Thank you Christina for this article. Not everything is politics, many of our creations are piece of arts. We, humans are born as artists, don't let any government to kill this inspiration!

Picasso once said, "good artists copy, great artists steal." Of course, it has never been as simple as that. Questions concerning artistic authenticity, honest or dishonest intentions and outright plagiarism have been around ever since societies began to consider artistic expression the unique product of individual artists.

The notorious difficulty of determining the veracity of conflicting claims in a highly subjective field might be enough to make an artist who feels they have been defrauded by another pause before pursuing their case. But the continued exposure of such abuses and the drawn-out fights that often ensue make it clear that the sting of plagiarism, real or perceived, is enduring.

On the heels of a recent case in which prominent Japanese painter Yoshihiko Wada was forced to return a prize from the Agency for Cultural Affairs due to evidence he plagiarized the work of Italian painter Alberto Sughi, the latest controversy to arise regarding artistic authenticity involves two Egyptian artists, one of whose work was shown as part of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in southern Niigata Prefecture this summer.

Though the organizers of the triennial ultimately decided that no plagiarism occurred, what is coming to light is a sad little tale of art-world intrigue involving one of Japan's most important art events, broken friendships and the promise of a continued conflict that spans continents and cultures.

The controversy centers around well-known Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr, one of more than 200 artists from over 40 countries who contributed to the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial. Early this summer in a small village near Tokamachi City, Nasr constructed what might have been a highlight of the exhibition: a large walk-in kaleidoscope that visitors could enter to be immersed in shifting images of the surrounding countryside.

The Japan Times has learned, however, that just days after the triennial's opening Nasr was accused of plagiarism by the young Lebanese-Egyptian-French artist Lara Baladi. Only seven months ago, she constructed a walk-in kaleidoscope -- for a solo exhibition in a Cairo gallery -- that was of similar but not exact design and proportions as the one on display in Niigata.

Baladi has been based in Cairo for the last decade and works primarily with photography, film and installation. Nasr is eight years Baladi's senior and was one of the first independent contemporary artists from Egypt to make a name for himself internationally with his installation and video work. Both Nasr and Baladi belong to a relatively tightknit community of artists working from Cairo, and, according to both artists, over the years their acquaintance developed into a friendship.

That friendship abruptly came to an end when Baladi received photographs from a colleague who visited Echigo-Tsumari after its opening on July 20, 2006. They showed what the exhibition's catalog describes as a walk-in "kaleidoscope" installation by Nasr entitled "Dreams."

Baladi's own huge walk-in kaleidoscope was shown Feb. 12-March 8, 2006 at Cairo's largest independent contemporary art gallery, The Townhouse. Baladi says that she had been developing the idea for her work, called "Roba Vecchia," for almost three years, and that it represents the culmination of her six-month stay in Japan on a grant from the Japan Foundation in 2003. Baladi wanted to project photographs taken in Japan and other countries into a pyramidal structure covered with triangular-shaped mirrors. The Japan Foundation's Cairo office was a primary financial backer that allowed her to complete the kaleidoscope project this winter.

The show was an enormous success according to The Townhouse's director William Wells, attracting hundreds of visitors. Among them was Nasr. Wells and Baladi have stated that he was a frequent visitor while the show was at the Townhouse and also visited Baladi in her studio just after she received initial drawings of the project from architect Olivier Sednaoui, who helped Baladi with the construction and who has also become involved in the case against Nasr.

Baladi says that Nasr made his visit to her studio in late Aug. 2005, prior to his Sept. 15 trip to Echigo-Tsumari to scout locations and meet with event organizers at Art Front Gallery in Tokyo. According to Rei Maeda, a senior coordinator at Art Front, Nasr mentioned the idea of showing old and new images of the region in January 2006. His first official presentation of the idea for a kaleidoscope-like structure was made in March, one month after Baladi's Cairo show.

The organizers have stipulated that the work shown by Nasr at Echigo-Tsumari was more or less similar in structure and scale to Baladi's. They argue along with Nasr, however, that his design was largely determined by the conditions of the site in which it is located. The main structural difference between Nasr's work is that whereas visitors could not only walk into Baladi's kaleidoscope but around it as well, Nasr's kaleidoscope took the form of a chamber embedded in a wall that could only be entered.

