If you take graffiti off a street wall and put it inside a confined space, is it still graffiti? Does street art maintain its value when you remove the noise, the faces, and the life of the streets and put it on a safe wall?
I’m deliriously excited to announce Townhouse Gallery’s upcoming exhibition This Is Not Graffiti, opening Sunday, September 18th at 7PM. Nine graffiti artists have been brought together by yours truly to explore Townhouse Factory Space and experiment with its walls to see if the art they create is as potent and powerful off the streets as it is on the streets.
This is the first group exhibition of graffiti artists after January 25th, featuring some of the best known raw artistic talents in Cairo: Keizer, Sad Panda, El Teneen, Adham Bakry, Dokhan, Hend Kheera, Hany Khaled, Charles Akl and Amr Gamal. The artists will create unique art works on the walls with complete artistic freedom to do as they wish, with completely unpredictable results.
The cool thing about graffiti is that there are no rules and nothing off limit; this experimentation at Townhouse will leave viewers to decide if the art they see on the wall is graffiti or not, if it incites the same reactions as it would out on the streets. There is no right answer or easy conclusion; it’s up to you to figure it out. Also, if you’re a graffiti fan like me, it’s a pretty cool exhibition to check out.
The exhibition’s opening is at 7PM. Come by and say hi. The exhibition will run for the next few weeks from 10AM till 9PM. Location: Hussein El Me3mar Street, first right off of Mohamed Bassiouny Street, Downtown Cairo. Next to Rawabet Theatre. For more information, contact Dina Kafafi dina@thetownhousegallery.com or me suzeeinthecity@gmail.com
Participating artists are: El Teneen
Chess Game by El Teneen
Charles Akl and Amr Gamal
Pulp Fiction by Charles Akl and Amr Gamal
Hend Kheera
Hend Rostom by Hend Kheera
Dokhan
Batman by Dokhan
Hany Khaled
Helw Ya Balady by Hany Khaled
Keizer
Snow White and a Gun by Keizer
Sad Panda
Graffiti by Sad Panda
and Adham Bakry
Graffiti by Adham Bakry. Photo courtesy of Adham Bakry
So wish I was in Cairo to attend. The graffiti is reflective of an awesomely intense journey that you have all been on. A journey to Peace, caring & great prosperity.
What does Bakry’s last street art image with television translate to?
Any pointers would be appreciated!
It translates to Go to the Street, calling for people to stop being passive and to become involved in demonstrations again calling for political change