The fourth iteration of Forever is Now once again transcended time and cultural boundaries at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza, with 12 works by artists from different countries. Here's a closer look at some of the installations.
Forever is Now 04 (FIN 04) once again invites us on a "voyage of discovery". For the past four years, this flagship contemporary art exhibition, initiated by Art d'Égypte / Culturvator, has been reviving the spirit of ancient Egyptian civilization. This annual event celebrates the Giza pyramids and the surrounding plateau, a UNESCO World Heritage site dating back 4,500 years.
The fourth edition, which ran from October 24 to November 16, invites us to contemplate "the inexhaustible human quest for meaning". Twelve artists slipped into the shoes of archaeologists, using creativity as a tool to "reconsider the familiar, elevate the ordinary and find treasures hidden in plain sight".
Visitors followed this process, discovering installations designed with unconventional materials, reminding us that "like archaeology, art requires an eye for the unexpected and the courage to celebrate the mundane".
PARTICIPATORY EXPERIMENTS
Forever is Now 04 maintains this desire to build a culture of interconnectivity, where perspectives change and interpretations evolve. The themes explored transcendence, hope and faith rooted in the ancient Egyptian worldview.
" This year is particularly special, as it's the first time we're presenting artists from Asia, opening up new dialogues and connections across borders," explains Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, founder of Art d'Égypte.
This event thus continues to trace and explore the past, grounded in the belief that there is no conception of the future without history. "We examine the narrative of past achievements to question, find inspiration and understand the nature and purpose of successive generations," she reaffirms.
FROM ANTIQUE TO IA
The major innovation of this year's edition is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time, through two parallel projects. Starting with Egyptian-American designer Hassan Ragab, who has linked technology and traditional art. His installation Identity Oblivious, supported by Mark Zuckerberg's company Meta, expresses the idea that AI can help expand the realm of creative expression.
Saudi artist Daniah Al Saleh focused instead on a ten-minute video project. Evanesce revisits the golden age of Egyptian cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s. Part research, part machine learning, the work reimagines the experience of watching these classic films, which shaped collective memories and perceptions of reality. In doing so, it challenges the norms around fashion, love and self-expression.
A PATH OF PEACE AND TRANSFORMATION
Padma / Lotus is the first installation by an Indian artist. In her work, Shilo Shiv Suleman fuses Eastern and Western symbols to create immersive installations that represent a rebirth of consciousness. Her art, rooted in pre-colonial India, bridges magical realism, art, nature, culture, technology, feminine energy and social justice. Here, she takes her inspiration from the blue lotus flower, offering a space of connection and peace. Her work, composed of 10 brass lotuses handcrafted by artisans in India, uses pulse sensors to visualize visitors' heartbeats, inviting them to synchronize them together. Padma / Lotus is an evolution of her other work, Pulse and Bloom, shown at Burning Man in 2014.
For her part, Athenian artist Nassia Inglessis likes to disobey the limits of our physical existence. Her sculptures take shape and are transformed by human interaction. Her work Liquid Solid imagines a journey into the past to form a vision of the future that unites the human, the technological and the elemental. Here, she treats desert sand as a liquid solid to reveal the liquid essence beyond the solidity of pyramids.
FORCE OF THE ELEMENTS
British artist Chris Levine works in the field of light art and spatial perception. He uses light to imbue his works with a spiritual and meditative touch. His installation Quadrivium, inspired by the Great Pyramid of Cheops, explores the ancient study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and sound. Elements essential to understanding the Universe, as he reminds us. His contemplative space thus unites the spiritual and the mathematical, inviting the viewer to probe the universal truths rooted in the Giza plateau.
Jean Boghossian is more of a specialist in the art of fire. The burnt canvases and sculptures of this Belgian artist, of Lebanese-Armenian origin, bear witness to the transformative power of flame, representing both destruction and creation. His sculpture Desert Waves embodies the theme of excavation, establishing an architectural and symbolic dialogue with the surrounding landscape through large undulating steel plates. This juxtaposition reflects the way pyramid artifacts harmonize with the natural desert landscape. In this way, his work echoes the enduring spirit of the Renaissance.
BOAT TRIP
French artist Jean-Marie Appriou uses sculptural materials to create fantastical worlds inhabited by human, animal and plant figures. His Vessel of Time installation, made from Nile clay, was inspired by the solar boat of Khufu, discovered on the Giza plateau. The boat evokes the boats buried near royal tombs, which carried the resurrected dead across the heavens. A child accompanies the sculpture, representing the link between past, present and future.
Xavier Mascaró chooses to integrate architecture, design and sculpture in his works, which often interact with the environment. For his creation Exodus, the Spanish and Latin American sculptor and painter draws inspiration from ancient iconography, where the boat had a ritual role, as a means of passage from one life to another, in the image of Egyptian funerary boats. In this way, his work plays with perspectives and perceptions, relating to the present, to the passing of time and to our memory. Like an imaginary archaeology of the present, seen from the future.
FROM NATURE TO THE COSMOS
Jake Michael Singer, based in South Africa, fuses sculpture, photography and painting, focusing on materiality, myth and catharsis. His work explores the tension between natural landscapes and urban environments. The installation We Will Meet Again in the Sky reflects the juxtaposition of the ancient sacred desert of the Giza plateau with modernity, prompting viewers to rethink their relationship with nature and history. Here, the bird in flight symbolizes the divine rooted in Egyptian cosmology. In his words, gods and spirits were often represented as anthropomorphic beings linked to the natural elements. This choice of avian forms pays homage to this iconography and to the spirit of ancient divinities.
We close with the work of Federica Di Carlo. The Italian artist examines the deep connection with nature and the cosmos in a relationship between the human, the environment, borders, power and the unknown. Her installation I See, I See is a fusion of the scientific and the mystical, symbolizing the infinite possibilities of life and invisible energies. A large Eye of Horus/Ra, composed of thousands of graduated optical lenses, is placed between the viewer and the landscape of the Pyramids of Giza, becoming a vantage point for different and unexpected visions.
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