Over the last five years ICOM UK has run a series of interviews exploring museums across the globe. This Autumn Catherine McDermott and Claire Messenger have been talking to international colleagues about changes they have faced in the sector. In the first of these discussions, Claire talks to Nagwa Bakr, Community Exhibition Officer at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities about what a personal collecting project around the COVID pandemic in Egypt?
Hello Nagwa, thank you for talking to ICOM UK. You work for the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Egypt – would you describe to our members what your role is?
Mainly my work is focusing on local communities and how to engage with museums and cultural heritage institutions activities. My responsibility is planning cultural programmes and activities to encourage communities to participate and express their needs. My favourite task is developing a strategy for programmes to integrate, empower, and encourage local women to participate in cultural activities, exhibitions and museums, especially oral history, and heritage interpretation. This work is also related to fieldwork for my PhD research, documenting women’s heritage in local communities in Egypt, that I am planning to turn into a women’s museum.
Since the Corona pandemic has started, I have been working on a personal volunteering project ‘CORONTINA: (A virtual Exhibition in the time of Corona)’, with a group of my colleagues, who are the pioneers in the museum studies field in Egypt.
How and why did you start this personal project? What is your collecting criteria and what do you hope to achieve?
I started thinking about the project in February 2020. I was following events unfolded rapidly around the whole world about the spread of the disease. At that time, nothing was clear, only fear and lots of stories. I watched many documentaries during that period about the history of epidemics. These documentaries – and Western cinema movies about diseases and epidemics – reminded me of a permanent exhibition that documented the Spanish flu in the London Museum, one of the most influential displays in this museum, which extremely affected me. Then, I began to take steps to search for a team of colleagues who are specialised in museology, who I could be confident would accept the idea of volunteering for a project that is not financially supported by any institution nor supposed to take place under its umbrella. Indeed, I was lucky to have them. They have great enthusiasm for the idea and believe in the important role of museums and exhibitions in documenting daily events for the sake of future generations.
The main motive for starting the project was my belief that we are going through exceptional circumstances, and that the whole world lives with similar feelings. These events must be recorded and documented because one day, it will become part of the history that we had the chance to witness. I also believe in the need to break out of the prevailing pattern in my culture that museums and galleries are only for art and antiquities. In fact, there is no Egyptian museum or governmental institution that adopts this idea or has even just thought about it. However, there is an independent historical house in Egypt at which we discussed our exhibition idea, and they showed a willingness to cooperate with us, to transform the exhibition from virtual to reality, but that may be a future step, as we still have to look for funding.
The project ‘CORONTINA: (A virtual Exhibition in the time of Corona)’ deals with the changes that occurred in our lives since the emergence of the Corona pandemic. The exhibition is divided into eight section, each section has a different theme that sheds light on life in the time of Corona, illustrated by a banner, panels, labels, photos, etc., It starts from the history of epidemics, the origin of the Corona disease, scientific and medical facts about the disease, rumors, various stories, symptoms, the impact of the disease on health and daily statistics. In addition, shedding light on the human feelings at the time of the crisis, the artistic and cultural initiatives that appeared during that period, and things to tell to kids about the pandemic to help them simply understand the situation and learn how to deal with it.
Furthermore, the impact of the Corona on social and economic life, the environment, the aid offered by different countries to each other and the voluntary work that societies have provided to each other. Finally, the last section ends with a question of what comes after the crisis, predictions of psychological trauma, anxiety, crisis management and the role of museums in participating in collective treatment of post-crisis trauma.
In parallel with the virtual work, we hope to convert these ideas into a real temporary exhibition until we find an opportunity to display them in a museum, permanently.
We really hope that the museums in Egypt believe that there are different types of exhibitions that can be carried out, other than those of antiquities. We have some plans. The first is discussing this issue with the museum of the faculty of medicine in Cairo, which can play a role in displaying the exhibition permanently to promote and support the doctors’ point of view, who are the first line of defence against the epidemic during this crisis. We know it is hard, but hopefully it is doable. The second plan, if we do not find an institution that supports the idea of the permanent display of the exhibition, and contributes to preserving this documentary work for the future generations, includes communication with one or more museums in other countries who have also documented the Corona crisis and donate this documentation work to them to display there, in order to save the work and keep it from being forgotten.
