Out Of The Circle Organization

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Out Of The Circle Organization

We are an Art Entity based in Cairo, Egypt.

We work on digital and new media art through Exhibitions, Art events, Art Residency and international promoting for North African artists. We connect Egyptian and North African artists to the global scene by helping them secure enriching opportunities abroad, and in turn organize artist residencies for international artists in Egypt. Out of the Circle also curates exhibitions and festivals on seve

ral scales, while also providing arts management and curatorial support to other artistic entities in Egypt. In parallel, we also conduct ongoing research projects and compile databases on digital and new media art to better understand and support these mediums. We will keep you updated here with our news, open calls, and opportunities for New Media and digital art in Egypt and the region.

10/05/2026

We are thrilled to welcome this month Farah Salem our new artist in residence. 🤍

Farah is an interdisciplinary artist and somatic art therapist; these two practices exist independently, yet are intertwined as her professional training informs her artistic inquiry of how trauma manifests in the body. Her visual arts practice rooted in photography expands through video, performance and installation finding subtle affinities between geologic time, somatic movement, gendered trauma, and Arabian Peninsula ceremonial healing rituals. Through relational merging and mapping of human and geologic bodies, she envisions their liberation by examining themes of agency, making the invisible visible, and the potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning.

She holds an MA in Art Therapy and Counseling from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Farah’s work has been featured at Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Expo Chicago Art Fair, Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago) American University Museum Katzen Art Center (Washington DC), Patel Brown (Toronto), United Photo Industries (New York), Centro Cultural De Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Paris Contemporary Art Fair. Farah is the recipient of the 2024 3Arts Award, and is the 2017 Laureate Winner: International Women Photographers Award.

During her residency, Farah will be deepening her research into healing rituals of the Arabian Peninsula which spread through migration and cross-cultural exchange, centering a relationship with the earth. She will be looking into aspects of healing rituals which rely on objects crafted through local materials and techniques—fiber, clay, pigment, metal, and natural matter—each carrying symbolic and healing resonance. Her aim is to broaden and enrich her current study with new perspectives beyond the Arabian Peninsula. She is particularly interested in how these practices connect land, body, and material, and how they evolve across geographies, migrations, and ecological change.

Welcome, Farah. We can’t wait to see where this research takes you. ✨

Portrait photo credit: Tamara Hijazi

24/04/2026

It is a pleasure having Liina Leo with us this month at Out Of The Circle.

Liina Leo is an Estonian multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the transformative power of the unseen. Her practice navigates liminal spaces between life and death, light and darkness, dreams and reality.

She holds a BA in Textile Design from the Estonian Academy of Arts and an MA in Contemporary Photography from Central Saint Martins. Liina approaches image-making as an alchemical process, focusing on its hidden material conditions rather than representation alone. Through site-specific performances, photography, and moving image, she reflects on experiences of alienation — using ritual as a tool for transformation and the search for self-identity.

This month, Liina’s research engages with ancient sites and the rapidly transforming urban landscape of Cairo. Through this encounter with both past and present, she critically explores the symbolic and esoteric dimensions of cultural memory, focusing on storytelling, beliefs, and rituals surrounding the afterlife.

14/04/2026

Out Of The Circle is thrilled to be participating in Supermarket, Stockholm Independent Art Fair.

Supermarket is a vibrant platform that brings together art initiatives from around the world.

At SUPERMARKET 2026, Out of the Circle presents ‘Light Node’, an exhibition by Aya El Fallah, Esraa Elfeky, and Mina Nasr, curated by Elham Khattab.

Through painting, drawing and digital media, the artists explore storytelling as a source of light and resilience, where hope and belonging shine through uncertainty.

Come visit us at Out Of The Circle booth from 23 - 26 April in Supermarket independent art fair!

Supermarket Art Fair Esraa Ismail Elfeky Aya Elfallah Mina Nasr

22/03/2026

We are so happy to have Fatima Lahham with us at Out of the Circle this month! 🎉

Fatima is a musician and researcher based in South-East London, UK. Her work embraces improvised music on the recorder and with her voice, research using creative and participatory methods, and facilitation work creating spaces for people to make and sound together. Her solo recorder album bulbul on FS Records draws on improvisation and poetry to tell stories about birds, voices, home, and the spaces in between.

Currently a Hallsworth Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, Fatima is working on a project called Carrying Each Others’ Hearts with Our Ears, about music-making practices, community and healing justice. Her first book, Improvising Otherwise, was published in 2025.

✨ About her residency:
Fatima joined us in March 2026 to develop a new project combining sound, visual art, and creative research. She is experimenting with how sound and music can be represented in zines—drawing inspiration from the dafatir (notebooks) tradition used in the works of Dia al-Azzawi and other Iraqi artists, who created folding notebooks that expand and contract, containing words alongside artwork.

