CAIRO.- To celebrate the appearance of the publication Tamáss 2, Witte de With will be organizing in Cairo a book launch at the Diwan Bookshop and discussions in Mashrabia Gallery on April 14th and 15th. Tamáss 2 is published in three editions: English, Spanish (Witte de With and Fundació Antoni Tàpies), and Arabic (Sharqiyat Publishing House, Cairo). Following Tamáss 1, which focused on Beirut and Lebanon, Tamáss 2 focuses on the contemporary cultural situation in Cairo and Egypt.

 

It includes essays about the immediate consequences of the Gulf-War (Gema Martín Muñoz), the new social and political claims from the survival strategies implemented in Arab and Muslim urban life (Asef Bayat), and the structure of contemporary Egyptian women’s poetry and its relation both to religion and to the Arab nation (Safaa Fathy). In addition to these essays Tamáss 2 introduces a wide variety of visual contributions and a special section highlighting the Egyptian cultural review Amkenah.

 

The presentation of Tamáss 2 will also feature other books published in the context of the Contemporary Arab Representations project. They include: Tamáss 1. Beirut/Lebanon; Randa Shaath, Under the Same Sky: Cairo; Paola Yacoub Michel Lasserre, Beirut is a magnificent city. Synoptic pictures.

 

Tamáss 2 is texts by: Asef Bayat, Mustafa Dhikri, Safaa Fathy, Khawla el-Hadid, Ala’ Khaled, Gema Martín Muñoz, Hala Nammar, Abdul Aziz el-Sebaay, Mona Zakaria Visual contributions by: Mohamed Abla, Sherif el-Azma, Anna Boghiguian, Golo, Hassan Khan, Hani Rashed, Randa Shaath

 

Tamáss is part of Contemporary Arab Representations, a long-term project which includes seminars, publications, performances and presentations of works by various authors with the aim of encouraging production, circulation and exchange between various centers of the Arab world and the rest of the world. For more information contact Witte de With, or go to www.wdw.nl. With special thanks to: Arteleku, San Sebastián; European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam; Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam; Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA), Sevilla.