Nothing to me was shocking,' said the 37,-year-old from Canada. 'This doesn't make any sense to me and they're just sort of being too sensitive or trying to score political points maybe.

He praised its 'informative overview' and said the reaction to the exhibition was overblown. Museum director Wim Weijland was quoted by the Dutch newspaper NRC as saying that Egypt's reaction was 'unseemly'.ĭaniel Voshart who works in art/film, visited the exhibition. Much has been written about the controversy. The curator of the exhibition, Daniel Soliman, is an egyptologist. The museums has insisted it aims to 'show what scientific, Egyptological research can tell about ancient Egypt and Nubia.' As it also aims to works are presented 'to show and understand the depiction of ancient Egypt and the messages in music by black artists.' So there are a lot of layers to this I think that are worth keeping in mind.' 'So the perception is that there are these wealthy Hollywood elites who are kind of taking advantage of Egyptian culture and kind of rewriting how they view their own identity right. 'It's not only about kind of African Americans taking Egyptian culture, it's about a very wealthy commercial project that is to say Hollywood and other kind of related industries doing that,' the Dr. There are walls of album covers showing the influence of ancient Egypt on artists including Tina Turner, Earth Wind and Fire and Miles Davis, and a special interactive video installation.Įgyptian authorities denounce a desire to assimilate their historical heritage with US black culture. The exhibition explores music by black artists including record album covers, photographs and contemporary artworks. 'I think it's, it's important for us to, as you say to kind of move away from this more Eurocentric perspective through which Egypt's history has been viewed,' Dr Ali Hamdan added.

And so what was meant to be an empowering celebration of 'Egypt in hip-hop, jazz, soul and funk' has instead become a culture war.Īssistant Professor University of Amsterdam, specialist in political geography with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa analyzes the reactions: ' From what I can see it has been sort of viewed in a very particular light by the government back in Egypt.'

System shock 2 better music