El Nafeza Foundation for Contemporary Art & Development

An Egyptian foundation working in the fields of art and development, legally registered in 2007 though it has been informally working since 2002. Its Papermaking Centre is located in El Fustat district, in Masr El Qadima (Old Egypt). El Nafeza's main fields of interest are development through art and contemporary art, especially the art book.

In Development: El Nafeza organizes workshops for youth, especially girls, in papermaking from the agricultural refuse, and establishes specialized training centres to teach and spread the arts and techniques of the recycled papers made from papers and agricultural refuse – especially rice straws, Nile water lilies and bananas stalks.

In Art: El Nafeza organizes local and international exhibitions and workshops in the field of the artist and art book, as its founder, Dr. Mohamed Abou El Naga, is the innovator and founder of Imagining the Book Biennale, held in Alexandria and supervised by him in 2002 and 2005. El Nafeza also provides database and news for artists and people interested in the field of artist and art book through El Nafeza's website.

El Nafeza produces and designs different handmade paper products (such as presents boxes, books covers, lighting units, etc), which are shown in different exhibitions and are displayed in different places in and outside Egypt, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Townhouse Gallery, El Khaton in Al-Azhar district, the Catacomb in Maadi, Phardise in Alexandria and Alanda Gallery in Jordan. El Nafeza continuously innovates new ways of using handmade papers, notably in purposes of interior design to attract new customers and open new markets locally and worldwide.

It cooperates with other civil society organizations (CSOs) interested in projects of increasing income, especially for marginalized categories and people with special needs, as a way of reaching the impoverished rural societies that need a new craft to help eliminate poverty and improve the living conditions.

El Nafeza seeks to revive and spread the papermaking industry, contributing to the protection of environment through disposal of agricultural refuse, such as rice straws, Nile water lilies and paper refuse – in an environmentally friendly way. It tries to provide an untraditional source of income for many of the people of the countryside and poor areas, by teaching them the art of papermaking, especially girls, and also people with special needs, such as the deaf and mute.

In the space between art and development, El Nafeza supports many experiments and workshops run by artists with papermakers at the centre, exchanging artistic experiences and techniques in mutual creation, as most of the book arts are based on handmade books and papers made by the centre.

The artist's special experience, therefore, is supported and new horizons are opened for imagination and creation, by means of the projects that support the exchange of experiences and techniques, and cultural exchange, opening communication channels and dialogue through art as a human expression.

Some of El Nafeza's Achievements In the Art Field: It had started before the formal registration, through its founder, in artistic projects he innovated and founded, including

-Biennale of Imagining the Book, Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 2002 and 2005

-Form through the Light – in cooperation with the Plastic Arts Sector. It is a meeting between artists inspired only by the 'light', on the occasion of the month of Ramadan. It was held in the Arts Palace in the Opera House in 2005 and 2006.

-In and on Papers, a group exhibition held in 2006 in Ibdaa (Creativity) Gallery in Muhandessin, and in Portray Gallery in Downtown in 2007

-Al Hakibah (The Baggage), an international meeting gathering 20 plastic artists and 20 writers who created and expressed the concept of the baggage, held in April 2007 in the Atelier of Alexandria. It had a printed catalogue combining texts and artistic pictures.

In the Development Field:

-More than 40 youths (young men and women) were trained in the centre on the papermaking arts and various designs of paper products, almost half of them from the deaf and the mute.

Workshops

-UNICEF (2 workshops for street children) in 2007 & 2008

-Artellewa Institution, a workshop for children living in Ard El Lewa area, in October 2007

-A workshop in the presence of artist Hazem El Mestikawy and Swiss artist Barbara Graf, April 2007

-Islamic Aid Egypt (Centre of Early Interference for Mentally Handicapped Children) January 2008

-Paper arts workshop using three dimensions (3D) technique, artist Dr. Medhat Nasr, May 2007

-Workshop in the presence of artist Kioko Iba, November 2007 by support of the Japanese Institution in Cairo

-El Nafeza in December 2007 had established a papermaking unit making papers from the Nile water lilies in Esna Secondary School for Girls, in Upper Egypt

Website: www.elnafeza.com, www.abouelnaga.com

Contact: info@elnafeza.com, elnafeza@gmail.com



“El Nafeza” (The Window) Center for Artists' Books & Book Art

Preamble

The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in the Arab region, in general, and especially in Egypt concerning an important cultural field, i.e., the production of artistic books and books of artists. Artistic expression relies on different components of our cultural patrimony. They include decoration, writing and script, book binding, quality of paper, etc. We can find these components in old manuscripts and papyruses where the strength of expression, knowledge, and art has contributed to produce integrated entities at the artistic and scientific levels. These products were not mere containers of knowledge, but became live entities providing us with the spirit of the epoch. However, times have changed and a great transition has occurred first from manuscripts to printed matters, developing more recently into the digital era that represents a real danger for printed books.