When confronted by Baladi and her gallery's claims, the organizers of Echigo-Tsumari took the extraordinary step of closing Nasr's work on Aug. 7 in order to investigate the case. But after three weeks of correspondence in which the Echigo-Tsumari organizers insisted the two artists meet and resolve the problem on their own, the final result was ultimately determined by Junichi Shimizu, the former director of the Japan Foundation's Cairo office, who had sponsored Baladi's work and seen it in person earlier in the year.

After visiting Nasr's kaleidoscope, he concluded that despite the fact the body of Nasr's work was very similar to Baladi's, his overall "impressions" of the works were different, because Nasr had used different photographs to project against the reflective surfaces, one could not walk around Nasr's kaleidoscope as one could around Baladi's, and music accompanied Nasr's work and not Baladi's.

When reached by phone last week Shimizu suggested he had played "not a very big part" in the decision making process.

"I tried to be very objective in giving some comments to the organizers," Shimizu said. "I did not give opinions. I explained to them what I found to be the similarities and differences between the two works and left all the judgment up to the organizers of Echigo-Tsumari."

Within days after Shimizu submitted his observations, the director of Art Front Gallery and the triennial, Fram Kitagawa, announced that no plagiarism had occurred. Nasr's work was reopened to the public on Aug. 28. Maeda, who worked closely with the parties involved, explained the gallery's decision in a phone interview a few days before the end of the triennial.

"The structure of Mr. Nasr's work is similar to Ms. Baladi's," she said. "But we wondered how important the structure was. Many artists have worked with kaleidoscopes, so we think it is not a completely new idea. Whereas the structure is similar, we had a different impression from Ms. Baladi's work."

William Wells at the Townhouse finds it difficult to understand this reasoning.

"When you are talking about an installation, the construction is one of the most important parts. And particularly when it is an installation that involves audience participation, where you have to consider so carefully the audience's involvement in the piece on a physical level, as opposed to just a conceptual level," he said. "So, I don't get it. I just don't get how they can justify that."

When reached for comment, Nasr expressed his own frustrations.

"This is all very sad," he said. "But it is not really about my work, because my work will always be up. Nothing will change that. I am sad that this is coming from someone like Lara. She is someone that I trust, that I let into my studio. I taught her a lot of things. For the first installation she did, I was her big supporter. I don't think she can deny that."

Baladi says that the last month has proven to be the most trying time of her career and that she is pained the case has involved a friend and a work that was one of the most important projects she has yet to develop.

" 'Roba Vecchia' has taken me an enormous amount of time to make," she said by phone from Cairo. "I have spent three years trying to do it, because of the size of it, the cost, you can't just do it anywhere. So it has asked a lot of energy of me. And when I finally made it, the effect it had on people was I think up to now my biggest achievement. It is a hugely important work for me. And now, with what Moataz has done, to be honest I feel very violated."

Baladi says she will continue to pursue the case, though she hasn't decided how. For now she has obtained legal counsel in Japan that made a full on-site report of Nasr's kaleidoscope before the end of the exhibition.

Meanwhile, Maeda confirmed that Nasr's kaleidoscope was not among the works chosen to remain permanently on display in Echigo-Tsumari and was taken down at the end of the exhibition.

Though the controversy may be moving away from Japan, it does not seem to be dying down. Wells believes Nasr will have to continue to deal with the issue.

"The art community here is on the move and things get around," he said. "I got an e-mail this morning from someone who attended an opening in New York who got all the information on this issue. People are talking."

Whatever the conclusion of this affair, for now, no one seems to have come out the better, and with both sides threatening some kind of legal action there is no end in sight. It is a difficult situation that has arisen in the context of an increasingly mobile art world in which artists produce unique works for different locations around the world. Given increased transparency and new channels of communication between artists, curators and audiences, the struggle between Nasr and Baladi may well be a sign of things to come.

-end-

The Japan Times
(C) All rights reserved

Link: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20060914a1.html

80 Million, the proverbial population of Egypt, Eslam Zen Elabden and Mohamed Hossam produced a brilliant video installation in which the frenetic and infectious sounds of the tabla filled the gallery space as onlookers eventually noticed the duo drumming (in perfect musical synchronicity) without drums
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Khan's video "Jewel." Egyptian people are featured as luminescent fish that eventually become human. The video soundtrack features shaabi music -- a popular genre comparable to rap music, associated with poorer Egyptians; the lyrics often address concerns about equal access to resources and education. The video, explains Bardaouil, is a "metaphor for these people who have been completely lost, unheard, like those rare fish in the depths of ocean."

There are uncertainties in Egypt ... it is the employer and his rights