News


Research 

Preparations 

After some intense months and two exhibitions in a row I am currently focusing and research and preparing for upcoming projects - to be announced in spring. During this phase I am also busy with administrative work, archival matters and the Fayoum Art Center. If you have project proposals get in touch. 

Text Contribution 

Stéphanie Baechler: Image Vehicles  

Swiss artists Stéphanie Baechler held a three month residency in Cairo, Egypt, with Pro Helvetia. At the end of her residency she made a limited edition risograph publication with a text contributions by Egyptian visual artist Donia Fares and myself. The publication was released during her open studio at ARD in Cairo. 

Fayoum Art Center & Sawiris Foundation

stARTing point art residency 

stARTing point art residency is a residency designed for young Egyptian artists at the beginning of their career. It is held at the Fayoum Art Center and sponsored by the Sawiris Foundation by Social Development. 
This year is the first year this residency takes place. Out of more than 500 applicants a professional jury has chosen two young sculptors for a three months residency in Fayoum and two young painters for a two months residency in Fayoum. For each section the young talents get Egyptian and international mentors. I am responsible for choosing the international mentors to come to Fayoum and briefing and coordinating everything with them. 


Selected projects and exhibitions


Fayoum Art Center 


Residencies 

The Fayoum Art Center offers different kinds of art residencies. We offer different housing options and several studios. Artists or institutions can contact us for project proposals and ideas for residency programs. Most recently we embark on a new adventure collaborating with the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development to offer young Egyptian artists new opportunities upon their graduation. 

For more information you can contact me here


Winter Academy 

The annual Winter Academy was founded by Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla in 2006. The idea was inspired by the International Summer Academy in Salzburg. The academy is an open gate for cultural exchange on a common artistic ground. An expanded studio for artist to meet, collaborate and interact to develop new ideas. 

You can find more information here


Mohamed Abla

Sisyphus, September - October 2022, Galerie Takhshīna², Goethe Institute Cairo
Curated by Noura Simoni-Abla

Sisyphus is a sculpture by Mohamed Abla, inspired by the old greek mythology. It was made for a public space in the city of Walsrode in northern Germany, where it stands until today. It is no secret that the artist sees this sculpture as a symbol for his life and his personality in many ways. It is also a very real metaphor for his artistic journey finding new creative ways to express his ideas everyday, no matter how steep the path may get. He arrived to Germany in early 1978 and has not stopped since to try to understand the Western culture and way of life while underlining his identity as an Eastern and Egyptian artist. Mohamed Abla repeatedly states that it is impossible to just give half your life to art, you must give your whole life to it. He's a living example of his own statement: his life is his art and his art is his life. Since 1993 when he won a public competition and Sisyphus was erected a lot has happened. The recent recognition for his life's work with the prestigious Goethe Medal called the artist to remember his journey and to look back on various important stops along the way. The exhibition Sisyphus sheds light on Abla's artistic journey, giving viewers a rare opportunity to dive into a dialogue between the artist's personal archive and a selection of his work.The exhibition tells the story of a great loss and a new beginning, the story of a nile lover, the story of an Egypt enthusiast - the story of a never tiring artist. 

Photo: Mohamed Abla, Sysiphus, 2022,Galerie Takhshīna², Goethe Institute Cairo, photography: Elphotographita

Mohamed Abla

Keeping Words, August - September 2022, Galerie Eigenheim, Weimar
Curated by Noura Simoni-Abla

