Nile Sunset Annex, 70 Artist Toasts
Nile Sunset Annex write: As individual artists, we’ve long been interested in the diversity of the forms and functions an art practice can extend to include. For this reason—and for various practical reasons—over the three years of its existence Nile Sunset Annex has come to act as a barmaid, a curator, an artist, an installation team, a fabricator, an author, an archivist and a publisher as well as a space that hosts regular art exhibitions. At some point we made the decision that all our “many hats” as Nile Sunset Annex come under the umbrella of “artist.”
“Publisher” is one of our most regular hats alongside that of “exhibition–maker”. Part of the reason we produce a publication alongside each show we host is that not many experimental art publications or artists’ books are made in our locale. Also, we like objects, we like having something that sticks around beyond each exhibition, we like the idea of having multiple versions of the same thing, the opportunity to collaborate with artists – and nonartists – in another format, and the possibility of extending and dispersing the exhibition through the space of a publication. We like offering something for visitors to hold, to take, maybe buy.
So far, we have commissioned a short story in the shape of a slide, a dubplate record with 18 one-minute tracks by 18 different artists and musicians, a small booklet and a big booklet, a doublesided document that doubled as a paper boat, a webpage, a book, three business cards, an online archive of printed ephemera from Egypt’s contemporary art events over the past 25 years, a downloadable file, a film, 35 ceramic tiles, a 3D printed sculpture, a poster, a work of flash fiction, some spoons and an earring.
