the data input, not the original identity of the peoples. She said that she sought to express the identity of peoples through art with the various forms of artistic expression at the exhibition Something Else at the Citadel.
The Brazilian group in the exhibition curated by Hirano consists of Vinicius Couto, Igi Lola Ayedun, Alberto Pereira, and Silvana Mendes.
Hirano says that each of them expresses the heritage of peoples in their own way. For example, Pereira learns the culinary preferences of art consumers and art exhibition visitors and prepares a special menu for the participants, regardless of their races and genders. On the other hand, Mends feeds musical devices with the original art of the peoples to confront AI, instead of letting it take over and erase the identity of the peoples, and she has inserted the image of Black celebrities into renowned paintings by using AI technology.
Held by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiques of Egypt in partnership with Darb 1718 and Qalaa Holdings, the exhibition strengthens the position of Cairo as a cultural and artistic hub in the region that has traditionally been the focus of attention of art lovers from the Middle East and elsewhere over the ages.
Translated by Georgette Merkhan & Guilherme Miranda
