Omar Ghayatt

Omar Ghayatt was born in 1976 in Cairo, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1996. In 2003, he received the first official prize ever awarded in Egypt for performance art. In the following years, he started performing his artworks in various theatres such as Cairo Opera House, Vooruit (Gent), Friche Belle de Mai (Marseille), “Museum of Contemporary Art” in Chicago, and participating in festivals such as Theaterspektakel (Zurich), Festival Theaterformen (Hanover), Festival DCAF (Cairo), and Sélection Suisse en Avignon. In 2007, Ghayatt started working in Bern, where Pro Helvetia invited him as an artist in residence. In 2009 he obtained his Master of Scenography from Zhdk Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. In 2010, the city of Bern granted him a studio at PROGR. In 2015, the canton of Bern awarded Ghayatt with the “OFF-Stage” grant. Since 2010, all his works have been supported by the city and the canton of Bern. In 2022, his work Les Passagers was invited to be shown at the 29th edition of “The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater,” where he won the Jury Prize.