(Re)writing Criticism is a six month writing-intensive program which aims to build on current practices of criticism in Egyptian contemporary culture. In bringing together international and local critics with budding writers and thinkers, the program seeks to broaden the scope of critical conversation in Cairo’s culture circuit.
Globally, the field of “art criticism” is reserved to a select few, and constructive criticism itself is often conducted in a language that alienates those not privy to the peculiarities of the art world’s foreign tongue. Given this, the “Rewriting Criticism” program will encourage participants to understand and decode this language, possibly for the purpose of dismantling it entirely to begin anew.

This program serves as a platform for participants to reflect on the current architecture of Egypt’s culture scene, taking advantage of exhibitions, openings, and performances occurring in 2017. In interacting with the wide array of events coloring the Egyptian cultural landscape, participants will be given the opportunity to opine and pen their thoughts on these activities using a fine-tuned critical lens.

In addition, the program will provide access to theoretical texts that comprise the canon of written criticism and ask students to respond to these materials utilizing their own language and interpretation. Equipped with the building blocks of critical writing, students will be encouraged to experiment with form, subvert traditional writing methods and tools, and employ new technologies that rattle current practices of criticism.

Ultimately, this endeavor aims to create a viable lexicon for cultural criticism. In reimagining the role of text today, this program seeks to reveal the emancipatory potential of language and to expand the bounds of textual interactions.