During her time in Cairo, Fatima is diving into the local zine scene, creating field recordings across the city, and making recordings of her own improvisations in different spaces. Through collage, sketching, and printing, she is crafting sound(ing) maps that can be read, looked at, and listened to—inviting creative experiences of time, space, and sound.

We can’t wait to see where this exploration takes her! 🗺️🎧

Her arts residency is supported by the University of Manchester.

13/01/2026

We are pleased to announce the artistic residency for composer and conductor W***y Merz. With a significant career spanning Europe, Merz has established himself as a versatile and committed figure in contemporary music.

Merz studied composition under Goffredo Petrassi and Franco Donatoni, and conducting under Ferdinand Leitner, in Milan, Siena, and Paris. His recognition includes winning the International Composition Competition in Freiburg i. Ue. His music has been performed by artists such as Thomas Demenga, Alexander Lonquich, and Cecilia Gasdia, and by ensembles including the Camerata Bern and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. His work is further documented through CD releases on the Stradivarius and Almendra labels, and he has held composer-in-residence positions at institutions including the Cité des Arts in Paris.

A core tenet of his work is the goal to “recreate a relationship between the contemporary artist and the society and community around him.” This arts residency in Cairo is a direct extension of this philosophy, aiming to “create a link across the Mediterranean, promote musicians from the Arab classical tradition, and develop joint projects”—a continuation of his collaborative work as artistic consultant for the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

During this residency, Merz will engage with the Egyptian soundscape to inform new compositions. These developments are intended to contribute to future programming season at the Fondazione Merz in Turin, where he serves as Artistic Director for music.

***yMerz

16/12/2025

We are delighted to welcome artist Wendell Smith as our December Artist-in-Residence.

Smith, who holds an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, is known for his practice of moderating intercultural dialogues between the Caribbean and North America. His distinguished career is marked by significant honors including a Fulbright Scholarship, an Artist Fellowship Grant, and a Puffin Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. He has further developed his global perspective through residencies in Havana, Mexico City, Athens, and Colombia, and his scholarly research on arts curriculum design has been published in academic journals. Publications include: Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters, Journal of Africana Studies and Seadly, New Art International. His scholarly activities focused on research into the design of curriculum for Caribbean higher education in the arts to meet the needs of the global art market. It has been published by Caribbean Educational Research Journal.

His work probes the questions of existence, the human relationship to both the interior (psychological) and exterior (physical) worlds that define our fundamental human experience. As an observer to the drama of human history, narratives of survival, love, and power to endure are at the heart of his expression.

We are honored to welcome Wendell Smith!

28/11/2025

Open Call: Local Cultural Guide for Out of the Circle 🗺️🎨

We are looking for a passionate Cairo-based guide to become the cultural bridge for our artists! If you live and breathe the history and creative energy of this city, this is for you.

🌟 This is a fantastic opportunity for fresh graduates!

📍 Location: Cairo, Egypt
📅 Position: Part-time Local Guide (up to 3 days a week)
⏳ Application Deadline: December 10th
🗓️ Start Date: Thursday, December 18th

We’re looking for someone who:
✅ Holds a university degree (an Art background is a plus!). Fresh graduates are strongly encouraged to apply.
✅ Has deep knowledge of Egypt’s historical landmarks and cultural scene.
✅ Is advanced in English with excellent communication skills.
✅ Is a quick-thinking people-person, comfortable with diverse cultural backgrounds.
✅ Is physically able to walk long distances and is flexible to work on weekends.
✅ Is enthusiastic about representing Egypt’s richness and supporting artists.

The salary for this position is set at an entry level, making it an ideal opportunity for fresh graduates to gain valuable professional experience in the cultural field.

How to Apply:
Please submit the following to: [email protected]
✉️ Subject of the email: For Local Guide

Required documents:

· A CV with your contact information (email & mobile)
· A short cover letter explaining your interest and relevant experience

Join us in creating an unforgettable cultural experience! We can’t wait to hear from you.

23/11/2025

We are thrilled to announce our new Artist in Residence in Nov/Dec 2025

Stephanie O’Connor
Painter and multidisciplinary artist, USA

Stephanie lived for two months in Tetouan, Morocco and in Paros, Greece where she visited the archaeology site of Delos. She is interested in early world history and myth which is reflected in a body of ongoing research and drawings. With her non figurative paintings, she copies textile patterns and transforms them into pieces of custom designed cloth with industrial printing techniques. Her work participated in two runway shows and a third next year for exhibition in Italy.

With the Out of the Circle, Stephanie is glad to learn more about Egyptian Architecture, Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology. This early world history is particularly interesting to her because it provides a source of visuals that she inspires her to create her chthonic paintings. While trying to understand a place from this perspective, she realizes the mythology is connected to the nature and elements of the land. She was recently published in Curatory Magazine Vol.7.

