blog: The Ganzeer Arts Collective - Erratic Fantastic

The minds behind this rather long overdue advancement in the Arab design belong to Ganzeer, who describe themselves as a ‘new experimental design unit’. Based out of Cairo, the Ganzeer team and their mishmash of talents combine together to produce and present their new creative expression to the world. Speaking to Mohammed Fahmy - the creative/visual expert and founder of Ganzeer, and Mohammed El-Motasem - creator of all film/motion based projects, we were able to get an insight into the inner workings of these crazy cats from Cairo.

Fahmy is the instigator for Ganzeer, who decided to start something new after spending his time working for an internet company. Tired by being chained to his desk, he longed to branch out into his own space, an inventive, new space where art could be created and new ventures could be born.

Upon asking them what kind of message they initially wanted to communicate through Ganzeer, their list was no small matter, reflecting the many scopes and genres they had no qualms in developing. Fahmy (code name ‘Mofa’) states the aims of the collective as, “Healthier lifestyles, positive attitudes, activism, making the world better, and love”. El-Motasem (code name ‘Tasem) fared no better in finding a single message that Ganzeer emitted, “Rebelliousness, activism, pro-activity and awareness - especially political awarenes”.



With all these purposes and aims to achieve, it is no surprise that Ganzeer have such a vast and varied portfolio. A look at their website gives you an idea of the exhaustive amount of projects they have lent their creativity to. What’s more impressive is the flexibility and the wide range of projects they can adapt to, there appears to be no bounds to their talent - the section on their project list marked ‘Misc.’ alone will intimidate you. Their projects range from producing corporate branding to producing murals to be used as interiors in public stores and restaurants.



Speaking to Fahmy about the need for Ganzeer in the regional market, he described his reasonings into three different motivations. “I’ve always had a belief that you can create awesome art that truly communicates and brings out the positive in audiences via the usual commercial venues. That was one angle, the other was a desire in creating a true synergy between the arts; architecture, graphic design, photography, music etc - everything at its core is very much related, and when these different mediums interconnect and merge on different projects, the outcome can be astoundingly awesome. The third drive was a desire to bring out the local cultures to the scene. These cultures are part of our make, and play a strong part in shaping our characters and lifestyles and mindsets”.

ganzeer.com

Profile: Noun Ya

Since 2004, Naissam JALAL & Yann PITTARD perform together their "mystical and erotical" music from Extreme-East to Extreme-West (Cairo, Paris, festival Jazz à Vannes...).
They’ve developed some original orchestration’s technic : they’re only TWO but you can hear more (sometimes playing oud like a percussion, singing and blowing at the same time, with live loops...).
There’s NO synthetiser and NO pre-recorded samples, just live performing.

They also work with Rayess_bek, orchestral hip-hop from Middle-east.
Individually, they perform with several bands from Mexico to Tokyo via Cairo, Beirut and Kolkata.

check out the video on their myspace.

www.myspace.com/nounyamusic

Persepolis

"’What we wanted to say is, if these people [Iranians, Muslims] scare you, look closer: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories,’ Marjane Satrapi told The Associated Press in an interview at a Cannes beach cafe. "Satrapi added: ‘The only real divide in this world is between the idiots and non-idiots.’" Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis, one of the 22 films in the Cannes Film Festival’ Official Competition line-up, is based on Satrapi’s own experiences while growing up in Iran in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Some of the voices heard in the French-language version of the animated tale belong to Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, and Chiara Mastroianni (as Satrapi), Deneuve’s daughter with Marcello Mastroianni.

Hayv Kahraman

Hayv Kahraman was born in Baghdad, Iraq 1981 and moved to Sweden at the age of 11. She began painting in oil at the age of 12 and soon after had several successful exhibitions in Sweden.



www.hayfdesign.com

Fashion: Araman Studio

www.aramanstudio.com

Lamia Asudari

Origin|Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Active|Lonon, UK

Lamia Asudari has dreamed of becoming a fashion designer for very long time. After arriving in the UK from Saudi Arabia at the age of nine, her love for making and creating turned into a full time obsession. After studying a Theatre and Costume Design course at the American University of Cairo, Asudari was finally able to indulge in her design passion by enrolling in a Fashion Print degree at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. For Asudari, London proved to be the important creative outlet needed to start her design quest, something she feels would not have been achievable had she stayed within the Middle East.
After Completing an 18 Month stint at the institutional fashion label Alexander McQueen, Asudari learnt to apply important clothing manufacturing techniques to her designs. These proved to be important defining techniques that would allow her designs to stand out from the rest.
Asudari's collection is modern style at its very best. Nonetheless, she has not left her cultural roots out of the design mix, instead combining the two contrasting worlds to create styles that are brimming with fluidity and modernity.

Spring/Summer 2008

Axiom Abbayas 2007

Photographer Extraordinaire-Mine Kasapoglu

Our rare find is a Turkish photographer who doubles as a snowboarding champion and is famous on all levels. The rare find in question is Mine Kasapolgu.When she is not taking captivating photos for a range of publications, events and advertisements, she can be found on a snow-covered mountain range, perfecting her skills that earned her the Turkish Snowboard Champion title this year.

Mine's photography manages to portray her subjects on an entirely different level. Even a humble image such as a golfing rage will be transformed into an otherworldly landscape through her camera lens. Nevertheless, she is still searching for the perfect balance between capturing the image through her eyes and her camera lens.

Mine's sees her work as a never-ending endeavor. As long as the world continues to present her with people, places and anything else it wants to throw in her way, Mine will be there on and behind the scenes doing what she loves best. "I am trying to find out what it is inside me that needs to take photographs and why? In the end trying to answer that question makes things more complicated so I find it easier to let myself go free behind the camera and just try to feel."

She really must love those feelings.

Amer Kokh

The talented 28 years old Jordanian artist and animator Amer Kokh, is one of the master minds in the region behind hit cartoon series Meawo and Shabiyet Al Cartoon.His project Jahannam started 6 years ago planning to turn it into a short movie, Kokh studied each character individually and story lines carefully, and have built a great team to bring his dreams to life.