The Bibliotheca Alexandrina will open the international event “The 11th International Biennale of the Artist’s Book” on Wednesday, September 4, at 2:00 PM in the Eastern and Western Exhibition Halls in the Conference Hall. This is an artistic event that has been held every two years since the establishment of the library in 2002. As an artistic event, the theme is closely linked to the spirit of the library, as the Artist’s Book Biennale aims to present artistic creations of different natures, which depend in their idea on anticipating the relationship between writing, narration, or storytelling and visual artistic expression. The various applications that the Artist’s Book Biennale presents to the public are linked in one way or another to writing or the use of symbols to express a story, or the artistic expression of a known story, or even a story from the artist’s imagination in the form of a photographic depiction of a story or a photographic story, whether linked to a written text or not. Accordingly, the participating works vary in their content, idea, and different techniques, but they are united by the spirit of the event itself. The current session includes 17 male and female artists from Egypt, with a special participation to honor the late artist Hazem El-Mestekawy, whose art was closely linked to symbols, letters and writing, an Italian artist, an artist from Jordan and three artists from the Czech Republic, each presenting three works of the artist's book type. This participation was made in cooperation with the artistic curator Daniela Kramerová, the Cultural Office of the Czech Embassy in Cairo and the University of West Bohemia.
There is also the participation of a Belgian/Lebanese artist, a French artist and a Swedish/Russian artist, in addition to 25 artist's books from the publishing house La Diane Française, which specializes in original limited edition "artist's books", presented as a gift to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. This participation was made with the support of the French Institute in Cairo.
A distinguished artwork from China is also being displayed using the ancient traditional Chinese art of writing with twenty-four paintings representing periods of climate change throughout the year. This work has never been displayed before in Alexandria, as it is one of the holdings of the art library that we are pleased to present to the audience of the Artist's Book Biennale this year. The Biennale also displays a collection of prints representing models of the use of graphic art and design in printing and publishing in Egypt in the first half of the twentieth century. These are reproductions from the collection of the Egyptian National Library, and were made in cooperation with this prestigious institution.
As well as a collection of reproductions of the drawings of the costumes of "Opera Aida" designed by the famous French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette and scenes of Egyptian antiquities in the opera's decorations as mentioned in the book "The Genius of Opera Aida".
The exhibition opens on Wednesday, September 4, at 2:00 PM in the Eastern and Western Exhibition Halls and continues until September 24, 2024, daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, except Fridays.
