A unique and humorous exhibition will be held in Cairo’s Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum, between 10-14 December, featuring caricatures of Egypt’s Naguib Mahfouz and Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez, local media has reported. The exhibition of portraits featuring the two writing legends and Nobel Laureates aims to fulfil one of Mahfouz’s wishes to meet with the Colombian writer who lived in Mexico.
Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem announced that the exhibition, which features the works of a group of international cartoonists, comes as part of her ministry’s initiative to promote Egypt’s cultural relations with the world.
In cooperation with the Embassies of Colombia and Mexico in Cairo, the exhibition will showcase a large number of portraits, by world cartoonists, of Mahfouz and Marquez together.
The exhibition will open at 6pm in Cairo’s, and will include 110 cartoons by 100 artists representing: Egypt, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Spain, India, China, Indonesia, and Russia.
Colombia’s Ambassador to Egypt Ana Muñoz and Mexico’s Ambassador to Egypt José Octavio Tripp have leant their support to the exhibition. The two ambassadors have also confirmed their interest to expand the exhibition to include all Latin America writers who won the Nobel Prize.
Although Mahfouz and Garcia never met during their lifetimes, the two did exchange letters twice. The first letter was exchanged in 1994, when Mahfouz survived an assassination attempt, and in 2004, when Garcia was going through a personal ordeal, with reports of his losing the ability to write.
