Osama Kamal explores Nubia through the latest show by artist Farid Fadel The dozens of paintings of Nubia by Farid Fadel tell you as much about the artist as they do about of the southern part of the country that offers endless magic and boundless wonder. Fadel is obsessed with Nubia, but there is nothing new in that. He is obsessed with Egypt in general: his previous 42 exhibitions were dedicated to various parts of the country. A prominent ophthalmologist and gifted musician, Fadel was aged only 13 when he held his first exhibition at the Qasr Al-Nil Cultural Palace in 1971. His current exhibition, "The Search for Nubia", was recently shown at the Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum in Cairo. Fadel has travelled the width and length of Egypt, painting and sketching. The results were dozens of exhibitions: "Desert Oasis and Valley" at the Plastic Arts Gallery attached to the Hanager Theatre in November 2006; "The Description of Egypt" at the Alexandria Creativity Centre in April 2008; "Upper Egypt Again" at the Hanager in November 2008; "North" at the Picasso Gallery in February 2009 and "Loving Egypt, Madly" at the Plastic Fine Arts Space of the Opera House in October 2009. It is not just the visual appeal that inspires his work, but the hidden meaning and the implicit mood of each place he visits. Fadel's quest for knowledge is insatiable. He says that in his work he strives to capture the essence of the country's soul. "Egypt is full of tantalising things, with exquisite details. Every place in this country is worthy of painting. This is what makes me work harder to get at the roots, to capture the underlining spirit of what I see. Travelling around Egypt offers me endless pleasure, and I wish to reveal its beauty to the entire world. Egypt, with its monuments and countryside, its desert and cities, is a place of infinite wonder." Fadel's quest to explore Nubia was inspired by a meeting with Tharwat Okasha, the former culture minister who kick started the campaign to save the Nubian monuments in the 1960s. Thanks to his activism and the generous help of UNESCO and archaeologists from around the world, some of Nubia's best known monuments were moved, to protect them from submersion under Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High Dam . To Fadel, Nubia is not just about carved stones and ancient temples. It is a place of intriguing spirituality and ancient tradition. Hussein Bikar, Adham Wanli and Seif Wanli were among the painters who captured the last images of Nubia before most of it was submerged. Many years late, Fadel followed in their footsteps, impelled by the fascinating accounts of the Nubian exodus. He has read everything there is to read about Nubia, and is well versed in the literary works of Nubian writers such as Hassan Nur, Yehia Mokhtar, Idris Ali and Haggag Adol. In the year and a half he spent in Nubia he had the chance to interview most of them about the culture and folk art of Nubia. As a musician himself, Fadel has taken great interest in the work of Nubian singers, including Ahmad Monib, Fekri Kashef, Hamza Alaaeddin, Karam Mourad and Mohamed Mounir. Fadel has written a book about Nubia which carries the same title as the exhibition, The Search for Nubia, in which he offers a glimpse into Nubian history and current life. He has also made a short film about his impressions of Nubian life and culture. His paintings of Nubia are often inspired by the work of local writers. "The Garden and the Window" was motivated by the childhood accounts of prominent Nubian writer Yehia Mokhtar. It offers an insight into the world that has disappeared with the exodus, a world that Mokhtar describes in two of his novels, Ports of the Soul and Gone. Fadel's painting portrays three Nubian children looking out of a window and casting a last look on the leafy surroundings that are about to disappear. "Nubia Breathing under Water" is a visual commentary on Haggad Odoul's book by the same title. It shows old Nubian houses immersed in water, frozen and trapped. Haggag Odoul often says that the souls of the Nubians are still held captive at the bottom of the lake, and that the Nubians are mere apparitions of their former self. In his book Fadel includes folkloric tales, such as "The Son of Jinni", a story of love between a Nubian girl, Nura, and an invisible creature. Along with the tale, Fadel produces an image of Nura, her face magical and haunting, her gaze distant and unearthly. The painting entitled "Searching for Asha Ashri" is also inspired by Nubian literature, Asha Ashri being the protagonist of Odoul's novel River People. The novel tells the story of a Nubian girl whose lover, Siam, gets to Alexandria and falls in love with a Greek girl. The girl, overwhelmed with grief, jumps in the river and drowns. Siam, when he comes back, disenchanted and broken, meets the same fate. Both, obviously, are symbols of the sad fate of Nubia. The painting "Evacuation Song" is inspired by Youssef Chahine's documentary film Nile and Life, which was made 40 years ago but was released only recently. In the painting, we see the Nubians climbing into sailboats to leave, exactly as Chahine depicted them in his film. The finality of silent pain is sensed in the gaze of a forlorn figure on the shore. Not a real depiction, mind you, since the Nubians never left in this particular fashion, but it captures the idea of a society taking its last ride down the river. Another painting, "Thinking of Evacuation," shows a Nubian woman lost in thought as she dreams of her old house and the thatched straw plates that are an integral part of Nubian art. In "Speak, Grandpa", a small girl listens to her grandfather as he tells stories about old Nubia. In "Entrance to a House" we have a glimpse of a traditional Nubian home, a possible inspiration for Hassan Fathi's architectural ideas. In "Prayer", "Palm Dance", "Nubian Wedding", "Yes, Am Coming", "Waterwheel", "Thatched Plates". "Grinding Stones" and "Nubian Necklace" we are treated to various details of Nubian life and culture. Portraits are what Fadel does best. In 2005 he held an exhibition of personal portraits entitled "In the Hand of Others" at the Small Theatre of the Cairo Opera House. The portraits on display were either of artist friends painting him, or of him painting them. In the current exhibition we see the faces of Nubia coming to life in a brilliant selection of portraits, including "Am Abdel Hadi", "Am Awad", "Nubian Bride", "Nubian Beauty Pageant" and "Nubian Dance". Critics think of Fadel as a disciple of expressionist realism, but he says that he is inspired by the aesthetics of natural and complete beauty. He says that he listens to what his soul tells him. For him, art is not about following a school, but following one's heart. In "The Search for Nubia" we see clearly where his heart has taken him: into a probe of a world that teetered on the brink of extinction.
