The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which was first slated to open in 2011, has been pushed back until 2021. The new institution, which is costing around $1bn, was scheduled to open its doors in late 2020. Yesterday it was announced that the Egyptian president is ‘direct[ing] the postponement of activities and openings for major national projects until 2021’ in light of the implications of the Covid-19 crisis.
I visited Laila Muraywid’s studio in Paris, it is the kind of place that rearranges your inner geography. A Syrian artist working between painting and sculpture, she creates objects that feel at once intimate yet cosmic, like relics from ancient times that pulse with contemporary pain and splendour.