Major

Sat, Jul 12, 2008
3:00 PM

New Museum theater (directions)

Museum as Hub: A Conversation with Susan Hefuna, Ayman Ramadan, and Tarek Zaki, Moderated by William Wells

Part of Museum as Hub, Exhibition Related
 
Discussions

William Wells, Director of the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, moderates a conversation with Susan Hefuna, Ayman Ramadan, and Tarek Zaki, three of the artists included in the Museum as Hub project “Antikhana.” The exhibition title refers to the downtown Cairo neighborhood of the Townhouse Gallery—the district’s traditional name is Antikhana­—where a symbiotic coexistence between artists, writers, intellectuals, and conservative male workers from the “lanes,” or the streets, have informed the artists’ own practices.

The Townhouse Gallery’s project is on view in the Museum as Hub space on the fifth floor of the Museum from July 11–September 21, 2008.

*This event is free with Museum admission but tickets are required.

Banner image:
Antikhana, Cairo
Courtesy Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo

Sponsors TOP

The Townhouse Gallery’s participation in the Museum as Hub program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Mondriaan Foundation.

This discussion is made possible by the Charlotte and Bill Ford Artist Talks Fund.

Museum as Hub is made possible by the Third Millennium Foundation.

Seeds of Tolerance

With additional generous support from Metlife Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the Asian Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum.

Profiles TOP

Susan Hefuna

Susan Hefuna (b. 1962, Germany) takes up everyday aspects of life in her work, exploring the indeterminacy of location and identity and her negotiation of her own identity through photography, video, drawing, sculpture, and digital media. Much of Hefuna's work is informed by her dual heritage (German–Egyptian), and often features striking images of family, interior spaces, and cityscapes in and around Cairo. Hefuna has exhibited her work internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including: the Sharjah Biennial, 2007; “Contrepoint,” Musée du Louvre (2004–05); “DisORIENTation,” Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2003); and “Navigation Xcultural,” The National Gallery South Africa, Cape Town (2000). Hefuna lives and works in Germany and Egypt. Hefuna’s work is also on view at Albion Gallery in New York through August 1.


Ayman Ramadan

Ayman Ramadan began to produce his work after participating in workshops and building relationships with visiting and resident artists at the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cairo, where he had been employed since 2000. Informed by his immediate surroundings, Ramadan’s work spans an extraordinary breadth of media and influences, from Minimalist sculpture to photography, video, and performance, often involving residents of downtown Cairo. In 2001, he had his first solo exhibition at the Townhouse Gallery. In the last six years, he has had five solo exhibitions at the Townhouse Gallery and has exhibited his work in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Ramadan’s video work Iftar was screened at the Tate Modern in London, and his installation Baladi Bus was part of a group exhibition at Kunstmuseum, Bonn. He is currently studying art and living in San Francisco.


Tarek Zaki

Tarek Zaki (b. 1975, Riyadh) is an Egyptian visual artist born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who lives and works in Cairo. He graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Helwan University, Cairo, in 1998. Zaki has exhibited at Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland; the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo; De Appel, Amsterdam; Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut; and the Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim. He is currently in residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.