Farouk Hosny Foundation for Culture and Arts has concluded its prizes' second edition among appreciation from the Egyptian artists and art lovers.
Before the Ceremony, the Exhibition
Shortly before announcing the awards winners, a group exhibition for the projects that qualified for the final edition has kicked off at Gezira Art Center.
The exhibition witnessed impressively attendance from young arts from all over Egypt, in addition to the art students and activists.
Hundred of various disciplinary artworks were displayed, all of them executed by artists who are aged under 35 years old.
The exhibits represent the five-section Farouk Hosny Art Awards: Painting, Photography, Architecture, Sculpture, and Art Critique.
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SEE. News has toured the exhibition and talked with the young artists who spotted at the scene beside their works.
Nouran Ahmed, a fresh Applied Arts Faculty graduate, was at the exhibition, and she explained the concept of her project to the other participants.
Ahmed said: "My project is called "The Restless Rebab Player." I have a strong passion for folk arts which is the Rebab player is one of its figurative symbols." 
She highlighted that the traditional forms of arts can form a real influence on the artist. The artist can always look at those inherited cultural acts in a contemporary eye.
Regarding the colors, the artist depended on various alerting colors taken from the "Khayamiya" patterns.
Finally, she sent special appreciation to her mother and friends who supported her project and shared in her participation at the competition.
Another participant who talked to SEE News was Dr. Shaimaa Saad, an assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Art, Minya University.
Dr. Saad explained to SEE News: "My painting is based on woman as a symbol of desire, and combining her with other feminine desire symbols such as the cat and the apple, that's why I named the painting as "Woman, Cat, and Apple."
Regarding her main technique, she revealed that it was the collage. She recycled pieces of her late mother's clothes and attached them to the painting.
The artist expressed that she experienced that the painting brought life back to her mother's clothes.
The theme of inner conflict in a woman is always a rich theme to reflect, woman, can sometimes hide her real motives, and other times she accidentally drew the attention of the surrounded to her hidden intentions, Dr. Saad emphasized.
Moving to another participant who is Lina Ebrahim. Ebrahim is another fresh graduate who decided to combine her passion for arts with her experience in COVID-19 quarantine.
Ibrahim narrated to SEE News: "The concept of "gift" was one of the most aching thoughts in my mind during the quarantine; it was the point which I started to re-evaluate every surrounded simple thing and appreciate its real value."
She continued that depending on the symbolism of fish and sea as a sign of gift and wealth in the folk collective conscious was her main technique.
Alongside the participants, several figurative names attended the exhibition and inspected the enthusiastic talents of the young Egyptian artists such as the former president of the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, famous businessman Naguib Sawiris, the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Dr. Mostafa El Feki, and renowned Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, alongside a number of officials.
Art Awards Ceremony
The venue of the Art Awards ceremony has seen huge attendance of artists and art activists who came to witness the upcoming promising future of the arts scene in Egypt.
TV icon Jasmine Taha stepped to the stage for opening the long-waited night for the participants, Taha expressed her sincere happiness for hosting the event, in addition to selecting her as a new member of the foundation's board of trustees.
A short documentary under the theme of "A Prize Journey" was displayed. The film reviewed the different stages of establishing the foundation and launching its prizes.
Hosny said that the main purpose of founding the foundation is renewing the blood of the art scene by encouraging the skilled young Egyptian artists and spot the light on their creativity.
He added that he gave special care to the youth since he held the portfolio of the Ministry of Culture by founding the "Youth Salon" and other initiatives concerned with young artists.
Moreover, during his speech, Hosny expressed his pleasure for inspecting the works of the young artists, and he asserted that Egypt will have a promising art scene due to the presence of such impressive works.
He also thanked the attendance for supporting the arts and the young artists and that would motivate him more for exploring more artists.
Moreover, he greeted the jury members and the officials who supported the event such as the Minister of Culture.
On her side, Dr. Abdel Dayem expressed that lately, the Egyptian government started to gave care for combining forces with the non-profit organizations for supporting independent and young artists.
She also renewed her commitment to supporting the activities of the foundation in enriching the cultural scene in Egypt.
Abdel Dayem also narrated one of her memories with Hosny as he attended one of her earliest concerts and he showed warm support to all rising skilled artists.
Announcing the Winners
Shortly, the head of the foundation‘s board of trustees, and the Culture Minister witnessed announcing the names of the winners of the competition’s five sections.
The first announced prize was the Art Critique Award. This round’s prize was given the name of the late former Minister Culture and leading art critic Dr. Shaker Abdel Hamid.
The jury of the Art Critique Award included the late Abdel Hamid, the head of the Department of Photography of Fine Arts Faculty, Alexandria University Dr. Amal Nasr, Dr. Hani Abu El Hassan, and art critic Fatma Ali.
Only five projects out of 23 submitted ones were qualified for the final round.
