The Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, known as D-CAF, returns for its 14th edition from 11 October to 2 November, with artists from Egypt, the Arab world and beyond. The programme includes 16 performances across theatre, dance, visual arts and music, along with six workshops and seven special events. Serbian artist Marina Abramović is among the names on the bill.
D-CAF was founded in 2012 by Ahmed El-Attar, who remains artistic director, with Yasmeen Fahim serving as executive manager and co-artistic director. Fahim credited the festival’s survival to the “grit, determination, passion and labour” of its team, artists, partners and funders. El-Attar said this edition treats Cairo as more than a backdrop, presenting the city as a place where audiences meet artworks, buildings and one another from new angles.
The visual arts strand opened on 11 October with Natural Scenes by Egyptian artist Nermine El-Ansari at Villa Violette, the festival’s first show at that venue, presented with Mashrabia Gallery. A comics exhibition, Whenever We Cross, runs at the Shourbagy Building from 16 October. Italian artist Jacopo Valentini shows his work at Soba Arts Hub from 18 to 25 October, and Ayman Khoury presents Tulun Mosque at Beit Tulun. On 30 October, Abramović presents Seven Deaths at Legacy Gallery on the American University in Cairo’s Tahrir Square campus.
Rawabet Art Space hosts most of the performing arts. Tá Brón Orm, an Egypt and Northern Ireland co-production, and The Fallen play there on 13 and 14 October before moving to Alexandria’s Jesuit Cultural Centre on 16 October. Later dates bring Everynothing from Northern Ireland and Palestine, Three Seasons and A Body from Palestine, the Lebanese-French Record from 28 to 30 October, and the Egyptian production Masna3 El Dramaturg on 31 October. Hungarian artist Imre Vass leads a dance workshop at Villa Victoria, where Reading the Room is staged on 16 and 17 October.
Special events include a Narrating Palestine panel at the French Institute on 24 October, an off-site AFLAM film programme on 25 October and a French electronic music night on 29 October. A professional strand at Studio Emad Eddin includes a workshop by Spain’s Alejandro de los Santos on entering the international performing arts market. With venues ranging from established institutions to historic buildings, the festival continues to use downtown Cairo itself as part of the experience.
