I walk into the dark theater on 937 Liberty Avenue and see nothing but the black outlines of auditorium seats.  It smells like wood and the rain from outside with a hint of Indian food, which I believe one of the artists brought in.  There is no one around, so I take a seat and relax.  Slowly, one by one, artists of all sorts begin to make their way into the theater, each enthusiastically introducing themselves to me. 

To me, an outsider just beginning to establish a connection with the project, it seems like the first workshop; however, it is the third in a series of three.  The first workshop was held in Egypt in August of 2010, before the revolution.  The second workshop was held, also in Egypt, in March 2011, during the revolution.  And the final workshop, which I was lucky enough to attend, was held in Pittsburgh from May 14-22 2011 from 1-7 p.m., post revolution.

As I begin to learn the names of these artists, I ask them simple questions about the workshop trying to get a feel for what they have been involved in.  One artist tells me they began inside, at the Bricolage Theater in downtown Pittsburgh, building trust through games that may seem silly to an outside viewer.  Once trust was established between the artists, they took their work outside to Phipps Conservatory, the Carnegie Mellon University campus, the streets of Braddock and downtown Pittsburgh, and our cities very own bridges.  They simply use the city of Pittsburgh as a landscape for their art, in this case, performance art.

These workshops act as a metaphorical tunnel because, “the commonality between artists on both sides of the tunnel, [in Egypt and in Pittsburgh] is that they’ve done this intensive workshop with me” explains Director Tavia La Follette.  The workshops help to build trust between the artists while simultaneously producing a language of peace.

One of the artists/art curators in the workshop was Katherine Talcott, a contracted curator who is known locally for working with the Three Rivers Arts festival, The Mattress Factory, Museum, Fe Gallery, and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  Once trust was built, the tunnel was opened for communication, Katherine and Tavia invited me to attend the first walk through of the space in the Mattress Factory annex.  We walked through each room and looked at the dimensions and the overall space to begin a conversation about which peaces would look right in which rooms.  Once I attended this walk through the parallel between the importance of movement in the workshops and the importance of movement between rooms in the exhibit space was made clear.

Story by Sarah Weiskopf (sweiskop @ skidmore.edu)

To view more photos from recent workshops visit our VISION page.

For more information about the video artist, Justin Salomone go to www.jaggedserenity.com

Today, Firefly Tunnel Artists packed it up and headed back to Cairo in preparation for their show on Sunday, March 13.

The last two days have been spent exploring the desert oasis through performance & installation art, while after dinner discussions have revolved around ideas of philosophical identity, theory & nationalism, and the malleable nature of revolution.

Wednesday's workshop featured a "street jam" in Fayoum, where Artists began using their new skills to perform inpromtu installations on their way to the town-side oasis lakefront, while Thursday took them a step further into the dramatic desert planes.

Several Artists were daunted by the desert's overpowering scale, commenting on the difficulties of attempting to harness something so grand. After some guidance from Executive Director Tavia La Follette, Artists found a rythm and learned how to become a part of the scenery- something that will definately benefit them as they look to perform throughout Cairo- a city of over 26 million people- in the coming days.

Incorporating the results from a previous puppeteering workshop as part of her teaching residency at Fayoumg Art Center, Tavia La Follette and her multinatinoal gang of Artists have spent the past week constructing a 5' x 2.5' ft mask and 2' x 2' hand out of paper mache. After several in-depth conversations, the group believes it is important to reinforce the idea of unity during Egypt's trying times through performance.

"If there is one thing that the people need right now, it is for everyone to understand that we are all Egyptian," one Egyptian Artist asserted, requesting that the group exhibit the puppet with only one hand to drive home the message of unity.

On the back of the puppet's shall will be written all the names of Egypt's 365 Revolutionary martyrs, while the mask's forehead will read "Nahdet Masr", Egypt's symbol for the 1950's Revolution which freed the country from an English-Turkish regime. 

Hoping to finish the tent-structure for three people to hide and operate the puppet by tomorrow, the puppet will tour around Cairo eleciting responses from the community on its way to the final exhibit.

The troup of 12 artists will spend tonight completing a "jam session" at Downtown Cairo's Windsor hotel in preparation as part of "Caricatures of the Revolution". The show starts 9:00 PM at Cairo's Atelier.

For more information about the show click HERE.

Firefly Tunnels kicked off its second Egyptian-based workshop for the Project yesterday, March 7, 2011. The workshop is part of Tavia La Follette’s two week teaching residency at Fayoum Art Center’s six week Winter Academy Program.

With 14 Egyptian artists missing due to concerns over security during the country’s Revolutionary transition period, 6 American artists (including a few visiting professors) were included to help build the final number of participation to 12.

The group was welcomed by Fayoum Art Center’s founder, Mohamed Abla. Abla explained how the Center was merely a dream ten years ago, “And like most things,” he said, “I had an idea, so I began to work towards making it happen.” 

In 1978, Abla was the youngest founding member of the Egyptian National Arts Syndicate, which acts as a kind of Union to the Ministry of Culture. Since its inception, Abla helped build the Syndicate to hold over 5,000 major entities, representing all walks of art in Egypt along the way.

“But it was not easy,” he said, “there is a reason for this revolution.” The Ministry had a strangle-hold on development, receiving kick-backs and embezzling funds to prevent young leaders from attaining maturity in their craft. The Syndicate fell into this powers structure, isolating visionaries like Abla from building a real national sensibility for the arts.

For instance, Abla is currently working to implement a new Board of Directors that will draft a new constitution to expunge old laws, like requiring at least 13 years of professional experience (including an MFA) to be invited onto the Syndicate.

“This does not represent art in Egypt,” Abla stated firmly. “There were lots of people not doing what they were supposed to, but we finally have the courage to make our country great again.”

The Fayoum Art Center was founded in 2005 after Abla was able to secure finances through his career as a political cartoonist. The Center was opened a year later, operating internationally since 2007. Recently, Abla opened the Middle East’s only Cartoon Museum featuring his very own personal collection. Abla’s final words, “We don’t need to be perfect because we learn from each other,” encapsulated his vision for the Center, which acted as the perfect introduction to the Firefly Tunnel workshop.

The afternoon was charged with excitement thanks to acknowledgement of the Egyptian Revolution, which Tavia La Follette hopes will inspire Americans to become more active in their governmental process. “What an incredible time to be working with Egyptian artists,” Tavia expressed, “we are honored to have this opportunity to work alongside of you at such a poignant moment in time.”

In six hours the artists were lead through a series of 7 mini-exercises that built ideas of trust and community over creativity, altogether helping expunge preconceptions about “the other” and revealing an inner attitude of universal language.

Artists will spend the next two days practicing their newfound skills in making performance & installation art in preparation for a live street demonstration in Tahrir Square, Friday, March 11.

Artwork made during this workshop and demonstration will be included in a dual exhibition at Atelier, a small studio/gallery in downtown Cairo. The show opens Sunday, March 13, 2011.

For more information about the Exhibit, see the event’s Facebook page HERE.