Egypt, ever at the vanguard (for better or worse) of cultural modalities in the region, is particularly instructive and informs both the historicisation of this dynamic as well as our vision for a different future. Although the dynamics highlighted here are not limited to or uniquely characteristic of the Arab world, the current geopolitical context of the Arab World lays bare the complex inner mechanics of public cultural institutions and questions of representation. This essay is both a reflection on these historical circumstances as well as an imagining of a different future that adopts the hermeneutics of institutional bureaucracy to subvert and recast cultural institutions as potentially inclusive and liberatory frameworks for collective action. But their histories deserve greater scrutiny, particularly in the Arab world context where the old is becoming new again and statist oversight of culture, relegated to the shadows in the brief period following the end of the Cold War, has found new favour by autocratic regimes. Public cultural institutions, particularly national ministries of culture that are marked by socialist and statist histories, have largely fallen into disrepute. ETMAC is a unique interdisciplinary project, set between the worlds of institutional making, performance theory, and strategic financial planning.
HaRaKa’s performance theorist and artist Adham Hafez and anthropologist and urbanist Adam Kucharski pose the following question: can the institution of the ministry of culture be rehabilitated to serve this new diffuse community of art producers and serve as a locus of cultural production outside of the traditional boundaries of the nation? Can the institution evolve to meet the needs of an artistic and cultural community that is, at least temporarily, extra-territorial? And can it help to rebuild shattered national institutions on artists’ terms?ĮTMAC is built as an imaginary ministry that supports contemporary artistic creation of displaced and refugee Arab artists a fictitious entity that runs programmes, advises institutions on issues of cultural policy and financial planning, publishes articles, and presents lecture-performances in multiple cities. At a time when Arab countries are bleeding away their creative capital with the departure, emigration, or exiling of pioneering intellectuals and artists, one wonders about the future of their practices and legacies.
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