Egypt’s annual “Forever Is Now”exhibition is back. The show, which features contemporary artworks at the site of the 4,500-year-old pyramids of Giza, aims to connect past and present through large sculptures, installations and immersive experiences.
“The exhibition envisions echoes of ancient rituals, bustling civilizations and the whispers of buried tales that are yet to be discovered,” writes CulturVator and Art D’Egypte, the company organizing the show, in a statement. “It is designed to trace the continuity of themes that stretch from the storied past to the present day—emphasizing that our understanding of the world is an ever-evolving tapestry.”
The show spotlights 12 artists from countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, France, India and Egypt. This is the fourth edition of “Forever Is Now,” and this year’s lineup will also include artists from Asia for the first time. Local craftspeople, students and laborers are also participating in the exhibition, which also includes free lectures, panels and community programming, according to Artnet’s Sofia Hallström.
“Every year, we try to stay on top and address the whole world to bring all countries together in one place in this civilization, which all people know and are impressed by. This is a slogan for humanity,” chief organizer Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar, who is also the founder of Art D’Egypte, tells Mahmoud Fouly of Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency.
She adds, “I always say that the pyramids have been there for over 4,500 years and they are still there, surviving all the wars and all the changes, and they will remain there forever.”
One work that examines the passage of time is Exodus, a sculpture by the Spanish artist Xavier Mascaro. The piece is made of 26 Egyptian funerary boats sailing on desert sands, with the ancient pyramids in the background. The work is meant to evoke transitions and memory.
“We pass through time; we are dragged by it. After its passage, things—including us—seem fossilized,” says Mascaro in an artist statement. “I envision my work as an imaginary archaeology of the present seen from the future.”
Meanwhile, Greek artist Nassia Inglessis’ sculpture, Liquid Solid,is a large artwork that forms an outline around one of the pyramids when visitors stand in a certain spot. The piece is made of glass, aluminum honeycomb, steel and sand. Inglessis tells Design Boom’s Ravail Khan that her Greek heritage informs her work.
“The ancient Greeks were already in awe of the pyramids of Giza and studied its technology and the intelligence in its construction,” she adds. “There is wisdom in the technology.”
Another highlight is Korean artist Ik Joong Kang’s Four Temples, a collection of four massive box structures made up of bright squares. The inner walls showcase drawings from people around the world, many of them children, who are experiencing hardship. The outside features the words to a Korean folk song about connecting the past, present and future written in Hangeul, English, Arabic and hieroglyphs.
In the statement, the organizers of the exhibition say that they want visitors to become “modern-day archaeologists” when exploring the artworks and to learn about ancient structures in a new light.
“I like it because usually when you see the pyramids, you think about Egypt and just Egypt,” Fabio Paulitti, a Swiss visitor to the exhibition, tells Xinhua. “But mixing it with international artists shows how art can connect or bridge different cultures. And I think it’s a beautiful message.”