Maha Maamoun's film presentation

  • Maha Maamoun\'s film presentation

    Maha Maamoun, „Domestic Tourism II”, 2005, video, courtesy of the artist and Gypsum Gallery, Cairo

The Museum of Modern Art invites to the screening and meeting with the artist Maha Maamoun as part of the events following the exhibition “Lest The Two Seas Meet”.

The public will have the opportunity to get acquainted with some of the artist’s films not shown during the exhibition, such as “Domestic Tourism II”(2005) and “2026” (2010).

In “Domestic Tourism II” (62 min.) Maha Maamoun uses the historic fragments of the Egyptian films where the pyramids appear in the background. Breaking out of the “timeless” postcard perspective, she shows us that those iconic, historical buildings form part of a dynamic urban narration, a story that mixes the political and the social threads together with personal experiences. 

The video work “2026” (9 min.), based on a novel by the Egyptian writer Mahmoud Uthman (“The Revolution of 2053”), alludes to the famous scene from Chris Marker’s “The Pier” (La jetée), showing a vision of the future of the pyramid area and of Egypt in general. A vision that, although intended to anticipate future events, remains trapped in the contemporary imagery. The screenings will be followed by a discussion with the artist, moderated by the curator of the exhibition Tarek Abou El Fetouh.  

Maha Maamoun - born 1972 in USA, lives and works in Cairo. Works mainly with video and photography. Founder of the Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) in Cairo, an initiative that supports the development of photography and contemporary art in Egypt. Based largely on archival material, her works generate new contexts for images that function in the mass culture. These contexts afford an unprecedented reading of the images.

Other events from that cycle: