Faculty Bulletin

Not IN THE AGE OF PHARAOHS| Talks By Bruce W. Ferguson| Dean of AUC School of Humanities and Social Sciences

“NOT IN THE AGE OF THE PHARAOHS” will discuss four examples of works of art prior to the revolution loosely known as the Arab Spring in Egypt to show how good art is symptomatic of political and societal issues and ills. The talk will include a wide variety of images from the revolution together with a discussion of the issues surrounding the contested word “revolution” as well as references to a modernist Egyptian literature of discontent that preceded the four works by many decades as well as a discussion of the difference between works of art and representations per se.  One of the works of art discussed was by Ahmed Basiony who was assassinated in Tahrir Square and who has become a forceful symbol of the martyrdom of many other courageous and creative people in the region.

Dean Ferguson received a B.A. in art history from the University of Saskatchewan and an M.A. in communication from McGill University in Montreal. He has curated more than 30 exhibitions for institutions such as the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Barbican Art Gallery in London, the Winnipeg and Vancouver Art Galleries in Canada and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. He organized exhibitions in the international biennales of Sao Paulo, Sydney, Venice and Istanbul. He has also served as the Dean of the School of Arts at Columbia University, the president and executive director of the New York Academy of Art and Director of Future Arts Research (F.A.R.) at Arizona State University before joining The American University in Cairo.

Montreal: Monday, April 22, 2013
7pm at Centre PHI, 4th Floor,
407 rue Saint- Pierre
Co- Presented by DHC/ART (Foundation pour l’art contemporain/ Foundation for Contemporary Art) and Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal

For more information contact: francois.letourneux@macm.org, valerie.sirard@macm.org, Cheryl Sim, csim@dhc-art-org, John Zeppetelli, JZeppettelli@dhc-art.org

http://www.macm.org/activites/not-in-the-age-of-pharaohs/
www.macm.org
www.dhc-art.org

Toronto: Tuesday, April 23, 2013
7pm at Hart House, Lecture Room,
University of Toronto

For more information contact: barbara.fischer@utoronto.ca, sandy.saad@utoronto.ca (kitty_scott@ago.net)

Please send your contact info via email to:

Nahla EL Helbawi

Communications Officer,

School Of Humanities and Social Sciences

The American University in Cairo

mailto:hussevents@aucegypt.edu

tel:+2 02.2615.1993

Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), is quoted in a January 16 Newsweek article entitled "Cairo Loses its Voice." An online version of the article can be found HERE. The quote from Bruce can be found on page 3.

Bruce W. Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), has published a book chapter entitled "Art Education," in Education (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art, Ed. Felicity Allen, (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011). Page 175.

Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), will be an invited participant at "The Lopud Seminar 2011," for a conference entitled "Black Swans: Producing the Improbable." It is sponsored by T-B A21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary) with 22 invited guests whose cultural work spans the globe. Bruce will be moderating a panel entitled "A laboratory for new ideas: the new project space" on Thursday, October 6, and moderating the final panel entitled "Wrap Up, Pack Up, Share and Go" on Sunday, October 9.

Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), is lecturing on September 27, 2011 (i.e., tomorrow) at the University of California-Santa Barbara on the topic "Not in the Age of the Pharaohs: Contemporary Egyptian Art, the Arab Spring, and After." The lecture will take place from 5-7 PM in the university's Broida Hall.

Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), recently published an article entitled "On Laughing at Works of Art" or "Sul Ridere Delle Opere D'arte" in a catalogue on the recent artworks of the Turkish artist Ahmet Ogut. The exhibition was entitled "Once Upon a Time A Clock Watcher During Overtime Hours" at the Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, Italy. Dean Ferguson also interviewed Ahmet Ogut in public on Friday, September 16 at SALT in Istanbul, Turkey, on the occasion of the opening of the 12th Istanbul Biennial.

This post is made from the Venice Biennale, regarded by many observers as the world's most important art show. We are sitting not far from the Egypt pavilion, where AUCians have been much involved with this year's exhibit– a tribute to artist and musician Ahmed Bassiony, who was killed in Tahrir Square on Friday, January 28.

The director of the show is Shady El Noshokaty, Assistant Professor in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts (PVA). The curator is AUC alumna Aida Eltorie.

Also here were/are Aissa Deebi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts (PVA); Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS); Graham Harman, Associate Provost for Research Administration.

The Egyptian pavilion offers a powerful mixture of footage from Bassiony's major performance piece of 2010 and additional footage from Tahrir Square taken by Bassiony himself from January 25-27, just days prior to his death. Everything is projected onto multiple side-by-side screens in a pitch-black room.

His February 2010 performance piece, "Running in Place for 30 Days," was intended as a metaphor for Egypt running in place for 30 years, though the political message of the title seems to have escaped the notice of the authorities.

The Egyptian pavilion has been receiving a great deal of media coverage, and we may post some of it here in the Bulletin once the dust has settled from the opening days of the Biennale.

Photo: Ahmed Bassiony performing "30 Days of Running in Place," February 2010.

In conjunction with the retrospective exhibition “Cyprus in Venice, 1968-2009” (40 years of participation in the Venice Biennale of Art), held at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Center (Old Power House), in association with the Pierides Foundation, a conference is to be held on Tuesday, March 22 entitled “the Biennale Urge.”

Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) has been invited by the Ministry of Education and Culture to act as interpolator the editors of  “Biennale Knowledge,” published by the Bergen Kunstmuseum recently and to which Bruce contributed a co-authored text with Milena Hoegsberg.

Bruce Ferguson, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) was interviewed by Studio 360 about his experiences during the Egyptian Revolution. The interviews can be heard HERE.

The text on the Studio 360 website also links to the Bulletin's February 14 interview of Bruce, which for those who missed it can be read HERE.

Bruce Ferguson, the new Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS), comes to us with extensive curatorial experience in the art world. Last week Bruce curated an extraordinary event in Buffalo: a perilous tightrope walk by Didier Pasquette. (See the image below.)

Actually, Dean Ferguson was involved with more than the tightrope walk while in Buffalo. He reports as follows:

"I was the 'International Project Consultant' to 'Beyond/In Western New York 2010: Alternating Currents,' a recurring exhibition of contemporary art driven by a landmark curatorial collaboration among twelve art institutions in the Buffalo/Niagara region. This year's exhibition presents work by more than one hundred artists and explores the relevant theme Alternating Currents, with its implication of energy and power and the oscillations inherent in both. Other references to Didier Pasquette's 'walks' can be found on YouTune under Didier Pasquette and both Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The image [below] is the first walk between two replicas of the Statue of Liberty on top of the 23-story Liberty Building in downtown Buffalo, New York. The exhibition's dates vary somewhat due to the number of venues but generally are from September 24 to December 17, 2010. Works of art can be found in 27 locations in the city from the largest museum to the smallest art center as well as outdoor manifestations like the filigreed van by Kim Adams… It was my idea to bring Didier and provide a performative metaphor for the theme, and I wrote an introduction to the catalogue."