By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
DailynewsegyptDailynewsegypt
  • Home
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    CIB signs MoU with LinkedIn learning to promote youth learning culture
    CIB signs MoU with LinkedIn learning to promote youth learning culture
    May 31, 2023
    Islamic banking in Egyptian market increases to EGP 544bn in March 2023
    Islamic banking in Egyptian market increases to EGP 544bn in March 2023
    May 31, 2023
    Banque du Caire’s net profit grows 29% to over EGP 1bn in 1Q 2023
    Banque du Caire’s net profit grows 29% to over EGP 1bn in 1Q 2023
    May 31, 2023
    Cyprus' offshore Aphrodite gas field to be linked to Egypt: NewMed
    Cyprus’ offshore Aphrodite gas field to be linked to Egypt: NewMed
    May 31, 2023
    EFG Finance to launch unified platform gathering all its financing services: Alaa Al-Afifi
    EFG Finance to launch unified platform gathering all its financing services: Alaa Al-Afifi
    May 31, 2023
  • Politics
    PoliticsShow More
    AU praises Egypt's role in achieving sustainable peace in Africa despite challenges
    AU praises Egypt’s role in achieving sustainable peace in Africa despite challenges
    May 31, 2023
    Opinion| Russia and China promote stability in the Middle East after the US withdrawal from the region
    Opinion| Russia and China promote stability in the Middle East after the US withdrawal from the region
    May 31, 2023
    Opinion| The American debt crisis and the 2024 elections
    Opinion| The American debt crisis and the 2024 elections
    May 31, 2023
    Abdel Ghaffar affirms Egypt’s support for the Palestinian health sector
    Abdel Ghaffar affirms Egypt’s support for the Palestinian health sector
    May 31, 2023
    Lebanon's army says frees kidnapped Saudi citizen
    Lebanon’s army says frees kidnapped Saudi citizen
    May 30, 2023
  • Interviews
    InterviewsShow More
    EFG Finance to launch unified platform gathering all its financing services: Alaa Al-Afifi
    EFG Finance to launch unified platform gathering all its financing services: Alaa Al-Afifi
    May 31, 2023
    I changed my artistic path to create ‘state of wonder’: Tarek Lotfi
    I changed my artistic path to create ‘state of wonder’: Tarek Lotfi
    May 25, 2023
    I adore Ramadan drama, ‘Telt Al-Talata’ series achieved great success: Ghada Abdel Razek
    I adore Ramadan drama, ‘Telt Al-Talata’ series achieved great success: Ghada Abdel Razek
    May 8, 2023
    We aim to establish Egypt as nearshore centre for Software AG for MET region: Rami Kichli
    We aim to establish Egypt as nearshore centre for Software AG for MET region: Rami Kichli
    April 29, 2023
    Egypt-Spain relations witness remarkable development in recent years: Spanish ambassador in Cairo
    Egypt-Spain relations witness remarkable development in recent years: Spanish ambassador in Cairo
    April 18, 2023
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
Reading: When Dreams Call for Silence: exhibition digging into human inner peace
Share
Notification
Latest News
CIB signs MoU with LinkedIn learning to promote youth learning culture
CIB signs MoU with LinkedIn learning to promote youth learning culture
Banking
AU praises Egypt's role in achieving sustainable peace in Africa despite challenges
AU praises Egypt’s role in achieving sustainable peace in Africa despite challenges
Politics Egypt
Islamic banking in Egyptian market increases to EGP 544bn in March 2023
Islamic banking in Egyptian market increases to EGP 544bn in March 2023
Banking
Banque du Caire’s net profit grows 29% to over EGP 1bn in 1Q 2023
Banque du Caire’s net profit grows 29% to over EGP 1bn in 1Q 2023
Banking
Cyprus' offshore Aphrodite gas field to be linked to Egypt: NewMed
Cyprus’ offshore Aphrodite gas field to be linked to Egypt: NewMed
Business
Aa
Aa
DailynewsegyptDailynewsegypt
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Advertise
© 2023 DNE News. All Rights Reserved.
Dailynewsegypt > Blog > Culture > When Dreams Call for Silence: exhibition digging into human inner peace
Culture

When Dreams Call for Silence: exhibition digging into human inner peace

Nada Deyaa’
Last updated: 2019/02/12 at 1:09 AM
By Nada Deyaa’ 7 Min Read
Share
SHARE

Mark Stevens once said, “One of the best things about paintings is their silence, which prompts reflection and random reverie”. Stepping inside the Margo Veillon Gallery hall at its first exhibition feels like a leap into a peaceful and a calming world, where people are only surrounded with portraits, sculptures, music, quietness, and peace. Each of the art pieces resemble a dream, and a call for silence.

When ‘Dreams Call for Silence’ is one of the two exhibitions which the Tahrir Cultural Centre (TCC) is welcoming its visitors with. The art collection came alive by the artist Huda Lutfi.

For the first time in 20 years, the American University in Cairo (AUC) is featuring the work of Lutfi as an artist, rather than an art professor who has been teaching at the university for nearly 25 years.

With 42 art pieces, varied between paintings, sculptures, and installations, Lutfi takes visitors into the journey of looking into one’s inner soul, and how he/she connects to the outer world.

The exhibition is a combination between Sufism, Pharaonic art, and surrealism which are reflected in the the various types of the showcased artwork.

