Cultural diplomacy between Italy and Egypt

On October 9th, 2026, the Arabic Cultural Institute hosted Dr. Rania Yehia, former director of the Egyptian Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. The event revolved around a simple question: what can art and culture do to bring two countries closer? The answer came through a journey between Italy and Egypt, from the past to the present day. The starting point was the twentieth century. The event included a discussion of the comparison between the sculpture of Mahmoud Mokhtar and the painting of Mahmoud Said on one side, and the work of Umberto Boccioni and Felice Casorati on the other. Boccioni breaks form apart in motion, as in Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, while Mokhtar gathers it into a composed monumentality and, in Egypt's Awakening, turns the pharaonic legacy into a modern, national language. The discussion also touched on the subtler affinity between Said and Casorati, who build solid, silent figures bathed in still light and suspended time, with a shared debt to Italian Renaissance painting. From distant contexts, these artists sought a similar balance between modernity and roots. The conversation then turned to contemporary art and the role of women in the art world. The common thread was mutual influence: between Italy and Egypt, ideas have always travelled in both directions, and they still do.