Out Of The Circle Organization

We are pleased to announce the artistic residency for composer and conductor W***y Merz. With a significant career spanning Europe, Merz has established himself as a versatile and committed figure in contemporary music.

Merz studied composition under Goffredo Petrassi and Franco Donatoni, and conducting under Ferdinand Leitner, in Milan, Siena, and Paris. His recognition includes winning the International Composition Competition in Freiburg i. Ue. His music has been performed by artists such as Thomas Demenga, Alexander Lonquich, and Cecilia Gasdia, and by ensembles including the Camerata Bern and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. His work is further documented through CD releases on the Stradivarius and Almendra labels, and he has held composer-in-residence positions at institutions including the Cité des Arts in Paris.

A core tenet of his work is the goal to “recreate a relationship between the contemporary artist and the society and community around him.” This arts residency in Cairo is a direct extension of this philosophy, aiming to “create a link across the Mediterranean, promote musicians from the Arab classical tradition, and develop joint projects”—a continuation of his collaborative work as artistic consultant for the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

During this residency, Merz will engage with the Egyptian soundscape to inform new compositions. These developments are intended to contribute to future programming season at the Fondazione Merz in Turin, where he serves as Artistic Director for music.

***yMerz

We are happy to welcome this month Sara Alhindi from Kuwait.
Writer | Independent Curator | Artist

Sara Alhindi was shaped by associative thinking, inspired by the intersection of the humanities: literature, arts, and music. She loves for them to exist within a single context, in a unified spatial experience such as exhibitions, museums, and public spaces. For this reason, she pursued (cultural experience design) and constantly strives for it as a way of life. Just as she is inspired by the intersection of arts in the field, she also practices the intersection of (mixed materials) in the studio. She loves reassembling texts, dried flowers, collage, clippings, journaling, freehand drawing, photographs, and the integration of different materials. At this stage, she wishes to learn, for her style to develop technically, or perhaps to explore new artistic methods that had never crossed her mind.

Therefore, she decided to place herself in a new inspiring environment (Cairo this time), in an Arab country rich and full of life like Egypt, hoping she could draw from Egypt’s artistic history and contemporary reality. She seeks to read the experiences and research of art curators in their fields, visit artists’ studios, learn from their techniques and experiences, read them closely, and understand how they mastered their tools so that she can return to her own tools with fulfillment.

‎يسعدنا هذا الشهر أن نرحب بسارة الهندي من الكويت.
‎كاتبة | قيّمة مستقلة | فنانة

‎سارة الهندي جبلت على التفكير التشعبي، يلهمها تداخل الإنسانيات: الأدب والفنون والموسيقى، وتحب أن يكونوا في سياق واحد، بتجربة مكانية واحدة كالمعارض والمتاحف والمرافق العامة، لذلك امتهنت (تصميم التجارب الثقافية) وتسعى لها دائمًا وهي أسلوب حياة.

‎لذا قررت أن تضع نفسها في بيئة ملهمة جديدة (القاهرة هذه المرة) بدولة عربية غنية ومليئة بالحياة مثل مصر، لعلها تستطيع أن تنهل من التاريخ الفني والواقع المعاصر المصري، تقرأ تجارب وأبحاث المنسقين الفنيين في ميادينهم، وتزور مراسم الفنانين، تتعلم من أساليبهم وتجاربهم وتقرأهم عن قرب، وكيف تمكنوا من أدواتهم كي تستطيع العودة إلى أدواتها بامتلاء.