'Sightlines' Programme Explores How Art Shapes Urban Spaces

This autumn, Cairo-based institutes Megawra-BEC and BIAS-AME are joining forces to launch ‘Sightlines’, a multidisciplinary programme exploring how art reshapes our relationship with public and urban spaces. Running from September 18th to October 4th, the series features workshops, performances, screenings, and discussions across multiple venues in Cairo.

The programme opens with 'Writing on the Wall', a visual arts workshop led by Agnes Michalczyk at Megawra from September 18th to the 20th. Later in the month, performer Chirine al-Ansary leads 'Stories from Space to Body, and Back', a performance art workshop at al-Khalifa Community Center on September 25th to the 27th.

On October 2nd, Zawya Cinema hosts a film screening and discussion in collaboration with Maqamāt, a programme by ‘A Kiss in the Desert’. The following weekend, on October 4th, al-Khalifa Community Center will hold an international public symposium under the title 'Sightlines: Community, Place and Artistic Practice', bringing together artists from Egypt, Sudan, Senegal and Uganda to exchange perspectives on the role of art in shaping communities and public space.

BIAS-AME, short for Built-environment Institute for Applied Studies—Africa and Middle East, focuses on urban landscapes, climate change, and spatial justice. Megawra-BEC combines the expertise of Megawra, an architectural office specialising in conservation and heritage management, and the Built Environment Collective, an NGO focused on place-based cultural and urban development.

The programme is supported by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) through a grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.