Egyptian dispatches: Feb. 11-12, 2013

Arda's homemade calendar for January and February, and a part of March. She was due to fly home on March 7th.

Fayoum Art Center. Below are the participants in the Winter session. Mohamed Abla in center with Arda behind him in turquoise top.

Another arrangement of the Winter session participants  [photos: Pernille Helweg]

Monday morning, up early to get down to the US Embassy. As we get close we see lots of security forces hanging around the street in their smart black uniforms. We meet with Matt Keene, the consular official and he offers his regrets at having to meet us under these circumstances. We tell him of our changed plans for the repatriation of Arda's body to the USA. I fill out the paperwork in order to get the death certificate that we will need for the funeral home. He asks me my impressions of Egypt, I mumble assorted things and then mention how everything seems very 'fluid,' he winces at this overused word to describe Egypt's ever-changing circumstances, but remarks that it will take decades for real stability.

Before we finish, the consular assistant asks what religion Arda was so that the funeral home will have a guide for how to prepare the body. We said she didn't have any affiliation, but it's obvious that's not good enough, and he says "...we just count all westerners as Christians." So she is classified as Christian and I'm sure she would be amused by our predicament, however she was deeply spiritual in her own individual way. A little while later we meet with the funeral director who will coordinate the transport of her body to the USA. It will cost $3500 to prepare the body, a coffin and transport to the USA. He asks me one final questions "what was her occupation?" We say artist and teacher.

On the way out I attempt a quick photo inside the compound but I'm noticed by the embassy security and they follow me into the street. I had no time to get the photo inside the embassy, but I had sneaked one of the line of people waiting to get in when we arrived. This is deleted.

We reunite with our taxi driver and ask him to take us to Mohamed Abla's Fayoum Art Center in Fayoum. I call Mohamed to say we are coming and I can hear the distress in his voice. Mohamed meets us at the small lane leading up to the center. He embraces Nina and they both cry, he then comes to me and we embrace and I break down. He leads us to the traditional style buildings and introduces us to some of the artists there.

We go into the studio where Arda had been working and he shows us an installation piece that she had made using the bark of the palm tree. Mohamed said that when she found this material she said she'd found her medium for her stay and how excited she was about this. There was a long chain of strips of this material pinned to a line of string on the wall. Later we would find a small circle of the same material in her room that she had been embroidering.

We meet with the Danish painter, Pernille Helweg, who had been working in the same studio with Arda and was in another car when the land cruiser in which Arda was traveling had overturned. Apparently the wheels on one side of the car hit a strip of rocks on the side of the road and they both blew out. The car then rolled over and ended up in an upright position. Pernille rushed over to the car and Arda was lying just beside it. She put her head in her lap and held her hand and reassured her that the ambulance was coming. She was barely conscious with one eye open and then she passed — it was that quick. Niki Marangou, the Cypriot writer and artist, was thrown further from the car and was already dead. The driver was OK, and a German woman, Emma, had a shoulder injury but survived intact. The ambulances took ages to come. They had been traveling to an area in the desert that has ancient fossils, The Valley of the Whales, but had not reached it at the time of the accident. The Valley of the Whales

Deciding to stay overnight we got to talk and hear more about the accident and the terrible impact it had on this group of artists who had become a tight knit group after a week together. Pernille said that it looked like the car had exploded with its contents all over the place. The longer we stayed it became apparent that the accident had also 'exploded' the group and they were all trying to put themselves back together. Our coming to see them would start a healing process for both them and us. Emma who had been in the car but was unscathed, still looks shattered. To meet and talk with Pernille and to learn about Arda's last moments has been an incredible gift to both Nina and myself. A little while later she reveals more details about the immediate aftermath. Arda had what looked like a bullet hole above her right eyebrow; it was unclear what created this injury but it's clear that this was what had mortally wounded her. Later one of the visiting artists who is also a nurse had the victims and the scene properly documented. I had no desire to see a photograph of Arda in this condition; I wanted a very different image of Arda to carry with me into the future. After a wonderful supper with all the artists we sat around the fire until late. We all shared our stories about Arda, her life and her family. A healing process was underway for all of us there, and it was wonderful to see it happening. Nina was embraced by all who were there, and I was so proud of her strength as well as her vulnerability.

Earlier in the evening Mohamed had taken me aside and told me how impressed he was by Arda's involvement with the solidarity activities he had been organizing for the Qorsaya islanders. He also spoke about the importance of having a story of a person's final moments that was positive, as this is the story that will accompany the deceased into the future. All our discussions around the fire that evening helped to create in our hearts such a legacy for Arda.

The next morning Nina and I were up early and took a walk in the village. Two of the dogs from the center accompanied us and they bravely fought their way through each pack of dogs guarding their turf. A number of houses advertised their pottery wares. It turns out that some time ago a Swiss potter established herself in the area and began training assistants to help her. These local people then started up their own studios and trained others in this art. She still lives in the area and Mohamed had had her visit the artists' at the beginning of their winter session.

Later, Nina and I go into the village to visit some of these potteries. I buy some beautiful tiles and small plates.

We check out Mohamed's cartoon museum. It's a really extensive and rich selection of works from a broad range of people and periods. In one of these galleries we discover a work of Arda's that will become part of the book created by the artists in residence. It's a simple section of palm bark with one wavy line of yellow thread across its middle. It is so wonderful in its simplicity and we both start to cry at this memento of her in this darkened room.

We leave in the early afternoon to go back to Cairo and we arrive late, exhausted, dusty and hungry. I pour a glass of whiskey and it does its work quickly. Our Egyptian friend Maysa arrives with food, but the locksmith she had wanted to help us could not wait any longer.

I am sleeping fitfully and wake up often. At 5am in the morning the muezzin begins his call to prayer — its mournful sound perfectly mirrors my own inner sorrow.

Below some curiously compelling sculptures by Mohamed in the Cartoon museum building.