The Battle of Spaces
About the Guests
Taher abdel-Ghani: An architect, urban researcher, assistant lecturer at New Giza University, an Award-winning Independent Filmmaker, and an advisory member on Public Space for City Space Architecture. His research explores the intersection between cinema and cities, public spaces and public art, spatial culture, and architectural education. He earned his Masters's degree from Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany, and is currently a PhD candidate at Cairo University. His academic record includes 13 peer-reviewed publications, co-chairing the 2022 AESOP Annual Congress in Estonia, and serving as an editor and reviewer on a few academic platforms. Additionally, he delivered more than 20 lectures, including guest lecturers in the UK, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Hungary. His short films have been screened in Egypt, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, and the USA. His 2019 short film "Cold Dissent" received the Best Short Film award at the 5th Biennale Spazio Pubblico Festival in Rome. His 2020 short film "Prosody: An Ode to the City" was nominated for the Audience Award at the 1st City Space Architecture Film Festival in Bologna. He also received the third prize in the 2021 A-Place Mapping photo contest for the image under the title "Spirituality descending upon Simplicity".
Dr.Shaimaa Ashour: She likes narrating stories about architecture and places through teaching, writing, photography, city walks or public lectures. She is an associate professor of architecture and interdisciplinary studies in the Department of Architecture at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport in Cairo, and currently at the Prince Sultan University in Riyadh. She is an expert on local heritage with over twenty years of experience and has multi-disciplinary interests that span from Egyptian 19th & 20th century architecture to cultural heritage, architectural advertisement, and urban history. 25 articles and conference papers, four published books and two editorials were all written by Shaimaa or her co-authors. Two editions were published of her book "The Pioneer Egyptian Architects during the Liberal Era (1919-1952)”. In addition, she examined three theses, had six M.Sc. theses successfully defended, and had five more in progress. In 2007, she created her blog Keep hunting photos “Manseiat (Forgotten)” and then an electronic newspaper "The io Weekly" in 2012. Both were hubs sharing fresh news about Egypt mainly architecture, and heritage. From 2018, her passion to literature gradually evolved. She recently published two stories in a collection of short stories in partnership with 12 writers. The book is titled “Hikāyāt ʿan Boʿd - Tales from a distance". She is currently finalizing the manuscript for a novel staring an art therapist who assists a group of women on their journeys towards recovery. Moreover, she presented at 34 events and spoke as a guest speaker. She participated in workshops, initiatives, and roundtables discussing several key issues centered on heritage, Cairo’s urban and architectural condition, and architectural publications. Some titles: Symposium on Egyptian popular culture: produce consume conserve (2020), German Legacies in Cairo (2016), FA Workshop in Cairo/ Al-Azhar’s Nasr City Campus (2016), The Egyptian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Architecture (2013), The Heritage and the New Technology (2012), Dust (2012), TEDxGUC|Gaps talk on How can artistic performances revive Egypt’s dying standalone cinemas? (2019).She is the founder of El Dor El Rabe’a, an initiative that is dedicated to using art to brand Egyptian culture. She founded Beit 'Haky in 2022; it is a storytelling wellness retreat that hosts activities that promote sensory healing methods and encourage self-expression through "spoken" and "written" words.
Omar Zahran: An architect, urban designer, and researcher working at Megawra, BEC, & AtharLina Initiative. He is currently a M.Sc. Candidate at Cairo University. Zahran is interested in architecture, urbanism, and heritage. He is passionate about cinema and the arts and their role in documenting and raising awareness of societal issues and finding cultural ways that contribute to the sustainable development of societies. He participated in and was invited to attend many conferences and events in Egypt, Germany, and several Arab and European countries, and he gave several talks and sessions about facing several challenges from the perspective of architecture, Heritage, and cinema. Zahran is also a Human rights activist He is volunteering for the Hurra Coalition “Hurra Coalition” is an intersectional group of active women’s rights organizations in the Middle East and North Africa &“AEFL” and participates in many of its awareness and cultural activities.
About the Talk:
The Battle of Spaces: Abstraction of Cinematic Urbanism in the Arab World Can cities resist? Is it resistance or resilience? Which one comes before the other? These questions are part of our talk that explores the Cinematic Urbanism of the Arab World. We highlight cultural heritage as a spatial abstraction of the Arab city and the role of cinema in documenting raw spaces. These spaces are utilized by Arab filmmakers to decolonize Western ideologies and perceptions of urban identity.
The talk was presented by Taher Abdel-Ghani & Omar Zahran about the relation between Urbanism, Heritage, Resistance and Cinema. Followed by a discussion that was moderated by our dear Dr.Shaimaa Ashour (founder of beit-haky).
Group photos:
