Egypt's culture picks of the week: 16-23 March: VIDEOS

Sunday 16 March

Performance of Paradise Kinder at Hanager Theatre at 10am

Paradise Kinder is a co-production between AFCA and German Consol Theatre. The performance is a result of one year study visits in Germany and Egypt where the team explored gender issues working with children as well as researchers and specialists. This performance is part of the annual Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children (12-18 March) organised by the AFCA Foundation for Arts and Culture. Read more about the festival here.

Hanager Arts Centre, Cairo Opera House grounds, Zamalek, Cairo

Uccellini performance at Hanager Gallery at 10am and 12pm

Uccellini is a French performance that is suitable for the youngest viewers (marked in the programme: starting from nine months old). The protagonist is a painter who paints and dances. Performance will be also repeated on Monday, 17 March, at 10am.This performance is part of the annual Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children (12-18 March) organised by the AFCA Foundation for Arts and Culture. Read more about the festival here and watch the festival's promo below. Hanager Arts Centre, Cairo Opera House grounds, Zamalek, Cairo

Opening of Layer of Green at CIC at 7pm

Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) and Goethe Institute will open the Layer of Green exhibition. Over four weeks, numerous Egyptian photographers will present their works focusing on environment and change within the concepts of "green." The exhibition is a result of a photography workshop organised by the two institutions in November 2013.

22 Abdel Khaleq Sarwat Street, Downtown Cairo

Omar Khairat closes Cairo International Jazz Festival at Al-Azhar Park

The annual Cairo International Jazz Festival takes place between 13 and 16 March. The festival included musicians from Egypt, Austria, Germany Japan, Lebanon, Portugal, France and Tunisia. The final day will feature Omar Khairat, the well-known Egyptian pianist and composer.

Al-Azhar Park, Salah Salem Road, Cairo  

Monday 17 March

MadCap performance at Hanager Gallery at 10am and 6pm

Madcap from Netherlands is a performance that presents the process of life by contemporary dance. This performance is part of the annual Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children (12-18 March) organised by the AFCA Foundation for Arts and Culture. The performance will be repeated on Tuesday, 18 March, at 10am and 6pm. Read more about the festival here.

Hanager Arts Centre, Cairo Opera House grounds, Zamalek, Cairo

Last days of Cinderella’s Tales exhibition at Mashrabia Gallery

Keeping a close eye on the dynamics of social life in Cairo, Shayma Kamel usually captures the essence of the Egyptian persona mostly through large paintings that simultaneously haunt and enchant. In this exhibition, the artist deals with figures — such as fictional princesses like Cinderella — that are idolised by young girls. Kamel also uses the representation of manikins we see in storefront windows to express an alternate reality. Through her paintings, Kamel attempts to capture the blurred lines between fantasy and reality within society. Exhibition runs until 20 March.

8 Champollion Street, Downtown, Cairo

Also on this day: - Uccellini performance at Hanager Gallery at 10am. Read more about the festival here. - Activities at Wekalet Behna in Alexandria. Read more about Wekalet Behna and its programme here.

Tuesday 18 March

Last day of Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children and closing ceremony at Hanager Theatre

The final day will include two performances: Madcap and Amal Bokra. MadCap from Netherlands is a performance that presents the process of life by contemporary dance. It will be staged at 10am and 6pm at Hanager Theatre. The second performance will be Amal Bokra (Tomorrow's Hope), a play born from direct interaction with children for many months, produced by AFCA with the cooperation and support of several parties. The production is addressing viewers over 10 years old. Read more about the festival here and watch video from Hakawy's opening day below.

Hanager Arts Centre, Cairo Opera House grounds, Zamalek, Cairo

Sakia String Orchestra to perform favourite classics at El-Sawy Culturewheel at 7pm

El-Sakia String Orchestra, conducted by Mohamed Saad Basha, will perform Mozart's Divertimento No 11, and Haydn's Symphony No 44. El-Sakia String Orchestra was formed in October 2010 with the aim of promoting classical music through El-Sawy Culturewheel, a centre that mainly offers pop and rock concerts to young audiences. Through the string orchestra's activities, young people gain easy access to classical music and its values. Since its formation, the orchestra gives one concert monthly, on every third Tuesday of the month.

Wisdom Hall, under the 15 May Bridge on 26th July Street, Zamalek

Mizo and Ahmed Saleh to perform at Wekalet Behna, at 6pm

This concert is part of Wekalet Behna's artistic activities. Wekalet Behna also serves as a workshop, production and exhibition space for independent cinema, video, art, and other visual arts in Egypt's second largest city. Read more about Wekalet Behna and its programme here.

1 El-Kenisa El-Marounia Street, Orabi Square, El-Mansheya, Alexandria

Also on this day: - Activities at Wekalet Behna in Alexandria.

Wednesday 19 March

Rageh Daoud's works at the Cairo Opera House at 8pm

The Rageh Daoud Chamber Orchestra will perform some of Daoud's works for the cinema at the Cairo Opera House. The orchestra will be conducted by Daoud himself. Soloists on both evenings will be Ines Abdel-Dayem on the flute, Mostafa El-Arabi on the oboe, Hossam Shehata on violin, Hany El-Badry on nay, Mahmoud Abdel-Fattah on oud, Saber Abdel-Sattar on qanoun and Mohamed Saleh on organ. The vocalist on both nights will be Ahmed Zaki. The same performance will take place again in Alexandria, on Sunday, 23 March. Check details here.

Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek, Cairo

Evening with harp at Om Kalthoum Museum at 8pm

Harpist Manal Mohei Eldin is a well known and accomplished Egyptian musician. As a soloist she has a countless number of recitals to her name, along with performances with many orchestras in Egypt, including the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Cairo Opera Orchestra, and the Cairo Festival Orchestra. She participates regularly in many music festivals — including the Citadel Festival for Music and Singing and Opera House Summer Festival — and takes part in numerous cultural events in Egypt, including concerts at well-known tourist sites, as well as outside the country. Her recitals and concerts are often broadcast on the Egyptian radio and television. She also made several recordings of film music. Read more about Mohei Eldin here.

1 El-Malek El-Saleh, Manial, Cairo

Mohamed Khan's Factory Girl to be commercially released in cinemas across Egypt

Factory Girl made its world debut in December at the Dubai International Film Festival, one of the most highly anticipated film events in the region. The film tells the story of one year in the life of Hiyam (played by Yasmine Raees), a young woman working in a clothing factory who falls in love with her supervisor. At the heart of the tale is a bigger issue: women who search for independence while being caught in the throes of a repressive society. Watch the trailer below.

Thursday 20 March

Darwasha Project at Makan at 8pm

Darwasha Project is a progressive rock band formed by Egyptian guitarist and oud player Mohamed Darwish. The band's line up includes Mohamed Darwish on guitar, Ahmad El-Azazy  on drums, Shady El-Hosseiny on piano and melodica, Muhammad Faisal on bass guitar, Amr El-Zanaty on percussion and Soka on oud. Since their formation in 2012, Darwasha performed extensively in Cairo and Alexandria. They also participated in a concert held in Amman, Jordan.

Makan, Egyptian Centre for Culture and Arts, crossroads of Mansour and Saad Zaghlul streets, Downtown, Cairo

Yehya Khalil at Cairo Opera House at 8pm Dubbed "Revolution is on ... " the evening will include Yehya Khalil, one of the most established jazz musicians in Egypt, and his band. Watch Yehya Khalil's promotional video below. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek, Cairo

Opening of Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival 2014

The annual Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) is a multidisciplinary festival taking place between 20 March and 11 April in several venues in Downtown Cairo, with this year’s edition also stretching to Alexandria. The programme includes performances, talks, film screenings, workshops and a large-scale exhibition. Opening day will include smART Mobile Film Festival screening booths across Downtown Cairo at 12pm, followed by the opening night film, Underground/On the Surface at Radio Cinema at 8pm, and music performances at Sherazade nightclub at 10pm. Check the festival's programme here.

Also on this day: - Activities at Wekalet Behna in Alexandria. Read more about Wekalet Behna and its programme here.

Friday 21 March

Film screenings at Wekalet Behna

Every Friday between 14 March and 9 April, Wekalet Behna in Alexandria will screen Villa 69, Jews of Egypt, and Rags and Tatters. The space was once the office of Behna Films Selections, one of Egypt's largest cinema distribution companies between the 1930s and 1950s, and hosts a substantial archive of Egypt's cinematic history, selections of which will later be exhibited in the space. Wekalet Behna will also serve as a workshop, production, and exhibition space for independent cinema, video, art, and other visual arts in Egypt's second largest city. Read more about Wekalet Behna here and watch Jews of Egypt trailer below.

1 El-Kenisa El-Marounia Street, Orabi Square, El-Mansheya, Alexandia

smART Mobile Film Festival, screening booths across Downtown Cairo, starting 12pm

smART Mobile Film Festival is part of the annual Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) is a multidisciplinary festival taking place between 20 March and 11 April in several venues in Downtown Cairo. Check the festival's programme here.

