Artist: Hala Elkoussy
Hala Elkoussy was born in Cairo in 1974. She studied at the American University before completing an MA in Image and Communication at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
She lectured on photography in 2002-2003. In 2004, she co-founded the Contemporary Image Collective, an artist-run initiative dedicated to the visual image, based in Cairo.
In 2006, she completed a two year residency at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, which is where she had met curator Jelle Bouwhuis in 2005. Bouwhuis curated a solo show with Elkoussy at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam in 2006, entitled Peripheral (and other) stories.
Recently, Elkoussy’s work was exhibited in Goteborg Konsthall, Sweden, the 9th Sharjah Biennial, Kunsternes Hus, Oslo, The Townhouse Gallery, Cairo and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Elkoussy’s work delves into the intimate and overlooked sides of communal living to highlight underlying dynamics at play within the complex urban structure that is Cairo.
Curator: Jelle Bouwhuis
Jelle Bouwhuis was born in 1965 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. After working as an art critic and writer, Bouwhuis became communications officer at both the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Concurrently he held teaching positions at the Utrecht University and the Arnhem Art Academy.
At the Stedelijk Museum he became curator in January 2006 where he is still responsible for the programme of exhibitions, publications, residencies and other activities of Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA - www.smba.nl), a project space in the city centre. A major collaborative, durable project of SMBA in 2009 / 2010 will be Imagining Africa.
Bouwhuis was also co-editor of various publications such as Sculpture in Rotterdam (2001); Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani - Blind Spots (2007) and the upcoming collection of essays Now is the Time - Art & Theory in the 21st Century (2009).
Bouwhuis is also advisor of Visual Art and Design for his home city, Utrecht.
