AMEN—A Prayer.

SODIC Supports the Arts through the CARAVAN 2014 Project

By Hend Seif El Din

This year’s CARAVAN project gathered 48 artists from different nationalities, cultures and monotheistic religions to work on a joint assignment exhibiting in Egypt and the United States. The selectedartists worked with 3D fiberglass statues in human form in a variety of poses of prayer, decorated them through painting, sculpting and other forms of artistic expression. All poses are meditative, contemplating the universe, human existence, human experience, and responding to that which is greater than us.

The exhibition “Amen – A Prayer for the World” expressedthe deep, fundamental power and hope in the universe for all people and promote intercultural and interfaith dialogue throughout theworld.

The 2014 CARAVAN visual art exhibition was held on display in Egypt and will move on to the United States. It opened in Cairo, Egypt with the 30 Egyptian sculpturesfrom June 17^th to July 1^stin collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. The Exhibition was heldat the Modern Art Museum– Al-Bab Gallery, on the Cairo Opera House grounds.The full collection of the 48 sculptures will then be exhibited in Washington D.C. at the world-renowned National Cathedral from the 30^th of August to the 6^th of October, and then in New York Cityat the largest gothic cathedral in the world known for art, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, from the 12^th of October to the 16^th of November.The 30 Egyptian artists included renowned, established, and emerging artists, namely: Ahmed Shiha, Ahmed Abdel Krim, Amr El Kafrawy, Ammar Abou Bakr, Ahmed Talal, Dahlia Refaat, Emad Abdel Wahab, Farghaly Abdel Hafiz, Farid Fadel, Gamil Shafik, Gamal Lamie, Hamdy Reda, Hossam Sakr, Hesham Nawwar, Hisham El Zeiny, Khaled Sorour, Karim Abdel Malak, Mahmoud Hamdy, Mohamed Abou El Naga, Mohamed Abla, Mohamed El Masry, Mohamed Shaker, Marwa Adel, Maha George, Neveen Taher, Reda Abdel Rahman, Salah El Meligy, Souad Abdel Rasoul, Tarek El Sheikh, and Wael Darwish.

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale and auction of the sculptures will be channeled towards Tawasol, an organization SODIC supports, to fund building and operating a school in Ezbet Khairallah within Istabl Antar in Old Cairo, one of the poorest slum areas in the City.

AMEN-A Prayer for the World is co-curated by CARAVAN founder, Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler, and participating celebrated Egyptian artist Reda Abdel Rahman, who together co-curated the immensely successful 2013 CARAVAN exhibition, “In Peace and with Compassion: The Way Forward” in Cairo and London, showcasing 25 life-size painted donkeys.

The CARAVAN arts initiative comes out of a vision that Arts can be one of the most effective mediums to enhance understanding and encourage friendship between the faiths and cultures of the Middle East and West.

Within the CARAVAN arts initiatives there is a charitable component that seeks to bring hope to individuals that are in need (economically, socially and physically) within the Middle East through the support of charities assisting the poor.

Paul-Gordon Chandler is an author, interfaith advocate, arts activist & patron, U.S. Episcopal priest and social entrepreneur who has lived and worked in North Africa and the Middle East for many years. Currently based in Chicago, from 2003-2013, he was the Rector of St. John’s Church-Maadi/Cairo, the international English-speaking Episcopal church in Cairo, Egypt and a noted interfaith arts center. The author of several best-selling books on Muslim/Christian relations, he is the founder and president of CARAVAN, an international interfaith arts movement that seeks to build bridges through the Arts between the creeds and cultures of the Middle East and West.