Downtown, Cairo

Sheer Strength: Collective exhibition at GIZ

This exhibition, held at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) office, in collaboration with the Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art, brings together four contemporary female artists. Entitled Sheer Strength, the show will feature works by Hala Abu Shady, Dina El-Gharib, Souad Abdel-Rasoul and Fadwa Ramadan. The diverse showcased collection includes paintings, drawings, collage and digital photography. "From the more rigorous abstraction to a surprising overlapping of images, their trajectories of research result into works of strong visual impact," reads the curatorial statement. The exhibition runs until 30 April. 4d Al-Gezira Street, Zamalek, Cairo

D-CAF programme:

12pm    smART Mobile Film Festival, screening booths across Downtown Cairo 2pm      EE Dance Studio, Invisible Boundaries (Egypt), in front of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (Borsa) 3pm      The100Hands, Running Running Nucleus (Netherlands/Egypt), in front of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (Borsa) 5pm      Lotte Sigh, Remind Me (Denmark), the GrEEk Campus, AUC 5pm      Ex Nihilo, Mashy (France/Egypt), the GrEEk Campus, AUC 6pm      I’ll Dance While You’re Dancing & We Will Have Danced Together (USA), the GrEEk Campus, AUC 8pm      Billy Cowie, Art of Movement (UK), Hotel Viennoise 9pm      Francophone Short Films (First Evening), the GrEEk Campus, AUC Check the festival's programme here.

Saturday 22 March

Metal Blast at El-Sawy Culturewheel at 6.30pm

El Sawy Culturewheel will hold a special, third anniversary edition of its one-day metal music festival with bands from Egypt and Poland. Egyptian line-up will include alternative metal band Devour, heavy metal band Divine, progressive oriental metal band Medic and deathcore metal band Destiny in Chains. Special guests of this Metal Blast edition will be a band from Poland, Banisher, representing technical death metal. Since its formation in 2005, Banisher released two demos, two LPs and one EP. The Metal Blast event will continue until 11pm. Read about Egypt's metal scene here and check Banisher's new song, 'Dystopia,' below. 26th of July street, Zamalek, Cairo

The Four Seasons at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina at 8pm

The Four Seasons concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), an Italian composer from the Baroque era, will be performed by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra (BACO). The orchestra, consisting of 16 string players, was founded in 2002 with the launch of the Arts Centre’s activities the same year. Since its founding, BACO has given a variety of concerts in Alexandria and Cairo, performing a repertoire of Western classical music, Arabic music and light music compositions, often cooperating with renowned Egyptian and international soloists and conductors. Bibliotheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra will be conducted by Khaled El-Showeikh who will also perform solo violin.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Small Theatre, Chatby, Alexandria

D-CAF programme:

12pm   smART Mobile Film Festival, screening booths across Downtown Cairo 5pm     Lotte Sigh, Remind Me (Denmark), the GrEEk Campus, AUC 5pm     Ex Nihilo, Mashy (France/Egypt), the GrEEk Campus, AUC 6pm     I’ll Dance While You’re Dancing & We Will Have Danced Together (USA), the GrEEk Campus, AUC 8pm     Billy Cowie, Art of Movement (UK), Hotel Viennoise Check the festival's programme here.

Sunday 23 March

Last days of Lingering in Vicinity exhibition at Gypsum Gallery

Gypsum Gallery, which recently opened in Zamalek, is hosting a solo exhibition of works by Cairo-based visual artist Maha Maamoun. The show presents two projects that the artists produced a decade apart: a series of large-scale photographs dubbed Cairospaces (2003), and a single-channel video named Shooting Stars Remind Me of Eavesdroppers (2013). "Seen together, the two works propose aesthetic, formal and conceptual threads that run through Maamoun’s practice," reads the curatorial statement. Exhibition runs until 25 March. 5a Bahgat Ali Street, Zamalek, Cairo

Also on this day: - Rageh Daoud works at Sayed Darwish Theatre (Alexandria Opera House), 22 El-Horreya Road, Raml Station, Alexandria, at 8pm. Check details here.

D-CAF programme:

12pm   smART Mobile Film Festival, screening booths across Downtown Cairo 2pm     EE Dance Studio, Invisible Boundaries (Egypt), Alfy Bey St 3pm     The100Hands, Running Running Nucleus (Netherlands/Egypt), Alfy Bey St 7pm     Billy Cowie, Art of Movement (UK), Hotel Viennoise 9pm     La nuit qu’on suppose – The Night We Suppose (Belgium, 2013), Odeon Cinema Check the festival's programme here.

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