Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery officially reopened at the end of September with an exhibition of photographs documenting the city by the locally based artist Bryony Dunne. The non-profit organisation is now holding all exhibitions in a new gallery in its Factory space–a converted paper factory that also hosts film screenings and workshops.
The leading contemporary art venue relocated after Egyptian armed police enforced the partial demolition of its main building in April. Some of the gallery had already collapsed.
Townhouse Gallery had struggled to reopen after Egyptian authorities closed it down in December 2015 amid a crackdown on freedom of speech. Even now, the venue is subject to new regulations that have been placed on all artists and exhibition spaces. “Almost every work, exhibition, music performance, theatre or film presentation needs to have permission from the appropriate syndicate or censors,” says William Wells, the director of the gallery.
He adds: “Institutions need to present their licenses to ensure that they have the right to show or present the works. There is no flexibility. As you can imagine many artists refuse these procedures.”
The gallery, which was established in 1998, was shut down in December 2015 after a raid by more than 20 officials from the censorship authority and the tax authority. Paperwork and archival material was seized from the gallery and its affiliated Rawabet Theatre, which “showed administrative irregularities”.
Wells still hopes to reopen the main building at some point, but says it currently “stands in legal limbo, with several court cases involved”. He describes its demolition as illegal. “By the time we had managed to get the legal papers which would have stopped this action much of the interior of the building had been purposefully destroyed. This was to create a situation whereby no matter what the legalities were, the building would be unsafe,” he says.
Meanwhile, the unrest in Cairo continues with protests scheduled for 11 November over the current economic situation in Egypt. According to Wells, the authorities have urged all businesses in downtown Cairo to shut for a few days. “Like most cultural spaces we are closing tomorrow for four days until things calm down,” he says.