Forever Is Now, contemporary art at the pyramids

Today's art in front of the pyramids

Every autumn since 2021, the Giza Plateau has hosted contemporary art installations for a few weeks, set in the sand between the pyramids and the desert. The exhibition is called Forever Is Now. It is organised by Art D'Égypte, a private company founded by Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, which has shown contemporary artists at Egyptian heritage sites since 2017.

The first edition, in 2021, was the first international contemporary art exhibition ever installed on the plateau, with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), which lists the pyramids as World Heritage. It brought together ten international artists, among them Gisela Colón, Alexander Ponomarev and Lorenzo Quinn.

The works are created for the site: they respond to the landscape, to the scale of the plateau and to the presence of monuments some 4,500 years old.

The 2026 edition

The 6th edition runs from 4 to 28 November 2026. Its theme starts from the pyramids seen as "instruments of thought": their geometric precision, their alignment with the sky, the memory they carry. The artists ask what it means to build something that outlasts its builders.

The edition is led mainly by women artists, from France, the United States, China, Britain and Jamaica, and Egypt. Art D'Égypte publishes the full list of artists as the opening approaches.

Visiting the exhibition

Access. In previous editions, the exhibition could be visited during the plateau's opening hours, with the site's entry ticket. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Giza Plateau opens at 7 am, last entry 4 pm local time, and the ticket costs EGP 700 for a foreign adult.

Timing. Sabaro recommends arriving at opening time: the low morning light brings out the relief of the works and the pyramids. Late afternoon offers the other good light, before last entry. In November, Cairo is 2 hours ahead of London.

Terrain. The works are scattered across the sand: good shoes, a hat and water are useful, even in November, when the average maximum is around 25 °C in Cairo.

Where to stay. The Marriott Mena House, a former hunting lodge from 1869, is less than 1 km from the pyramids: some rooms look out on them, and you reach the plateau at opening time without crossing the city. Sphinx Airport, west of Giza, receives direct European flights from easyJet, Wizz Air and Edelweiss.

A busy November in Cairo

The exhibition combines easily with the rest of Giza and Cairo:

• the Grand Egyptian Museum, about 2 km from the pyramids, inaugurated on 1 November 2025, with the Tutankhamun collection;
• the Cairo International Film Festival, from 11 to 20 November 2026, whose dates overlap with the exhibition;
• Saqqara and Dahshur, to follow the story of the pyramids before Giza.

For a four-night stay, Sabaro recommends two nights in Giza, for the exhibition and the Grand Museum, then two nights by the Nile, at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza or the Fairmont Nile City, for the centre and Historic Cairo.