mummified robot joins JR and others at egypt's first art exhibition at giza pyramids

‘forever is now’ at giza

‘forever is now,’ marks the first contemporary art exhibition to be held at the pyramids of giza in egypt. the all-women company art d’égypte opened its 4th edition of the exhibition this week, october 21st, 2021. featuring the works of french artist JR, british robot artist Ai-Da, and others from around the world, ‘forever is now’ marks a departure from its previous editions — it will for the first time show both international and local artists. with this in mind, the team notes that the show is the first of its kind in 4500 years. ‘forever is now’ is on view until november 7th 2021

art d’égypte founder nadine abdel ghaffar comments on the spirit of the exhibition: ‘the pyramids have a long, illustrious history of extraordinary kind that has fascinated and inspired artists from all over the world. I’m thrilled to share what will be an unforgettable encounter with the union of art, history, and heritage.’ 

JR,  ‘greetings from giza,’ © pixcelle photography

AI-DA robot arrives in egypt

showing at art d’egypte‘s ‘forever is now’ exhibition at the pyramids in egypt is the ultra-realistic robot artist Ai-Da. while the artificially intelligent humanoid can draw, paint, and engage in performance art, she now presents a sculptural ‘self portrait.’ nested within a contemporary sarcophagus, the work takes shape as a ‘mummified robot’ with three machine-like limbs. the self-portrait is titled ‘immortal riddle‘ and references the ancient egyptian themes of the afterlife together with the contemporary obsession with achieving immortality through the use of biotechnology in the 21^st century.

the exhibition of ‘immortal riddle’ comes shortly after the news that the robotic british artist had been detained by egyptian authorities for 10 days, as she was deemed a security risk. read designboom’s recent interview with the creator of Ai-Da here.

Ai-Da, ‘immortal riddle’ images courtesy of MIDAS

the art exhibition at the pyramids

the works presented by art d’egypte at the exhibition ‘forever is now’ are scattered across the giza plateau. each is sited as a composition in direct dialogue with the monumental pyramids. works such as ‘(plan of the path of light) in the house of hidden places’ by shuster+moseley, and ‘barzakh’ by moataz nasr echo the triangular profile, shadowing the monoliths in the foreground. meanwhile such works as ‘greetings from giza’ by JR and ‘together’ by lorenzo quinn, show enormous hands ahead of the pyramids to be viewed from a precise perspective. 

even more, JR’s haunting installation depicting the top of a pyramid as a levitating body will be the first artwork of his to enter the NFT market as a minted 4,591-piece. the artist elaborates on this decision in a recent instagram post: ‘usually the artworks I create are some sort of documentation of my public art projects. thanks to technology and NFTs, it is the first time that anyone can actually collect a piece of the public artwork.[…] we have also hidden a total of 743 hieroglyphs throughout the collection’.
Ai-Da, ‘immortal riddle’ images courtesy of MIDAS

shuster+moseley, ‘(plan of the path of light) in the house of hidden places’ ©pixcelle photography

moataz nasr, ‘barzakh’ © pixcelle photography

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sherin guirgis, 'here have I returned' © hesham el saifi

sultan bin fahad, 'R III' ©pixcelle photography

stephen cox ra, 'interior space khafre' © pixcelle photography

gisela colón, 'eternity now' © pixcelle photography

alexander ponomarev, 'ouroboros' © pixcelle photography

exhibition info:

exhibition title: forever is now

location: pyramids at giza, egypt

organizer: art d’egypte

on view: october 21st, 2021 — november 7th 2021

participating artists: russian artist alexander ponomarev; american artist gisela colón; brazilian artist joão trevisan; french artist JR; italian artist lorenzo quinn; egyptian artist moataz nasr; egyptian born, los angeles- based artist sherin guirguis; british artists shuster + moseley; british artist stephen cox ra; and saudi arabian artist HRH prince sultan bin fahad

supporters: U.S. embassy in egypt, afrexim bank, hany saad, signify, MO4 network, eastern company, al ismaeilia group, orange S.A., sawiris foundation, cultural partner the abu dhabi festival, our transportation partner SWVL, ALEXBANK, orascom pyramids entertainment (OPE), oriental weavers, egyptair, fairmont | ALL, TV5monde, savills, wine gianaclis vineyards, lipton, travco group, ashmand, beretta, the french embassy in egypt, the french institute in egypt the british council, CC-plus, DHL, abou ghaly motors, meuble el chark, barta & partners, the art newspaper, daghash, swiss embassy in egypt and marmonil.