Biography
Tarek Abou El Fetouh is Director of Performance and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation. He has initiated innovative local, regional and international programmes and events, seeking to develop conversations among art practitioners across disciplines.
Abou El Fetouh has been selected as the curator of UAE artist Abdullah Al Saadi’s solo exhibition at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (2024). Among Abou El Fetouh’s other curatorial projects are the annual performance season Perform Sharjah, Sharjah Art Foundation (2022–ongoing); Public Art of Expo 2020, Dubai (2021–2022); Rituals of Signs and Metamorphoses and Captive of Love, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2018 and 2017, respectively); The Time is Out of Joint, Sharjah Art Foundation and Asian Culture Complex, Gwangju (2016); Lest the Two Seas Meet, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2015); annual performance event Durub Al Tawaya, Abu Dhabi Art (2013–2018); Home Works 6, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2013); Sharjah Biennial 9 (2009); Roaming Inner Landscapes, Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Garage Theatre, Alexandria (2004); multidisciplinary festival of contemporary arts Windows, Minya and Cairo (2004); DisORIENTation, House of World Cultures, Berlin (2003); and It’s Happening in the Garage, Jesuits Cultural Center, Alexandria (2000).
He established the contemporary arts festival Meeting Points (MP) (2001) and curated the first four editions (MP1–4), which took place in several cities across the Arab world. For MP5 (2007–2008), he worked with curator Frie Leyson, and for MP6 (2011–2012), he collaborated with curator Okwui Enwezor. He was artistic director of MP7, curating the festival with the Zagreb-based collective WHW (2013–2014). Abou El Fetouh is the founder of the Young Arab Theatre Fund (YATF), and he served as YATF director from 2002 to 2014. The Brussels-based foundation, working in the field of contemporary visual and performance arts, was renamed Mophradat in 2015.
Abou El Fetouh started his career as an art director and theatre scenographer. From 2000 to 2005, he worked on designing and rehabilitating abandoned or misused buildings for use as cultural venues. These spaces include the Garage Theatre, Alexandria; Collectif 12, Paris; Windows Theatre, Minya; The House, Amman; The Factory Space in Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; Ness El Fen, Tunis; and Geneina Theatre, Cairo.
Born in Cairo, Abou El Fetouh currently lives and works between Brussels and Sharjah.
SAF participation:
Perform Sharjah (2022, 2023)
The Time is Out of Joint (2016)
March Meeting 2012, 2014 and 2018
Sharjah Biennial 9 (2009)