Therefore, artists begun to propose new forms of expression in order to promote the production of books as artistic products inspired from the old manuscripts that are seen as comprehensive cognitive and expressive entities. In addition, diverse fields of creativity concerted efforts to present books as a new artistic value that includes the great creations of artists. Thus, the language of arts has interacted with drawings, scripts, and paper in order to enhance the value of the artistic book and the book of artists.

Almost ten years ago, the Spanish Cultural Center jointly organized with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture an exhibition of Salvador Dali artistic books held at the Zamalek Compound for Arts.

Later on, the American Cultural Center organized five years ago an important exhibition held in Cairo and Alexandria under the title “Uniqueness”.

Almost three years ago, the Bibliotheque National in Paris organized another important exhibition about Arab books that included old manuscripts and contemporary artists.

Among the past years, several Egyptian and Arab artists showed an interest for artistic books and books of artists. These include names like: Kamal Balata (Tunisia), Al Qoreishi (Algeria), Dhia' Al Azawi and Shaker Al Hassan Al Said (Iraq), Jamal Abdel Rehim (Bahrain), Georges Bahgouri, Mohamad Aboul Naga, Rehab El sadeq, Mohamad Abla, and Magdi Qenawi (Egypt).

It is worth mentioning that several Arab and Egyptian artists continue to produce artistic books with a highly political and expressionist value.

A Vision of the Book 2002

Based on the facts mentioned above, and at the occasion of the inauguration of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the idea of a vision of the book was developed. Meeting a natural need in the Egyptian and Arab artistic environment, this idea succeeded in bringing together more than one hundred artists from around the world in a workshop that highlighted the importance of this field of creativity. The workshop also emphasized the exchange of experiences and interaction between the different cultures. Consequently, this event represented the first step towards a vision of the book

and was developed to include a biannual festival for artists in addition to a biannual exhibition for artists' books whose first session was held in April 2004 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Accordingly, Alexandria and its famous library became the location and meeting point for gathering and launching artists' creativity, contributing thus to enhance the technical and expressive value of books.

The second session of “Vision of the Book” is currently in the preparatory phase, and is intended to take place in April 2005 at the Library of Alexandria.

An important and urgent request for the Arab and Egyptian cultural context

The idea of establishing “El Nafeza” emerged on the basis of all the reasons enumerated above. Furthermore, there was a felt need for the existence of an institution concerned with this domain of creativity which is amazingly growing in the Arab Region. However, panic took place when the German artist, Erik Paprith, decided to organize an exhibition for Arab artists in the context of Frankfurt Book Fair in 2004 This panic relied on the fact that there were only individual, unorganized efforts, incapable of transmitting a real image of contemporary books produced by Arab artists. However, we can consider this initiative as an important beginning that reinforces the importance of “El Nafeza” Center

Fields of Activity of the Center

v The Center organizes workshops, local and international exhibitions of artistic books and books of artists.

v The Center develops a data base and provides artists with useful information. It also handles the organization of books' exhibitions through the development of an internet web site.

Main Units at “El Nafeza” Center

Unit for the manual production of paper

This place is specialized in the production of paper from agricultural left over, such as rice straw, lotus and banana leaves, including several Egyptian plants. It also relies on recycling paper. The unit will train youth from both genders on the manual production of paper that will be used in the books of artists.

The graphics unit

The unit will specialize in graphic designs for books of artists, by using different techniques for printing, such as wood, zinc, and silk screen.

The exhibition unit – the gallery of arts

The unit includes:

* A location for the exhibition of artistic products.

* A specialized library.

* A space for meetings and forums.

Accordingly, “El Nafeza” intends to play an important cultural and artistic role based on the needs expressed by the artistic and cultural environment in Egypt and the Arab Region, especially that this program is unique in this specific region of the world

Mohamad Fathi Abou el Naga