Announcement of "Caravan Residency Program" participants

Thinking with Alexandria

The Caravan Residency Program aims to survey the European cities of Athens, Brussels, Marseille and Nicosia, through the lens of Alexandria and its contested urban imaginaries.

Having received more than 600 applications from artists, activists, collectives, researchers, performance and filmmakers and other practitioners, the Caravan residency program will be co-shaped by 16 selected participants in collaboration with 5 local social enterpreneurs who will guide the artists in relating to and understanding urban, infrastructural and social processes and formations in the cities of Athens, Brussels, Marseille, Nicosia and Alexandria.

Sixteen participants are selected to partake in a field, discursive and practice-based program in conversation with the residency curators, social entrepreneurs and a range of tutors and presenters working across diverse disciplines and contexts, to be tailored to the group.

The residency is outcome based, and participants are expected to develop a final project as part of the program’s conclusion which will be then showcased as part of the Forums: Contemporary Alexandria in Athens, Biella, Marseille, Alexandria and Aarhus.

Selected Participants:

ATHENS

Islam Shabana (Egypt)
Neja Tomsic (Slovenia)
Zeynep Kaserci (resident in UK, Turkey)
Chiara Cartuccia (resident in UK, Italy)
Tahir Onur Çimen (Turkey)

NICOSIA

Sara Fakhry Ismail (Egypt)
Post Disaster (Italy)
Christopher French (UK)
Ludovica Guarnieri (resident in UK, Italy)
Georgios Moraitis (Greece)

MARSEILLE

Mark Lotfy (Egypt)
Mahmoud El Safadi (Lebanon)
Stella Ioannidou (Greece)

BRUSSELS

Omnia Sabry (Egypt)
Sotiris Tsiganos (Greece)
Eva Frapiccini (Italy)

Social enterpreneurs:

Sarah Bahgat (Alexandria), cultural manager and curator based in Cairo
Alexandre Field (Marseille), architecte & producteur
Pauline de la Boulaye (Brussels), historian by training and as an independent exhibition curator, she co-produces urban art projects that activate links between inhabitants and places
Demetra Ignatiou in Alexandria and Michalis Christou in Biella (Nicosia), cultural professional, archaeologist
Electra Karatza (Athens) Cultural Producer, Art Theorist, Researcher

The Caravan Residency is conceived and realized by UNIDEE residency programs at Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto in Italy and is curated together with Edwin Nasr and in conversation with Sarah Rifky.

In Athens, the residency is hosted by Onassis Stegi.

In Nicosia, the reidency is hosted by Undo Point Contemporary Art centre

In Marseille, the residency is hosted by the Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean "MUCEM".

In Alexandria the residency is hosted in collaboration with local partners.

The project "Alexandria: (re)activating common urban imaginaries" (ALEX) aims to take a fresh look at the many challenges faced by the arts and heritage sectors, through the symbolic and historical prism of the city of Alexandria and its influences on urban development in the Mediterranean and beyond. The project is supported by the European Union's Creative Europe program.