Comic book exhibitions are very few in Egypt; these exhibitions specializing in the “ninth art” are rarely held outside of the annual comic festivals that Cairo witnesses, and they usually pass quietly without achieving a wide resonance or attracting a large audience, but perhaps the art exhibition “Presence and Absence” by Egyptian artists Migo and Hadeer El Mahdawy was able to break the rule and draw attention to itself.
The current exhibition is located in a small library, with multiple activities and cultural events in downtown Cairo, which is the “Balad” Library, which is located a few steps away from the noise of shops and the conversations of passersby; allowing a large number of the audience to engage with the contents of the exhibition, and at the same time follow the reciprocal effects between this spatial momentum and this most modern of arts.
Yasser Nabaiel embodies human suffering in his latest exhibition (azwaaq.com) :
The art exhibition includes 10 illustrated stories from the book “Existence and Absence” – a joint collaboration between the artist Migo and the author Hadeer Mahdawi – in addition to 4 models of characters that she created. Migo tells “azwaaq”: “The book “Existence and Absence” is the result of a joint collaboration between me and the author Hadeer Mahdawi. It is a collection of texts written in a literary language, as if they were short dreams or short imaginary adventures in a very realistic world, interspersed with some imaginary details.” He continues: “The story of this book began when I read some of her texts, and I liked them and asked her to turn them into comics. Indeed, she translated the texts visually through comics for adults, and used a different method, unknown and perhaps never used before.” He explains: “The idea of this technique is based on the existence of a scenario that has no direct relation to the written text, meaning that the literary text was preserved, and the scenario expresses an image that translates this text but indirectly.”
The wonderful thing is that the stories and texts in this book are a mixture of fears and dreams, and it can be said that their events take place in that overlapping border margin between reality and imagination, between the present moment and the future, and between the private and what relates to humanity in general.
Thus, the exhibition allows you to live in the imaginary atmosphere with the characters and strange creatures that fly in the book and entire pages of the book, in addition to the artistic part, which is the backstage behind the industry, such as character design, pencil sketches, and inked works; in preparation for placing them in the book in a final form, along with the audio recordings in the voice of the author, who added a lot to the exhibition; and all of this resulted in placing the visitor to the exhibition in a complete state of imagination and magic.
Mego says: “We have a treasure trove of stories and legends in our Arab heritage, and we must exploit them to create comics, as comic and cinema makers in the West have noticed their importance, and until now we have not done so, and we have not presented works inspired by this heritage.”
Migo points out that one of the factors that has prevented Arab comics from taking the place they deserve is that the audience itself does not interact with them sufficiently, indicating that it is necessary to change the general culture towards them. He tells Adhwaq: “The Arab audience still believes that comics are an art that addresses children alone, while graphic novels for adults have been invading the world for many years and achieving dazzling success. Hence, there is a huge industry in this field. Therefore, I believe that the first step for the development of Egyptian comics is the audience’s attachment to it, with the availability of capabilities, of course.” Within this vision, Mego works with other comic artists to spread his culture, and they organize many exhibitions and events, including the Cairo Comics Festival.
It is worth noting that Mego is a director, author, and comic book artist. He was born in Cairo. He studied directing in the United States of America. He has published several graphic novels and many comic books in various publications, including “Tok Tok”, “Samandal”, and “Lab 619”. He won the Mahmoud Kahil Award for Best Comic Book.
Ayman Parwaiz revives Egyptian heritage with stained glass (azwaaq.com)
Hadeer Al-Mahdawi is a journalist, writer, researcher, translator, and podcaster based in Cairo. She has worked with various local, regional, and international media outlets and platforms. She
uses multiple media in her journalistic, research, and artistic production, including writing in its various forms, and sound in its various uses as well.
From the exhibition photos (photos from Migo)
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(Migo ( Azwaaq
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