14/08/2025

✨ Connecting Roots: Collective Stories, Individual Identities
20 Years of the CrossCulture Programme
🗓 Exhibition: 1 August – 21 September 2025
📍 ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen

We are honoured to announce Connecting Roots: Collective Stories, Individual Identities, marking 20 years of the CrossCulture Programme (CCP). Curated by our director Elham Khattab and co-curator by Omar Chennafi. The exhibition explores memory in its many forms – from diasporic narratives to historical remembrance to personal paths of healing.

We had an amazing opening weekend filled with activities – from sound performances and contemporary dance to hands-on workshops, our Roots Kitchen gathering, and a Sonic Map Walking Tour.

📣 Join us for the closing weekend, 19–21 September, with even more activities and artists coming together to celebrate memory, identity, and shared cultural roots.

The exhibition brings together 15 artists from 10 countries – including 7 CCP alumni – to reflect on memory & identity, collective healing, the environment, and future-oriented remembrance.

With contributions by: Aneek Mustafa Anwar, Ashot Danielyan, Farah Khelil, Izz Aljabari, Jorge Ernesto Barrón, M’hammed Killito, Mohamed Thara, Monon Muntaka, Qafar Rzayev, Said El Haddaji, Sameh Al Tawil, Souad Mani, Yara Mekawei, Yassine Alaoui Ismaili (Yoriyas), Zahra Amber.

🌿 How can our personal roots become part of a shared future? How can memory guide us towards a more inclusive world?

📌 Stay tuned for more about the artists and their works throughout the exhibition!
Exhibition is Open daily at ifa Galerie Stuttgart.

.de .visualarts .mani

22/03/2025

Out Of The Circle at TransCultural Exchange Conference in Boston ✨

We are excited to share that Out Of The Circle participated in the TransCultural Exchange Conference, held at The Foundry in Cambridge, Boston. Our founder and director, Elham Khattab, presented our work and arts residency program, alongside portfolio reviews for international artists.

Beyond presenting, our founder had the opportunity to connect with inspiring colleagues from around the world, foster cross-cultural dialogue, exchange ideas, and learn from diverse artistic and residency models.

Among many exchanges, it was also a great pleasure to meet with representatives from the Thami Mnyele Foundation in the Netherlands, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and many colleagues from around the world.

This trip was made possible with the generous support of the ifa Institute CrossCulture Program Alumni Grant and Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester—a heartfelt thank you for enabling this meaningful exchange!

Special thanks to Mary Sherman and the entire team of the TransCultural Exchange Conference

.de .mnyele.foundation

18/02/2025

We are happy to welcome this month Sara Alhindi from Kuwait.
Writer | Independent Curator | Artist

Sara Alhindi was shaped by associative thinking, inspired by the intersection of the humanities: literature, arts, and music. She loves for them to exist within a single context, in a unified spatial experience such as exhibitions, museums, and public spaces. For this reason, she pursued (cultural experience design) and constantly strives for it as a way of life. Just as she is inspired by the intersection of arts in the field, she also practices the intersection of (mixed materials) in the studio. She loves reassembling texts, dried flowers, collage, clippings, journaling, freehand drawing, photographs, and the integration of different materials. At this stage, she wishes to learn, for her style to develop technically, or perhaps to explore new artistic methods that had never crossed her mind.

Therefore, she decided to place herself in a new inspiring environment (Cairo this time), in an Arab country rich and full of life like Egypt, hoping she could draw from Egypt’s artistic history and contemporary reality. She seeks to read the experiences and research of art curators in their fields, visit artists’ studios, learn from their techniques and experiences, read them closely, and understand how they mastered their tools so that she can return to her own tools with fulfillment.

‎يسعدنا هذا الشهر أن نرحب بسارة الهندي من الكويت.
‎كاتبة | قيّمة مستقلة | فنانة

‎سارة الهندي جبلت على التفكير التشعبي، يلهمها تداخل الإنسانيات: الأدب والفنون والموسيقى، وتحب أن يكونوا في سياق واحد، بتجربة مكانية واحدة كالمعارض والمتاحف والمرافق العامة، لذلك امتهنت (تصميم التجارب الثقافية) وتسعى لها دائمًا وهي أسلوب حياة.

‎لذا قررت أن تضع نفسها في بيئة ملهمة جديدة (القاهرة هذه المرة) بدولة عربية غنية ومليئة بالحياة مثل مصر، لعلها تستطيع أن تنهل من التاريخ الفني والواقع المعاصر المصري، تقرأ تجارب وأبحاث المنسقين الفنيين في ميادينهم، وتزور مراسم الفنانين، تتعلم من أساليبهم وتجاربهم وتقرأهم عن قرب، وكيف تمكنوا من أدواتهم كي تستطيع العودة إلى أدواتها بامتلاء.

Address

Cairo

Website

https://linktr.ee/outofthecircle

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