D-CAF Opens 1 October with a stunning photography exhibition

After a two-year hiatus, D-CAF is finally back and excited to bring its world-class lineup of photography, dance, music, film and theater to the streets and stages of Downtown!

The festival’s long-awaited ninth edition kicks off this Friday, 1 October, with a stunning photography exhibition by Egyptian artist Hana Gamal: Forgotten as if You Never Were. 

Hana Gamal is the creative mind behind this year’s innovative D-CAF poster, which pays homage to the diversity of our lineup, our team, and our beloved audience —whom we are thrilled to finally reunite with. 

After earning her dual degree in Media Arts and Psychology from the American University in Cairo, Gamal went on to study at The Danish School of Media and Journalism. She began pursuing photography professionally in 2011. Her work has since been showcased in galleries across Europe and the Arab World, and has appeared in The New York Times, Huck Magazine, and The Huffington Post, among many others. 

Forgotten as if You Never Were is her first solo exhibition and takes its title from a Mahmoud Darwish poem. In keeping with the themes of the poem, the exhibition is a multilayered journey of memory, introspection, and reconciliation. Through striking visuals captured over the course of several years, the works explore themes of loss, love, and internal struggle. 

“The works presented are a reflection of my journey —an end of one road but not the final destination,” said Gamal in a statement describing her upcoming exhibition. 

Gamal’s unique visual style draws on her knowledge of psychology and anthropology, as well as her passion for poetry and visual art. In Forgotten as if You Never Were, the artist invites viewers to embark on a deeply intimate voyage through the artist’s own memories. With remarkable sensitivity, her camera lens breathes life into inanimate objects, empty spaces and shadowy portraits hung across the eleven rooms comprising the exhibition. 

Balanced in the hazy space between loss and remembrance, the photographs bring faint glimmers of hope to the bittersweet verses penned by Darwish. In those unprecedented times, Gamal’s work is a needed reminder that there is still light at the end of the tunnel; that art can bring joy in even the most trying of circumstances. 

The exhibition opens this Friday, 1 October, at 2pm. Audiences can catch Gamal’s unmissable works at Victoria Rooftop House until 22 October. 

 

D-CAF is taking extensive measures to ensure our audience’s safety and prevent the spread of COVID-19. 90% of the Orient Productions team is fully vaccinated, and we are abiding by government regulations and restrictions on large gatherings. Attendees and team members alike will be required to wear masks for the duration of all D-CAF events. All participating venues will be equipped with sanitizer for the audience’s use.