The winners of the third-place were Amr Essam Ahmed and Hagar Ragab Mohamed. On the other hand, the winners of second place were Shaimaa Mahmoud Ahmed and Ashraf Mohamed Othman.
Finally, the first prize went to Nehal Hani.
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The second announced prize was the Architecture one. This competition saw various group participants, unlike the other prizes. Therefore, 10 participants were qualified for the final round.
The award’s jury carried the names of expert Shehab Mazhar, Mohamed Abu Seada, the director of the National Authority of Civilization Coordination, and Hatem Saed.
The winners of the third-place were Saed Reda Saed, and a group project done by Youssry Hassan, Mohamed Mahmoud Shaker, Mariam Ashraf Nesim. While, the second place went to a group project executed by Omar Ahmed Hussein, Saif Mohamed Saad, Mahmoud Tarek Mahmoud, and Abdullah Hisham Rashad.
The first prize went also to a group project done by Mohamed Mansour Mohamed, Mohamed Haitham Mohamed, Nihal Mounir Abdel Salam, and Salma Wael Mohamed.
Finally, a number of certificates of appreciation were given to two participants: Hesham Sameh, and Anas Mohamed Taha.
Next, the Prize of Photography winners were declared. The jury had a number of leading artists’ names: Ayman Loutfi, Emad Abdel Hadi, and Galal Al Messari. 11 projects were qualified for the final contest out of 231 submitted ones.
The winners of the third-place were Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Shafi and Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel Fattah. The second place went to Ahmed Hamdi Moustafa, while, the first place went to Ahmed Mohsen Mansour.
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Shortly, the winners of the Sculpture Awards were announced. 17 projects were qualified for the final contest out of 106 ones.
The jury included Professor Abdel Aziz Saab, Dr. Shams Alqrnfeily, the dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts, Benha University, Dr. Essam Darwish, artist Nagi Farid, and the Director of the Center of Arts Ehab El Labban.
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The winners of third place were Mona Omar Moustafa, and Reem Osama Moustafa, and the second place went to Abdel Rahman Alaa. Finally, the first place went to Mostafa Mohamed Al Maghawri.
Finally, the winners of the Painting Award were declared. This competition witnessed the highest number of participants, however, only 68 out of 664 were qualified for the final round.
The winners of third place were Mona Omar Moustafa, and Reem Osama Moustafa, and the second place went to Abdel Rahman Alaa. Finally, the first place went to Mostafa Mohamed Al Maghawri.
Finally, the winners of the Painting Award were declared. This competition witnessed the highest number of participants, however, only 68 out of 664 were qualified for the final round.
The jury carried a number of prestigious names such as Dr. Aleya Abdel Hadi, the former dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts, University of Petra, Dr. Huessein Al Shabouri, museum display expert, Dr. Ashraf Reda, the Executive Director of the Center of Arts and Culture, Helwan University, artist Samir Fouad, and the Director of the Center of Arts Ehab El Labban.
The third place went to Nada Mahmoud Abdel Maboud, and Mohamed Amin Al Touhami, on the other hand, the second place went to Aya Moustafa Mouhari and Omnia Ashraf Ahmed. Finally, Ayman Mohamed Saed won the first prize in the competition.
Meet the Winners
SEE News managed to meet a number of the awards winners after the ceremony who spoke impressively about their participation in the competition and their projects.
Nehal Hani, the winner of the first Art Critique Prize, told SEE News that the core of her paper was the concept of Orientalism and how it was reflected in the works of the artists in the East and West.
She added, I traced that representation of women in the European Orientalist arts and how they approached the images of women.
Next, SEE News talked to the winners of the second place of the Architecture Award Omar Ahmed Hussein, Saif Mohamed Saad, Mahmoud Tarek Mahmoud, and Abdullah Hisham Rashad.
The group explained the concept of their project which is a new vision of constructing the buildings in the light of the COVID-19.
They highlighted that after the pandemic, the vision of the resident has been totally re-shaped, especially, his approach to the void structures and the flexibility of the building structure itself.
Next, one of the winners of the third place of the Photography Award, Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel Fattah, told SEE news about his project.
He revealed that the technique used in the project is "photomontage," and it was designed under the theme of "Rhythm."
Abdel Fattah targeted to set a kind of a parallelism between the life of the artist and the circle of producing the artwork itself.
He made a device used in printing the artworks as the central theme of the project for focusing on his comparison.
Finally, SEE News talked to the winner of the first place of the Photography Award, Ahmed Mohsen Mansour. Mansour revealed that the idea of his three-piece artwork is reflecting the value of the things in the time of COVID-19.
It is like providing a new vision to the meaning of circularity in the time of the quarantine, and how the concept of the simple things in life such as tins, trash, labels, and tickets earned a value in their own presence.
The wanderer between two contrasted routines: the life before the pandemic, and the life in the quarantine.
At the end of the night, various artists exchange their points of view regarding the paintings, on the other hand, several participants celebrated the success of the wonderful and harmonious night of arts and joy.
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