Theme: Gaps

It’s pretty hard to miss a gap, it sits there staring at us, unfaltering, waiting for us to make a move. Do we confront it? Do we ignore it? Acknowledge it? Or try to fill it?

We’ve technically been trying to fill gaps since early childhood, encouraged even; a toddler insisting to fit a square into a circle, trying to put together puzzle pieces down to the very last missing one. And then we’ve grown and the gaps have stretched, the years between us and the older generations start to challenge us, can we find a middle ground?

A gap is essentially what we make it out to be. A transition, a journey through time and the diversity that was created in between, an absence that makes room for a presence, an interruption of continuity that creates a bigger picture. And most of all, an idea. An idea that can fill a gap, create a gap or be a gap.

German University in Cairo
German University in Cairo, New Cairo
Cairo, Al Qāhirah, 10001
Egypt

Aliaa Ismail

Archeologist/Egyptologist Aliaa Ismail,The director of the Theban Preservation Initiative. Her work consists of 3D scanning the walls of the tomb of Seti I in the valley of the kings and leading a training program for the local community there to introduce them to 3D documentation of heritage.

Ashraf Azzab

Former addict and founder of Better Change Halfway House, a rehabilitation center where over 150 people have recovered from drug addiction. The halfway house functions essentially as a a stepping stone between rehab or detox and the real world ,it is the place that deals with the aftermath of kicking the physical addiction; the place that ensures that addicts don’t relapse.

Khalid Hafez

Egyptian artist Khaled Hafez was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1963 where he currently lives and works. He studied medicine and followed the evening classes of the Cairo School of Fine Arts (Faculty of Fine Arts) in the eighties. After attaining a medical degree in 1987 and M.Sc. as a medical specialist in 1992, he gave up medical practices in the early nineties for a career in the arts. He later obtained an MFA in new media and digital arts from Transart Institute (New York, USA) and Danube University Krems (Austria). Hafez practice spans the mediums of painting, film / video, photography, installation and interdisciplinary approaches. Hafez is a Fulbright Fellow and Rockefeller Fellow.

Maged Maurice Ibraheem

A neuropsychiatrist and author of “ The psychology of Democracy” , exploring the viability and applicability of democracy as a universal system of governance for all nations and questions if one size fits all.

Maha Ibrahim

Professor of modern trends in the interior design and Furniture department,faculty of applied arts-Helwan university,Egypt. She published more than 11 academic articles and research papers, one of them holds the title “ The Integration of Interior Design and Neuroscience: Towards a methodology to apply neuroscience in Interior spaces “ where she discusses the necessity of integrating Architecture and Interior Design with neuroscience.

Mostafa Elrefai

Mostafa El Refai studies Mechanical Engineering at the American University in Cairo. He followed his interest in design and innovation which allowed him to work on his first major project, VOUND. Vound is a patent-pending technology that enables individuals suffering from speech disorders and various hearing impairments to visualize sound. Mostafa believes in the multi-disciplinary overlapping, especially of engineering, art and design.

Nahla Kandil

Dr Nahla is the owner and founder of “Effective Learning Foundation (ELF)”, a place that aims to provide therapy to children with learning disabilities and special needs, as well as arming parents with the tools to work with them at home. She has a master’s degree in special and inclusive education and a PhD in Educational Psychology. She is currently working at Nine Psychology, counseling and psychiatric care clinic as a child Psychologist with a focus on inclusive schooling and supporting children with school difficulties.

Shaimaa Ashour

Dr. Shaimaa Samir Ashour is an architect and an assistant professor at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport. She is also one of the co-founders of Docomomo Egypt, a member of the Architectural Committee in the Supreme Council of Culture under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and a member of the Architectural Heritage Committee at the Egyptian General Syndicate of Engineers.