Check it out here !

For the past two days, Ragab and I, worked on two pieces in several places around Alexandria. Sadly, Aya wasn’t with us this time; she has been in Bahrain for the past week and is finally coming tomorrow. We talked about how much we both miss her, more than actually working! = (

First piece:

It was really difficult getting the uncolored piece done, because we were working, early in the afternoon, in (Wust El-balad) where all college/governmental institutions are. We really enjoyed working on the colored one, though! The guys in a near-by store bought us drinks and asked us to do more artworks beside and in front of their store.

An uncolored piece.

حيوان الرجب

Second piece:

This one isn’t done mainly as a street art piece. It’s a part of an artwork which will be done for a book, I am working on. (supposedly)

غرباء فى هذا العالم

& Finally, this.

This picture has to do with the post, as much as the English translation in the poster has to do with the Arabic title.

Thanks for reading!

- Last Friday, the 25th, we gathered at Aya’s studio with a new comer, who will surely join us more often, Mohamed Gaber.

Basic info:

Hates: Hosni Mubarak.

Best feature: Adorable smile! (Awww..)

Thinks that: art is all about experimenting and playing around, freely.

Masturbates to: Yasmine Hamdan.

It was probably one of the best weekends ever! The entire atmosphere was energetic. We worked on two pieces, fully designed by Gaber. We also gave him a dose of Alexandria…

أكلنا سدق (مش سجق), راكبنا الترام أم دورين وشربنا واحد (ودع اهلك) من سلامس, ولو ماتعرفوش, سلامس ده محل بتاع عصير (المفروض) بيقدم حاجات فريدة من نوعها زي رضعة الذكاء ورضعة الاكتئاب وعصير يوم الخميس (أديله !) وعصير القرد في الكورة الجلد, حاجات كده يعني, والحمد لله إن في مستشفى في المنطقة

First artwork:

While doing the piece, a kid passed by and kept watching us then said “شكلكم من 90 دقيقة وعايزين توسخوا سمعة البيت بيتك”

Second artwork:

والصبع ده كان رد جابر على تعليمات آية

While doing this piece, we were stopped by the police. The officer kept talking with us for a while, he actually agreed to let us finish the artwork, but threatened us to be put in troubles if he saw any other pieces around.

الظابط: يا حمادة, الفن له معارض وحاجات جميلة كده يتحط فيها…حاجات بتنور! (نفسي اعرف إيه الحاجات اللي بيتنور أنا دي!) وكمان كن مع الفن إيه بس؟ هو احنا أصلا عندنا فن

عيل اهبل في الشارع: كن مع الفن؟ هاهاها أنا بحب الرأس الشرقي (وهزله هزة كده) هاها

Gaber’s comment on L.S.A

truly i loved u guys loved the energy u have and was really honored to be with u and would be sooo honored to be always with u ,,,

-loved your energy Aya even when u try to get angry at some loser’s ass

-Loved the kindness and angel face u show Sara -please stop torturing Ragab :@ – u r an amazing gurl

-Ragab 7abeb albe i fuckin missin u and wont say i love u 3ashan manetfehemsh ghalat wel 7ad menena som3a

keep it up guys!

P.S

I have no idea why Gaber asked me to stop torturing Ragab. All I did was mess around with the cutter a little bit. *coughs*

L.S.A with Gaber.

]]> http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/gathering-1-summary/feed/ 7 Admin 20070415(014) 20070415(037) 20070415(066) 20070415(069) 20070415(072) 20070415(080) 20070415(102) 20070415(111) 20070415(126) 20070415(129) http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/announcement/ http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/announcement/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:10:57 +0000 Admin http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/?p=168 ]]> We would like to announce that we will be gathering, every Friday, staring form the twenty-fifth, to do more artworks, all over Alexandria! Such gatherings are simply another chapter, extending workshop #1 (Stencil art)

If anyone is interested in joining us, please send a very short biography, via email: alexstreetart@gmail.com

For more information, call: 010 434 5357

Thank you.

- Our first workshop was held between the 1st and the 4th of December, at RUFY’S art center.
First off, the place smelt like cat piss. It was really suffocating that we had to cover our noses all through the first discussion, then we got used to it. We were only four; Aya Tarek (duh!), Ahmed Ragab (Also known as, Abo De7ka Genan), Sarah G. (The author of this blog, who can criticize the whole world while being completely unproductive) and finally, Mo-ayed (A twenty-year old guy who went through serve depression because his father didn’t buy him a play-station portable).

You think that’s sad? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet!

When the event was first posted on Facebook, many people did apply, yet they all apologized at the last moment, which was extremely frustrating. Since there were no enough participants, the organizers themselves had to pay in order to buy the materials. We all ended broke, therefore, we spend four days eating Koshry from (She7′ El-Balad). It did taste a little “odd” and Mo-ayed was very obsessed with hygiene, refusing to eat anything at first, but as you know, Hunger is an infidel. (Literal translation isn’t the biggest problem with this article, so shut the hell up!)

Regardless all we went through, we did stay committed to the project by adopting a local street cat and for the sake of making things weirder, Ragab decided to name her (Talafreak).

Animal abuse.

Aya started off by briefly explaining the difference between graffiti and street art, generally, with its different types and branches, trying to remain as specific as possible about our focus point during workshop #1.

Since the real aim of the workshop was to not to teach a technique (I mean, C’mon, even those guys can teach you that!) but to open minds to a new way of interacting with the Alexandrian street and understanding how to use its visual elements as vocabulary in creating a composition. Stencil, like any other art, is a tool that you can use in order to express your individual self. We are interested in ideas, not techniques.