Lutfi’s artwork cannot help but force one to dig deep into the soul, “as seeking quietness and silence never seem to find a place in the human nature,” Lutfi stated.

“This art work comes as a result of grappling with silence. For months I dug deep inside my soul, struggling to find quietness,” Lutfi told Daily News Egypt.

“I believe silence is the hardest phase anyone can reach,” Lutfi added, “Even in our sleep, supposedly the state when we are silent the most, dreams invade them with actions, movements, sounds and feelings. The moment we mostly seek to have are the quiet moments, when silence prevails.”

The portraits dig deep into people’s inner space, through touching their minds, beliefs, and ideologies. Lutfi believes that the showcased artwork takes visitors into their deepest fear, which is silence.

“We always grapple with silence because we are afraid of it. Although we love deep sleep, where silence is beautifying the present, yet we still have these dreams which interrupt the silence,” she explained.

The paintings portray the interior spaces which fill the souls of humans. The exhibition also offers a video animation, which depicts the marching figures, echoing Pharaonic imagery. From Lutfi’s point of view, the animation video is a modernised format of Sufi enchantments. The animation video is a repetitiveness of the photographs captured by her, playing religious soundtracks, made by the veteran Italian music composer, Antonio Vivaldi.

For a year and a half of work, Lufti reflected her feelings of pursuing silence and peace. “There is a stillness, a calm in the images,” Lutfi explains. “The mood is one of reflection and silent contemplation,” she said.

One of the paintings, titled the last gaze, features a human being looking heart ached and broken with empty gazes clutched towards the back.

With eyes full of tears, Lutfi could not hold her floating tears, expressing that death is all what she was thinking about when she was drawing it. In her portrait, Lutfi presented the link which connects death with peace and calmness.

“I could not help but think whether I will look the same when I have the final look before I depart. As much as death brings the always sought quietness, yet it frightens me,” she sobbingly explained.

Within the same path, was the displayed bag filled with timeworn and broken dolls, which resemble the human life circle, and the bodies’ decomposition after death.

Combining between the past and the feature, while linking them to present, was one of the most remarkable talents which attracted the exhibition curator, Shiva Balaghi, the senior advisor to the provost and the AUC President for the Arts and Cultural Programmes, into the work of Lutfi.

Balaghi states that Lutfi’s artwork shows how can someone be sitting at home with his/her own thoughts, bringing the dreams and memories of both the future and the past together, and the way it shapes the present.

When Dreams Call for Silence, along with Bent El-Nil (The Daughter of the Nile) are the two exhibitions which will be presented during the opening of the first phase of the TCC.

Balaghi recalled that moment when she had to choose an artist to showcase her art work at the opening exhibition of the TCC, which also came in parallel with AUC’s centennial celebrations, Lutfi was the one who popped in her mind, without any other competitors.

“I knew her for 15 years, we are both historians and I know how talented she is. I believe Lutfi is, currently, at the peak of her artistic creativity. She has something to say which people who live in Cairo can understand, and also the charm of delivering the same message to those who have never been to Egypt before,” Balaghi said.

She also believes that Lutfi is an artist who manages to “balance between the local and the global, which manages to get her message delivered to all humans.”

The exhibition was intended to have the least amount of words written on the walls near the portraits. Balaghi explained that as a curator, she aimed to provide each visitor with a chance to see the art, without being directed to deliver it in a certain way.

“It is meant for individuals to see and sense the featured art for themselves, each to receive a message of their own,” she finally added.

You Might Also Like

I changed my artistic path to create ‘state of wonder’: Tarek Lotfi

The story behind Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo

I adore Ramadan drama, ‘Telt Al-Talata’ series achieved great success: Ghada Abdel Razek

Mona Zaki leads race in Ramadan TV series

Cleopatra was not black: Egyptian experts slam Netflix for misrepresenting history in new drama-documentary

TAGGED: exhibition, Huda Lutfi, Tahrir Cultural Centre, TCC
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
By Nada Deyaa’
Follow:
Culture reporter, passionate reader and writer, animals lover and arts follower.
Previous Article BAFTA awards winners announced
Next Article Al-Sisi called for maximising efforts for strong, prosperous Africa at final AU session
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ad image
Ad image

Stay Connected

Facebook Like
Twitter Follow
Instagram Follow
Youtube Subscribe

Latest News

CIB signs MoU with LinkedIn learning to promote youth learning culture
CIB signs MoU with LinkedIn learning to promote youth learning culture
Banking
AU praises Egypt's role in achieving sustainable peace in Africa despite challenges
AU praises Egypt’s role in achieving sustainable peace in Africa despite challenges
Politics Egypt
Islamic banking in Egyptian market increases to EGP 544bn in March 2023
Islamic banking in Egyptian market increases to EGP 544bn in March 2023
Banking
Banque du Caire’s net profit grows 29% to over EGP 1bn in 1Q 2023
Banque du Caire’s net profit grows 29% to over EGP 1bn in 1Q 2023
Banking
//
Egypt’s only independent daily newspaper in English. Discuss the country’s latest with the paper’s reporters, editors, and other readers.

Quick Link

  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

© 2023 DNE News. All Rights Reserved.

Join Us!

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss our latest news, podcasts etc..

Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?