Monaco-Alexandria. The Great Detour. World-Capitals and Cosmopolitan Surrealism
Monaco-Alexandria. The Great Detour. World-Capitals and Cosmopolitan Surrealism
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco
17.12.2021 — 02.05.2022
Curated by : Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zamân Books & Curating
Scientific advisor : Francesca Rondinelli
With the participation of the Egyptian Modern Art Museum of Cairo and the Alexandria Museum of Fine Arts / Mahmoud Saïd Museum.
With the support of the Government of
Monaco/Principality of Monaco. Publication
and public program realized with the
participation of Community Jameel and
the support of The Alexis and Anne-Marie
Habib Foundation.
With the active collaboration of May Moein Zeid & Adel Youssry Khedr/MMZAYK collection, Cairo.
The NMNM in collaboration with Zamân Books & Curating, aims to create a dialogue between Monaco and Alexandria, namely two world-capitals with eloquent and yet little-known relations, woven in the heart of the 20th century, through transnational themes: ballets and (post)orientalist shows, southern surrealism, flora and fauna, feminist eroticism, urban development and nightlife; ultimately, the symbols and the poetics of cosmopolitanism through two great Mediterranean crossroads; both marked by the imprint of dreams and tourist mythologies as by that of the avant-garde in exile. Beyond the major themes explored, the exhibition + books aim at writing an unprecedented page in this connected and often French-speaking history, although shaped between several contact zone (Monaco, France, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Egypt, etc.)
This story made of almost secret links but structuring the Mediterranean experience of modernity is embodied in the figures of writers, poets, painters, decorators and philosophers all embodying a desire to come true between fluid and cross-border worlds; beyond the rise of nationalisms and fascisms.
Artists :
Hamed Abdalla, Zeinab Abdel Hamid, Clea Badaro, George Bahgoury, Raoul Barba, Ezekiel Baroukh, René Billotte, Anna Boghiguian, Bona, Nabil Boutros, Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Michele Ciacciofera, Giorgio de Chirico, Eric de Nemes, Angelo de Riz, Valentine de Saint-Point, Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Dufy, Louis-Emile Durandelle, François Z. Eberl, Inji Efflatoun, J. Enrietti, Leonor Fini, Yona Friedman, Ali Hegazy, Georges Henein, Pierre Jahan, Abdul Kader El-Janabi, Marc Janson, Fouad Kamel, Ida Kar, Germaine Krull, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Stanislao Lepri, Louis Ernest Lessieux, André Lothe, Antoine Malliarakis said Mayo, Joyce Mansour, Ibrahim Massouda, Mohamed Naghi, Marguerite Nakhla, Jean Painlevé, Samir Rafi, Khadiga Riaz, Yasser Rustum, Lothar Schreyer, Wael Shawky, Salah Taher, Virginia Tentindo, Kees Van Dongen, Amédée Vignola, Alphonse Visconti, Adham Wanly, Seif Wanly, Ramsès Younan…