Keeping Words brings together the main subjects of Mohamed Abla’s extensive oeuvre, showcasing a selection of works on paper, created between 1999 and 2015. Seen together, these works reveal secrets of different techniques and provide compelling insight into his diverse body of work.Mohamed Abla‘s work is both diverse and extensive, bringing together a thoughtful, research-based practice presented in a wide variety of mediums. From realistic landscapes to works of abstract pointillism, that needs a good amount of imagination to dive into, you can find everything hidden in his studio. While he might not have an obvious style that defines him, he has a strong focus that leads him: stories and people. Each story needs a new style and technique to be told and every person has their own characteristics, this is how his work comes together.Keeping Words showcases works that Abla started creating after a long journey through Europe. When Abla travelled back to Egypt to settle there he was overwhelmed by the masses of people and the many stories that could be told. He started to paint multitudes of people in a process of self discovery. Through this process he started to wander between the masses - a journey that brought him closer to the Egyptian people, their stories, and struggles. Building bridges between them and the wider world by illuminating their realities became the leading force behind Abla’s art. Making art is like writing a diary or putting together an archive of everyday life in Egypt; sometimes this happens almost literally and words and phrases start finding their way into a painting. Like the works in this exhibition one can find word plays, observations, his feelings, or even explanations - sometimes put into a context and at others intentionally warped of it. Many of the paintings comment on the realities and the social and political changes in his home country. Abla borrowed headlines from newspapers and excerpts of articles, piecing them together to start playing with their aesthetics. Mixing different mediums allows him to bring different subjects and layers onto just one page of his diary.Using Arabic script is a very deliberate decision to mix the energy of its letters with a long standing tradition of the use of calligraphy in Islamic Art. In Abla’s opinion, mixing images and words creates a harmony that either pleases the eye or has a destabilising effect - either way it creates movement and an interaction with the works. Those who read Arabic may wonder about the end of certain sentences, or notice the absurdity of the missing connection between words and images. Viewers who don’t read the language create a stronger bond with the personalities and visuals in the stories. Those personalities appear in many forms and shapes, depicted with a variety of techniques. His figures either stand strong for themselves, or hide amidst Cairo’s urban chaos, though their vitality and movements are always present. You will find a group of people, a family or just one character, always part of a bigger context and a longer story. While photography creates a personal connection to single characters, his figurative paintings are deliberately less personal and meant to represent the shared stories of Egyptian people. Mohamed Abla invites us to dive into the world of his stories and his characters and to decode his symbols.

The exhibition was curated by Noura Simoni-Abla and presented at Galerie Eigenheim in Weimar in cooperation with the Goethe Institute as well as the Kunstfest Weimar.  

Photo: Mohamed Abla, Keeping Words, 2022,Galerie Eigenheim Weimar, Courtesy the artist

Christine Streuli 

Lange Arme, kurze Beine, March - July 2020, Kunstmuseum Thun 
exhibition and publication management by Noura Simoni-Abla

Streuli’s wide-ranging œuvre beguiles the eye with vibrantly coloured, mostly monumental all-over paintings, which draw from a rich vocabulary of symbols, quotations, patterns, motifs and ornaments. Through their multiple layers, the colour-intensive, energy-charged works convey a feeling of both order and chaos at once. They mesmerise and tempt viewers in for a closer look, while at the same time raising topical questions regarding the nature and craft of painting and how we deal with all the imagery we are inun- dated with in our daily surroundings.
The exhibition Lange Arme, kurze Beine offers a comprehensive experience of Christine Streuli’s various working methods. Different levels and timeframes interact here. In the process, the new works provoke questions regarding original versus copy, and raise issues of value, valuation and revaluation.

Photo: Christine Streuli, Lange Arme, kurze Beine, 2020, Mixed Media on wall and canvas, 550 x 2301 cm, Courtesy Mark Müller, Zürich und Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg / Beirut und die Künstlerin, Photography: David Aebi 

Cantonale Berne Jura

The Cantonale Berne Jura was launched in 2011 and is characterised by intercantonal collaboration. Spread out to different institutions, it offers artists from both cantons an important and wide platform and presents a wide variety of artistic works to the public. The exhibition takes place at the end of each year. Artists from the cantons of Berne and Jura are eligible to apply and each institution chooses a a jury of experts to choose the works that will be presented. At the Kunstmuseum Thun the exhibition is curated thematically each year. I co-curated two editions of the exhibition. I was also in the expert jury, was responsible for the organisation and coordination with the different involved institutions, wrote exhibition texts, was the contact person for all the artists, installations and de-installations, as well as mediation walks through the exhibitions. 

