Forever Is Now Returns to the Pyramids of Giza With a Women-Led Sixth Edition

Art D'Égypte has just announced the artists for the sixth edition of Forever Is Now, and for the first time in the exhibition's history, the line-up is led mainly by women: five of the eight artists are women. From 4 to 28 November 2026, eight artists will install site-specific works and new commissions on the Giza plateau, in the shadow of the pyramids, a 4,500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For anyone less familiar with it, Art D'Égypte was founded by the French-Egyptian curator Nadine Abdel Ghaffar as a platform for Egyptian arts and cultural heritage, and Forever Is Now is its flagship. When the first edition was announced in 2020, The Art Newspaper described it as a first-of-its-kind exhibition of contemporary art among the pyramids, and it opened in the autumn of 2021. Today the organisers call it the first and largest contemporary art exhibition of its kind at the site, and since 2019 Art D'Égypte has also taken Egyptian artists to fairs and exhibitions abroad. This year's edition takes place under the auspices of Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and under the patronage of UNESCO.

The theme explores the relationship between humanity, architecture and the natural world, taking its cue from the pyramids' geometric precision, celestial alignment and historical significance. According to the press release, the artists "will reflect on themes of continuity, spatial order, cultural memory, and the dialogue between past and present", combining modern materials and technologies with references to sacred geometry, cosmology and traditional craftsmanship.

So, who is taking part? Representing Egypt is Reham Abo Elazm (born 1990), a painter and sculptor who graduated from the Faculty of Art Education in 2011 and held her solo show Between Heaven and Earth at Samah Art Gallery in 2024. She is joined by Turkish artist Seçkin Pirim, whose work draws on the philosophy of Rumi; Chinese artist and designer Jiang Qiong Er, co-founder of the brand Shang Xia with Hermès; British-Jamaican sculptor and performance artist Rochelle-Webster Nembhard; British-French filmmaker Charlotte Colbert; French-American artist Raphaële Shirley; French artist Geoffroy Pithon, known for his immersive painted environments; and the French sculptor Bernar Venet.

Venet is no stranger to working at monumental scale. His Arc Majeur, a 200-tonne sculpture whose great arc measures 60 metres, was inaugurated beside the E411 motorway near Rochefort in Belgium on 23 October 2019.

"Forever Is Now 06 marks a defining new chapter for Art D'Égypte," said Abdel Ghaffar at the announcement, as reported by Flair. Ambassador Wael El-Naggar, Egypt's Assistant Foreign Minister for Cultural Relations, added: "There's no better way to connect Egypt's rich culture and heritage with the world than through the arts."

If last year is anything to go by, expect scale. The fifth edition, which ran from 11 November to 6 December 2025, brought together ten artists, from Michelangelo Pistoletto, who installed his Third Paradise among the pyramids, to the Egyptian artist Salha Al-Masry, whose Ma'at turned royal ornamentation into an open, communal space.

Closer to home, Lebanese artist Nadim Karam showed Desert Flowers, three sculptural forms made from repurposed scrap metal, set against the pyramids.

Meanwhile Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, better known as Vhils, built Cairo Doors, a work about the everyday traces of memory held in objects, surfaces and thresholds.

And Alex Proba and SolidNature's Infinity Echoes, a cluster of colourful sculptural forms, paid tribute to the Earth's landscapes and to geological change.

Forever Is Now is also the centrepiece of a busy Egyptian autumn. The sixth Cairo International Art District runs from 11 October to 8 November in Downtown Cairo, at The Factory, Kodak Passage and Access Art Space; the first edition of Crafts Re-Imagined is at Bait Al Suheimy in Historic Cairo from 23 October to 8 November; and the second edition of Formed by Dialogue takes over the Egyptian Museum from 5 to 14 November.

Perhaps what is most significant here is who gets to speak at one of the world's most famous sites. A women-led line-up at the pyramids is a welcome statement. That said, Abo Elazm and Pirim are the only artists from the MENA region among the eight, and we'd love to see more Egyptian and Arab artists given this extraordinary platform in future editions.

We're eager to see what this year's artists make of the plateau.

Forever Is Now 06 is on view at the Pyramids of Giza from 4 to 28 November 2026.

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