opinions, analysis and interviews

samir faraag - president of the national cultural centre of egypt - (en)

cairo, 17 novembre 2002

greetings words from samir faarag in occasion of the opening of the exhibition "between danube and nile"

within the framework of cooperation between egypt opera house and forum weltoffen in austria , it as been agreed upon to make an exhibition for the nile and the danube with the aim of the strengthening and deepening the relationship between egypt, why has on of the oldest civilisations of the world, and all other nations for assembling and uniting the world various cultures. in spite of the differences of the world societies and cultures art domain can absorb all the artists of the different nations, so, some artists who work and live in austria where hosted through the fact that they have various background as albania, austria, bosnia,  bulgaria, czech republic, columbia, france, germany, japan, s.korea, iraq, macedonia,  etc, in one show room together with their egyptian artist fellows to exhibit their artistic works expressing their experience of joy, sorrow and hope under the title of  “ …between danube and nile…”

the head of “forum weltoffen” mr. fate velaj  is endeavouring to deepen the sense of cooperation among the world nations despite the difference of their backgrounds, religions and political system. they are gathered through art and culture to discuss and show their works which reflect the culture and civilisation of their countries. in this exhibition we had the opportunity to dialogue with some foreign artists  in a respectful and appreciative manner. twelve artist participants from egypt who resembled samples of the egyptian art attended this show namely dr. magdy abdel aziz, who played a big role in the coordination and organisation of the exhibition, dr. hussein el gebali, dr. aida abdel karim, mr. makram hunein, mr. khamis shehata, mrs. fayza abdel moniem, dr. zeynab al zegeny and dr. hazem fathallah, and dr. omar el nagdi. the exhibition received a great admiration from critics artists and university professors and was visited by a great number of the audience who witnessed its big success .

it also was covered by some informational channels such as orbit, the enlightenment channel and the good morning egypt channel, nile tv. news 1, etc, as well as official newspapers published many items about it and its importance. we are looking foreword  to greater cooperation in this field because such exhibitions do have a great incentive to peace and an assertion that egypt is a peaceful country which embraces wide world art.