Born in 1976, lives and works in Bern.
Omar Ghayatt was born in Cairo in 1976; in 1998 he received his B.A. in Arts and Education. An early interest in drama, combined with a strong sense for the visual, led him to develop his own characteristic blend of performance art, visual theater, and scenography. In his performances, Ghayatt strives to present Egyptian culture in a global language of images, scenes and movements that can be broadly understood. In 2003 he received the first state prize ever awarded in Egypt for performance art. The following years, he performed in various countries such as France, Bosnia, Turkey, Korea and Poland. Alongside his travels, he organized a long-term project in Egypt, “Sabeel Cairo”, to promote performance art.
In 2007, Ghayatt travelled to Bern as a resident artist of Pro Helvetia. In March 2008, Ghayatt started a project called “Made in Paradise”, a collaboration with the Swiss artists Yan Duyvendak and Nicole Borgeat. The performance has been shown all over Europe, at festivals such as the Zürcher Theaterspektakel and La Bâtie in Geneva, and is booked until 2011.
In 2009 Ghayatt received his Master of Scenography from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste Z_hdk. His Master thesis explored the question of cultural codes in art work.
In 2010 Omar Ghayatt received a studio in the PROGR center for culture production as a grant from the city of Bern.
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