Lecture to give artist's take on Egyptian revolution

Lara Baladi, a Cairo-based artist known for her cross-cultural collages, photographs, and installations that question social conditions around the world, will give a talk at Skidmore's Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Somers classroom.

The event is part of the Tang's ongoing series of Dunkerley Dialogues, which offer public conversations by artists and distinguished speakers who discuss Tang exhibitions and related issues of public interest.                                                                                                  

Baladi, who witnessed the recent revolution in Egypt firsthand as a resident of Cairo, was present for much of the public protests in Tahrir Square. She will focus her presentation on a photographic series she published in an artist's book titled Hopeand will explain how the conditions depicted in the photos contributed to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak.   

In contrast to the stock images of Egypt with its pyramids rising from the surrounding landscape, Hope  documents the ashwa'iyat, or "informal housing" (literally "haphazard things"), a seemingly endless series of unfinished red brick apartment blocks surrounding Cairo. Photographs by Baladi are currently on display at the Tang Museum as part of the exhibition Environment and Object - Recent African Art.                                           

"Egypt is growing so fast today that some experts predict its original agricultural land is well on the way to disappearing," said Baladi.   "In Cairo, 40 percent of the city is now composed of ashwa'iyat.  These illegally built slums expand relentlessly in and around Cairo like mushrooms after the rain, suffocating the fertile soil beneath them."

To complement her photographs of these housing complexes, Baladi commissioned the "Donkey Symphony," which she describes as "a hymn to hope in the midst of misery." The symphony incorporates soprano voice, flute, reed and wind instruments, and stringed instruments mixed with the braying of donkeys "to echo the voice of the city, the cry of the Red city."

Baladi's presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by the co-curators of Environment and Object - Recent African Art, Lisa Aronson, Skidmore Associate Professor of Art, and John Weber, Dayton Director of the Tang.

Born in Lebanon in 1969 of Lebanese-Egyptian origin, Baladi has lived in Beirut, Paris, London and Cairo. Her work has been exhibited internationally across the Middle East, the U.S., Japan, and Europe. Her pieces are included in a number of contemporary art collections, including the Chase Collection in New York, the Fondation Cartier in Paris, the Museet for Fotokunst in Copenhagenand the Pori Art Museum in Finland.

Baladi won the Grand Nile Prize at the 2008-09 Cairo Biennial for her project Borg El Amal. In 2006 she was commissioned to show 20 screens/projections installation along the seashore on the opening night of the Image of the Middle East festival in Denmark.

For more information on this and other Tang events, visit http://tang.skidmore.edu/tang.