Laboring for Love
Solo exhibition by Rania Atef, curated by Ahmed Shawky Hassan
02.02.2025 - 27.02.2025
“Laboring for Love” is the first solo exhibition by artist Rania Atef, part of an extended art project she has been working on for six years, focusing on the themes of motherhood and care. In this exhibition, Rania explores the complex relationship between artistic and domestic work, highlighting the intertwining of her roles as both a mother and an artist. Through this lens, daily practices transform into artworks that reflect the intersection of different, often invisible forms of labor.
The project reshapes the boundaries between the home and the gallery, bringing domestic practices into the exhibition space. It sheds light on the importance of recognizing everyday efforts that often remain outside public and institutional acknowledgment, whether in the artistic or social realm.
The exhibition also delves into the roles of caregiving and unpaid labor as acts driven by love, while simultaneously questioning the economic and caregiving systems that rely on this hidden effort for their sustenance. It examines the relationship between professionalism and hobbyism, as well as the tension between resisting caregiving roles and acknowledging their significance.
Rather than documenting a personal life, the exhibition offers a subjective perspective on the intersections of domestic and artistic labor, It presents an experience where the two realms merge, urging us to reflect on the boundaries of the visible and invisible.. It may also serve as an attempt to commodify caregiving labor through artistic spaces, circumventing the larger economic system. The exhibition poses the question: Can artistic labor play this role while being subject to the economies of (in)visible labor?
The exhibition includes a parallel program featuring film screenings, readings, and discussions on labor and care, curated by art curator and researcher Ali Hussein Al-Adawy. It will also host the launch and discussion of the book “Care Storehouses”, co-authored by artists Rania Atef, Nadia Mounier, and Mai El Shazly, with the curator and editor of the book, Ahmed Shawky Hassan
Rag, Broom, and Baby Bottle of Caraway
Film Program
We are excited to share with you our upcoming film program, “Rag, Broom, and Baby Bottle of Caraway”. This program is part of the public program accompanying the solo exhibition “Labouring for Love” by Rania Atef, curated by Ahmed Shawky Hassan. The program features film screenings, an exhibition tour with the artist and curator, a performative reading, and group discussions.
A notable paradox is that the English word “labor” refers both to childbirth pains and work labor. The protruding belly of a pregnant woman, visible to everyone and signaling that she will become a mother, is much like the tip of an iceberg—what is seen is only a tiny part of a much larger, hidden mass. Similarly, the visible pregnant belly conceals an immense amount of unseen labor: the labor of love and emotions, care work, motherhood, and domestic labor—all of which form the core of all work, including the work of art.
About Ali Hussein Al-Adawy
Ali Hussein Al-Adawy works between the worlds of cinema and contemporary art. He screens films and videos and organizes seminars and encounters on their historical and artistic-research intersections. He smokes shisha, writes, edits, teaches occasionally, and always learns.
A heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to Marwa Arsanios, Mary Jirmanus Saba, Arab Loutfi, translator and writer Mohamed El-Dakhakhny, and researcher and film programmer Mohamed Amin for their generosity and enthusiasm in sharing their work with love.
This program is dedicated to Rania Atef and her comrades on the journey and in loving memory of the esteemed teacher, mentor, and comrade Marina Vishmidt (1976-2024).
Day 1
Day 2