Cantonale Berne Jura 2019

Im Wandel, December 2019 - February 2020 
Co-Curated , exhibition organisation, Jury member 


Cantonale Berne Jura 2020

White Out , December 2020 - February 2021
Co-Curated , exhibition organisation , Jury member 


The Seasonal State 

July - August 2015, Gallery One Ramallah
Co-Curated by Noura Simoni-Abla and Maha Alsharif  

The Seasonal State abstractly inserts the viewer into the timeless struggle existing between the infinite hope of a people and the all too often oppressive power which binds them. This selection of sketches and oil paintings by Usama Said is inspired by the seasonal nature of his work whilst the precarious state of being in his homeland, Palestine, acts as a backdrop. The Seasonal State links beautiful memories of a now-distant land with the shocking reality of life as it occurs today. Said was born in 1957 in the small town of Nahef, located between the Lower and Upper Galilee. In the early 1980s he packed his family’s history via stories handed down by his grandfather and images of the region’s natural landscapes and left for Germany.
Said started his artistic career with a degree in Fine Arts in Berlin. After graduating with high honours from Hochschule der Künste, he was granted several scholarships, awards, and residencies that encouraged and expanded his artistry whilst allowing his stay in Germany to last 16 years. Having painted for years while being abroad with only memories of Palestine, Said was struck by the painful reality of the Palestinian life upon his return. As a result of his discoveries, Said’s work portrays the different faces of nature. Upon closer examination however, viewers will find several layers of colour which present themes of memory and forgetfulness; identity and alienation; illusion and reality. The contrasting themes shown in the exhibited works all bear ties which from a collective idea presented as The Seasonal State.

Artist Management:
Mohamed Abla 

I manage the curatorial aspects of the work of Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla. This includes curating exhibitions, writing exhibition texts, translating texts and artist statements, writing press releases as well as managing his archive. This is an ongoing project.
The picture was taken in Venice , where Mohamed Abla was invited to paint a mural for the Salon Suisse collateral project of the Swiss Pavilion during the Architectural Biennale, organised by Pro Helvetia. 

Photo: © Ugo Carmeni, 2017 

Artist Estate:
Viktor Hermann  

The artist Viktor Hermann was a Swiss artist and art educator, who taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich, Zurich University of the Arts today for 22 years. He had a special interest in color theory which influenced his works including mediums like drawing, painting and woodcut prints. The artist passed away in April 2009, thereafter two books were published about his work as an artist as well as his work as a teacher and color theory researcher. After extensively working on his archive it is now housed at the library of the Zurich University of the Arts. Now I'm responsible for questions regarding the content of his work and will be assisting the university in filing and digitising parts of his archive to be available for research purposes. 

Services 

Feel free to contact me with project proposals and collaboration ideas. Here are some of the tasks I can assist you with or manage for you. 

Curating 

Curating exhibitions both solo and group shows as well as thematic exhibitions. 

Writing and Translating 

I write exhibition texts, press releases, articles and concepts in both English and German. Translation can be done for texts from English to German and vice versa or from Arabic to English and German. 

Art & Cultural Mediation 

I have both educational as well as practical experience in the field of art and cultural mediation. Not only exhibitions need a strong mediation program. I work on finding the right concept, implementing it and train others for future programs. 

Other 

Project Management
Artist Estate / Artist Management 
Archival work
Public relations and social media 



About Me

Curator & Art Mediator 

Noura Simoni-Abla is a curator and art mediator. She earned her M.A. in Curatorial Studies and Art Mediation from the Zurich University of the Arts. Abla is active in the arts and culture field in Switzerland as well as in Egypt, she managed the Fayoum Art Center’s Winter Academy amongst others. Her research focuses on cross-cultural dialogue and exchange, post-colonialism, contemporary museological practices as well as alternative histories and narratives of art. She held the position of curatorial assistant at the Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland where she managed, organised and co-curated exhibitions. She has also worked at Hauser & Wirth Zurich and Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. Currently she is the Artistic Director of the Fayoum Art Center in Egypt, and manages Mohamed Abla's work. She also works on her independent curatorial work. Noura lives and works between Zurich and Cairo.