Caramblogage

After a long, self-imposed hiatus on writing and publishing any news on this blog, current events lead me back to this space. Racking my brain what I would write about, and after many unpublished attempts at expressing what happens in a mind that is slowly putting itself back together again, it is research that leads to this post, the first in a series of hopefully many to come. Over the last three years, I have written a lot about social uprisings, personal reflections on societal change and a whole load of nonsense- I stand by it fully- reflecting my state of mind at the time. This year, 2014, has been full of activity and action. It has been, from my personal perception, one of the most special years of my life, due to a number of personal and professional developments, regressions and decisions. Never mind this year and the past, welcome, dear reader to the here and now, enriched by those memories and framed by the experiences of the abovementioned years. "If graffiti ...

Recently, the CIN , via Raphael Thelen, did a profile of me. Find the text as published on the site below and the original a bit further down. Plus, dear reader, you finally get to know what I look like after all these years…  “Hybridisation…Transnational…Precarious…Synchronous Narratives…Digital and Analogue Worlds… Design…Interventions”. Caram Kapp is spreading those thoughts before himself as he starts to speak. Everything started with his family – an international bunch with roots in Egypt, France, Germany and Russia. “My family introduced me to society from various perspectives. This opened up horizons that only become visible when you change your point of view several times. They taught me that it is not a common nationality, but common principles, ideas and goals that bring people together to form a society.” “Hybridisation” is a word that features heavily in Caram’s vocabulary. It describes the various causes and ideas that bring people to join their eff...

As part of my reporting upon receiving an ECF grant to travel to Tunis to engage in some work, this factual report emerges The recent uprisings and their political consequences  in Tunisia have led to a creative release of unprecedented scale. Youth groups, but also more established organisations, have discovered their voice, power of self- organisation and the possibilities open to a civil society long repressed by a totalitarian security state under Ben Ali.  My journey to Tunis was motivated by a deep curiosity for the effects this outburst of artistic energies had on the cultural scene in the country, glimpsed only fleetingly from images in media and a brief visit, confined to a hotel, in November 2013. A desire to see new faces and experience new locations and feelings and gain insight into the changes on a local level that would otherwise not be reached.  My journey to Tunis was a very welcome opportunity to see the city and meet many cultural actor...

Today, I would like to share an interview I recently gave to the UKs Huck Magazine on Street Art and current developments in Egypt in relation to an article in the Book Walls of Freedom , which will appear in March 2014. It is published by From Here To Fame Publishing and can be purchased through their website By Alex King Huck asks Cairo-born activist Caram Kapp what are the prospects for positive change in today's Egypt. Over eighteen momentous days in 2011, protestors occupied one of Cairo’s main road junctions, Tahrir Square, and stood their ground against attacks by security forces until Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down. This was a time when Egyptians forgot their ethnic, religious and social differences to come together as one, demanding social justice for all. Graffiti was just one of the many forms of expression released as ordinary people found their voices. After years of enforced silence, they rushed to express themselves in political debate, via social ...

Over the past three years, a great number of films dealing with the Egyptian Uprising, whether documentary, docufiction or pure invention have been brought to screens and festivals around the world. The latest such offering I have watched, Marco Wilms documentary Art War, is an interesting and polarising case.  ART WAR - Trailer from HELDENFILM on Vimeo . " ART WAR is the story of young Egyptians who, through art and enlightenment, and inspired by the Arab Spring, use their creativity to salvage the revolu tion. Using graffiti murals and rebellious music and films, they inspire the youth culture around the world and throughout the streets of conquered Egypt. The film follows revolutionary artists through 2 years of post-revolutionary anarchy, from the 2011 Arab Spring until the final 2013 Parliament election. It describes the proliferation of creativity after Mubarak’s fall, showing how these artists learn to use art in new ways--as a weapon to fight for their unfinish...

Don't you miss  the easy days the black and white days when you didn't wake up  to wonder where you stand The early days when you thought you were old and the world no longer the place  you once knew? A reboot, a reboot! A loss of innocence regained. Days of wonder, long passed the red days are here what was once true is not, but is but wasn't when you look again But you can't forget — Begun in August 2013. It's not over

In the past months, it has become increasingly difficult to write about Egypt. On an emotional level, it is disappointing to watch hope for change turn into a desire for stability and a return to the way things were. On a more political level, the Committee to Protect Journalists has ranked Egypt as one of the most dangerous places on the planet to report from, along with Syria and Iraq. That it ranks there, along with a country in which people are reduced to nourishment from blades of grass, and one devastated by almost 20 years of ongoing civil, secterian and militant strife, is worrying. The reasons for which it is ranked there- according to me- are quite different from the two other countries: while in Syria and Iraq, I count casualties of war, in Egypt, they are casualties of politics. In the aftermath of the June 30th / July 3rd coup (soft, or otherwise), the powers that currently steer Egypt towards an Orwellian police state, revived the old idea that "no bad...