Eman Hussein | Research Trip in Switzerland

Towards the end of August 2021,  Egyptian visual artist and choreographer, Eman Hussein will start a one-month research trip in Switzerland as a Roznama 8 awardee. Roznama is an annual competition and exhibition for contemporary visual arts in Egypt, organised by Medrar for Contemporary Art.

In her research, Eman aims to explore the notion of movement in relation to local daily life and practices and reflect on how interaction with public and private spaces is enacted.

Eman Hussein is a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker based in Cairo. Eman has a bachelor degree in directing and acting in the theatre department at the faculty of arts at Helwan University. Her passion for dance and choreography had driven her to join the 3-year full program diploma at the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center. Currently, she is a martial arts student at Meshkah school.

Eman is interested in merging all the arts she is learnt so far, as she seeks to create artistic visual works of Contemporary dance, Martial arts, and Drama. She is always passionate about body’s natural movements in public spaces and workspaces, through experimenting with movements in spaces and attaching them to creative visual cues.

Working with individuals outside of the “normal” arts institution, is Eman’s main inspiration for choreography. She collaborates with craftsmen and workers and live with them to learn their movements inside their workshops so that she has a reliable understanding of their relationship with tools and equipments. And she produces a work that merges the labourers daily movements and Contemporary dance, amongst other arts.

In 2021, she directed and designed the short film “Belia” which is produced by MAAT dance company and was first premiered in Zawya cinema, Institut Français, and Goethe-Institut. Belia was selected in Durban International Fim Festival, Choreoscope- Barcelona Dance Film Festival. Her work has been selected in various festivals over the years. Her first film “A Skewed Conversation” was selected by Festival Lumieres d’Afrique de Besancon, Festival du filme arabe de fameck, Videodance in Sweden, and Screen Dance Festival.