24-year-old artist, performer, and visuals/video-maker Adham Faramawy comes from an intricately-laced cultural history. Coming from Egypt, born in Dubai, then brought up in London, Adham pours his contemporary interpretation of commonly misconstrued themes from the past, present, and future, and launches them at the common art viewer, audience, or innocent spectator with the alternating ease and aggression of a classical conductor.

Adham’s complex modes of thinking and well-thought-out influences could be mistaken as mere artist pretense, but Adham is a true softly-spoken gent; and intentions for his pieces such as the “the precursor and blessing for the evening ahead,” and the use of the Arabic language “to further mainstream it into the Western world” cements the man as a down-to-earth visionary rather than an untouchable one.

Despite a glittering list of contacts and previous collaborators including Carrie Mundane, Matthew Stone, and These New Puritans, Adham’s inclusive, inviting manner and personality is refreshing, and has led to plenty of exciting shows, many of which take place at the URA! Gallery in the city of Istanbul-- a city that has recently become close to Adham’s heart.

Has spending time in Istanbul influenced your work?
Yes and no. Everything I do is affected by my lineage, heritage, and culture that is constantly in transition. The interesting thing about showing in Istanbul is that it is also in constant transition– the same position as I am, on a fault line between Europe and Asia.

Is it almost more fitting to show in Istanbul than London?
Not really-- you always have to adjust, but it’s just an interesting parallel where my work, who I am, and how I function are constantly on this fault line of politics and terrorism and Islamaphobia. It becomes a worry, especially in a youth cultural context where I listen to the same music as everyone else. It’s funny when you look at the cultural situation of that city and my position– it’s very apt.

Was it singularly the URA! Gallery that brought you there?
The reason I first went there and continue to visit is for URA! It is in the center of town. There are a number of galleries around that area, but this one is really young and exciting, and does a lot with young artists and rock music. They have screenings and exhibitions. They also have a zine and are launching their own radio website open for submissions in conjunction with a local record shop called Deform Music.

What’s big musically in Istanbul right now?
They have a big metal scene. There’s a really fantastic band there called Necropsy who were big in the late '90s then stopped for ten years, but whilst I was there they did this art gig whereby each member of the band was on a different floor. You had to go up and down the stairs to hear it. The only way to hear it as a whole was by the park outside.

Is the contemporary’s art scene as big as the metal one there?
The contemporary art scene there is really vibrant. It’s the coolest thing about being there. Istanbul sometimes feels like an un-discovered city. It’s not like London or New York where everyone is aware that its cool. It’s all still really natural. It hasn’t been re-interpreted yet. But it is going through that right now.

Are there any other galleries you check out when you're there?
There’s a gallery called Gallerist, which is the first gallery there to open in the same area as URA! In fact they opened in the same building. Which are The Misa apartments that used to be the Egyptian ambassadors' residences. Which I love, obviously, due to my being Egyptian.

Where did you go of an evening to drink and relax?
The place I went to was called the Buyuk Londra, which is a bar in a hotel. ‘The London hotel,’ it translates to. The place hasn’t changed since 1930. Probably then it was disgusting, but now it's just fantastic oddity. They don’t get rid of anything. They have every kind of machine you can play music on and each one has broken down. [They have] a fantastic collection of art records, but you can’t play them because all they have is a really crappy CD players and the only CD is Cabaret. The only drink they serve is a really dirty martini. They have this parrot called Yakub, and if you have a Nokia ring tone, it answers the phone.

What happens once you got bored of the sounds of Cabaret and the annoying ring tone parrot?
Tekyon– it’s a Bear club. They wouldn’t let me in at first. They are very particular. I am very thin, but in the end I got in somehow, and it was full of truckers and arabesque techno music. The tranny scene is also incredible. There’s nowhere in particular to go– there’s way too many good places, but the neighborhood is called Beyoglu.

Where will your next show take place?
The next thing I'm doing is a solo show at a gallery at the The Black Mariah in Cork, Ireland. Its called “Time Wave Zero.” I will actually be screening the piece I showed at the !wowow! event at the Tate. The show expands on the ideas of a theorist called Terence McKenna who believed that time was speeding up towards a singularity that happens in 2012 when time stops. I work with ideas of non-linear time, and if time is non-linear and everything is happening at once, then, in a sense, everything is true. All possibilities have happened. That’s what I am interested in, in terms of multiplicity.

~Kevin Soar


First photo by Kevin Soar
Fourth photo by WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong? via Flickr
Fifth photo by Night Photographer via Flickr
Seventh & eighth photos by Fidel via Picasa Web Albums
Tenth photo by Annemiek de Gier via Flickr
Tenth photo by Che-burashka via Flickr