What objects/stories are you collecting and how are you collecting them?
We started our virtual meetings in March 2020, discussed the scenario and divided it into topics that can be documented. We collect everything; tangibles such as photos, artworks, packages of household disinfectants and hand sanitizers, gloves, masks of different types, medicine packages (treatment protocols), cardboard wraps for tissue paper, Corona news press-clippings. Also, we are focusing on people’s feelings and how they handle the crisis, especially what appears on social media posts, which include numbers of infections and deaths, funny jokes, short video clips. In addition, in the scenario of the virtual display, we will encourage the audience at the end of each section of the show to share their relevant experience with us. As a team, we have recorded the daily changes that occurred in our houses and workplaces with pictures and videos, and our friends have contributed by documenting their lives in the time of Coronavirus, by capturing photos and sending them to us. We are also cooperating with some photographers to send us pictures of life in streets, especially were many social and religious occasions have been cancelled or postponed because of the crisis or where people in popular areas insisted on celebrating while taking some precautionary measures.
What is your favourite item from the COVID collection and why?
I have two favourite items. The first one is the images that have been collected from individuals and the individual initiatives of kind-hearted people, who took care of the street cats and dogs during this time, as in Egypt, we have many street animals that live on restaurant and cafe leftovers. With the complete closure of all restaurants, there have been daily calls for volunteers to feed these animals through social media, that engaged many people who showed a great response to this humanitarian call.
The second are the products of the Egyptian Corona Chocolate Company, which formed a very large part of our childhood in the 1980s. With the dawn of the crisis and the name Corona, we returned to search for the company’s products, such as hot chocolate drinks and chocolate bars, and we kept the boxes and wrappers for display.
Are you working with colleagues on this project? If yes, what have been the benefits to the project of working in partnership?
Yes, I am working with colleagues, to implement the exhibition. It needs a team of believers who support the idea and give their time and efforts for this work as we are working without any financial support or any payments. I am very fortunate to have colleagues who are considered pioneers in the field of museum studies in Egypt who are working in different Egyptian museums. In addition, they have diverse backgrounds and as a group we are specialists in art, history, archaeology, and sociology.
They were very enthusiastic about the idea of the exhibition; they added many new unique ideas and improved the concept of the exhibition. We organized the work and the various responsibilities according to background and specialization of each team member – see below:
Ali Hassein (Volunteer in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo) who works on the project as a graphic designer for social media and the graphic panels and labels inside the exhibition.
Eman Ali Farghly (Curator at the Greco-Roman Museum, Alexandria and Graphic Designer for sites and museums in the Development Dept, Ministry of Antiquities) who works on the project as a graphic designer for the graphic panels and the interior walls of the exhibition galleries.
Eman Mostafa (ICF Certified Professional /Life Coach & Training Consultant) who works on self-support and awareness to help face the shocks caused by the Coronavirus.
Enas Karim (PhD Researcher planning seniors’ programs in museums and Curator at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in the Museum Education Dept) who works as a surveyor and data collector.
Gehad Shawky (Master’s in museum studies, community & exhibition specialist and Curator at Luxor Museum) who works on the project as a surveyor and data collector.
Hala Ammar (Freelance Interior Designer) who works on the project as a 3D modeller & animator.
Nermine Moustafa (Interior Designer, Master in Museum Exhibitions, Master in Museum Experience Design, PhD Researcher in the field of site management and rehabilitation of world heritage sites and Senior Art Specialist and Exhibition Designer at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC)), who works on the project as the Art Director, responsible for the exhibition design and implementation process, and as a surveyor and data collector for the art initiatives during the time of the pandemic.
It is very important in voluntary work to have a homogeneous, creative, supportive, believing, and cooperative team.
How will the objects/stories you have collected be used both now and in the future?
In the present time, we continue to collect and keep objects in our houses, some objects are still with their owners. We are looking forward to setting up a temporary display in the historical house in the future and we want to donate part of this collection or duplicate items to other museums in the world, to be displayed in the name of the project, “CORONTINA”.
Thank you so much Nagwa for sharing your project with us – it is fascinating to hear about COVID collecting around the world.
If you would like to know more about the project you can contact Nagwa at nagwabakr81@gmail.com