Accordingly, the first thing we did was go for long walks in the city, taking pictures of every interesting thing we see.  The faint beige squares, with Italian influence on its architecture, was fascinating and inspiring!

Here are some of the pictures that were taken:

Windsor Hotel.

احمر ناااري

A very old, beautiful building!

ربنا ياخدك يا آية

The atmosphere was  a lot of fun and like Justin Bond said. “It’s just like the 60s, only with less hope!”

We also produced various pieces and will soon produce a full composition, experimenting with stencil art as much as we can.

Here are some of the works produced:

Long thoughtful piss.

L.S.A: Love, support & anal sex.

بانكسي كرموز

ما يحكاك الا ايدك

Sense. This picture makes none.

Gangsta coloring book!

برنس الليالي

Suicide.

كل شيء مظلم ,مرتعش و هارب

السنجة رنجة

مسارك مصيرك, مع تحيات سوسو مزلقان

All in all, the workshop was very interesting and an important step in our developing project. We will soon be posting information about any upcoming workshops/gatherings so stay updated!

Thank you.

]]> http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/workshop-1/feed/ 3 Admin 20070324(054) IMG_1484 IMG_1448 DSCF4364 IMG_1444 16540_207398526384_610856384_2931278_434798_n 20070324(004) 20070324(009) 20070324(014) 16549_359267180044_593815044_10102323_6634771_n 20070324(029) 15536_192093466316_605051316_3131941_2858312_n 20070324(042) 20070324(046) 20070324(069) 20070324(073) http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/a-new-voice/ http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/a-new-voice/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:05:30 +0000 Admin http://alexstreetart.wordpress.com/?p=35 ]]>

The coolest thing since the transformers II

- On the 25th of November, an open introductory session about the project was held at RUFY‘s art center. There, Aya Tarek, a pop/street artist and the main organizer of the workshop, discussed street art on a global and a local level.

“The main point behind our project is to build an organized Egyptian street art movement,”, Aya explained. “The majority of Egyptians have never been to an art gallery in their lives, simply because the art presented in such white cubes doesn’t reflect them; it doesn’t reflect their realities. It’s mostly westernized and made for the enjoyment of certain highly-sophisticated group of people. Art should not be limited, it should open for everyone, so if Egyptians still fail to reach art, we will bring art to them, to a wall just around the corner.”

Aya, sarcastically, replied those who claim that there is no street art in Egypt, showing various pictures of street art, done all over Alexandria, using primitive methods and techniques. There is no sense of planning behind such works, nor do they have any strong conceptual value. They were merely done for advertising (Hair removal products, Spiritual treatment Hotline, etc..) or done as reminders to constantly praise Allah (إن الله يراك! فاخشه) or even done to express personal emotions, vividly, like (Halazon <3 Koki) or (Hamada, sex 0124858715)

Here are some samples of the Graffiti (7′araffiti?) done all over Alexandria:

ايوه كده يا وديع

استرجل

Made by: The "Shatafa" appreciation society.

Made by: a chicken, a very angry chicken. (Faak yo Faack!)

That's exactly what we mean by "Express yourself, like someone gives a fuck!"

“If done in an organized manner, street art could really beautify the city and could become a strong method to self-express and create freely, in public space, beyond the rims of the classic art forms.”,  Aya explained.

She also discussed the work of  the few groups/individual artists, who focused either fully or partially on street art, like (فوق وتحت) who are considered the first group of young artists, based in Alexandria, Egypt, to focus totally on street art, inspiring others to follow their footsteps. After the break-up of the group, all the members are still active and working solo.

Finally, Aya showed different styles of street art done all over the world, hoping that one day, there will be an active, organized street art scene, in Egypt.   *sighs*

Artists mentioned in the talk:

- BLU (Europe)

- Os Gemeos. (South America)

- Icy (Iran)

- فوق وتحت (Egypt)

More about Aya Tarek:

Aya Tarek was born on the 14 of November, 1989.  Her work is based in Alexandria, Egypt. She is currently a student in the faculty of fine arts, painting department. Aya established her own art studio in August, 2008. She also started observing her work with refreshing concepts through her activity as Urban/street artist, exposing the perplexing issues of gender minorities on public space.

She participated in various workshops and group exhibitions. She is also a participant in (pick4) exhibition at townhouse gallery in Cairo. She is currently working on many projects, mostly concerned with reflecting the cultures and the issues of Islamic conservative societies.

Click  here to download the enrollment form and then send it via email: alexstreetart@gmail.com

Thank you.

“Local street artist” is an independent art project on 4 stages
Organized by Aya Tarek in cooperation with Rufy’s Art Center
The idea is based on the creative re-identifying of public spaces as exhibiting areas with maintaining an access with space components

An open introductory session about the project will be held at Rufy’s Art Center on  Wednesday November 25th 2009, 7 p.m

Workshop #1: Stencil art, held between the 1st and 4th of December 2009

Practicing stencil techniques and styles, introducing trends and ideas, with the attempt to separate the use of Western techniques from being affected by the identity, and working on the manufacture of a local identity stems from the interaction with elements of local content and the street, through (Presentations – Lectures – Interactive Tours -live experimentation)

For more details, please download the enrolment form

enrollment_form

To apply for the workshop, please fill in the enrolment form and send it via e-mail

Project blog: alexstreetart.wordpress.com
E-mail: alexstreetart@gmail.com

Office: 010 434 5357 – 03 584 424 5/6

Location: 5 el mesk st, Gleem by the sea road beside “AVON”
Alexandria, Egypt