An image from the show
Street noise, the silence of the desert, and a pick-up truck as confessional: Colette Kinsella wanders through installations at the Goethe Institut
Getting to grips with a new culture is daunting. Visitors to foreign countries, however, seldom experience life in their chosen destination as it really is. The realities and hardships of day-to-day life remain screened behind shrink-wrapped tourist "experiences" which must be dutifully ticked off the "to do" list of holiday chores; rare is the occasion when true inter-cultural dialogue is allowed to take place.
Some luckier visitors, though, are given the chance to experience what most tourists miss. And so it is with three groups of artists brought together by the Goethe Institut within the framework of the German Festival in Egypt. Following on from the success of last year's festival, the Dar Al-Hiwar -- House of Dialogue -- has been reopened in Cairo and three groups of artists have been exploring what happens when Germany meets Egypt. The concept of inter-cultural dialogue was explored in three very different ways, resulting in three very different installations in the grounds of the Goethe Institut in downtown Cairo.
Florian Thalhofer is no stranger to Cairo. He took part in last year's project when, together with Mahmoud Hamdy, he explored the different faces of love in Cairo and Berlin. Florian and Mahmoud have again joined forces, this time delving into one of the more inaccessible facets of Egypt -- the desert. For many, particularly those hailing from more lush, greener countries, the desert represents the unknown, its inhabitants shrouded in myth. A certain romanticism is attached to desert life which in reality, as Florian and Mahmoud discovered, is governed by principals not unlike those in other, more familiar territory. Walking into the basement off a busy Cairo street into the 7 Sons installation, the viewer is confronted with a distant horizon. Space and clouds roll across a screen. The room contains a second screen, projected onto which is a selection of images and words: Law; Trial; Flag; Prayer. By operating the mouse in front of the screen the audience can become involved in a type of dialogue with the bedouin cast. Click on Law to find out what a punch on the jaw is worth; Prayer provides insight into religious ritual in the desert; Flag reveals that which all bedouins dread, namely expulsion from the tribe. The footage presented on two screens -- made possible through the use of a special software package designed by Thalhofer -- is much more than just another documentary on Bedouin life. Each subject stands alone; the story, like all individual stories, is non-linear and it is up to the viewer to decide how it continues. With an eye for unusual angles and poignant moods, Thalhofer and Hamdy have captured an essence of desert life while at the same time avoiding the more obvious romantic pitfalls.
"It's not my world and it never will be," says Thalhofer, "but it's really interesting just to sit with these people and talk about anything and everything."
The short walk into the adjacent basement room takes us into yet another world, the one we left outside on the busy street. Oliver Doerell and Mahmoud Refat collaborated on a sound installation project, an audio image of the urban world in which we live and through which we move each day. Urban dwellers are constantly enveloped in a sheet of white noise comprising the sound of traffic, trains, music blaring on the streets or from the apartment next door, public announcements and calls from the street below. Most people move through this collage of sound without thinking about the nature of individual sounds. Refat and Doerell attempt to explore the nature of noise in various urban locations and draw a link between discernible noise and that which goes unnoticed. Refat is interested in exploring the effect of particular isolated sounds on the individual, something which is best observed in an enclosed space where the listener and the noise can meet on neutral territory. And sitting in a darkened room listening to a collection of sounds recorded in two very different cities via a headset does, indeed, allow one to reflect upon the incredible diversity of sound with which we are bombarded on a daily basis. It also made me appreciate all the more the silent world of the desert left behind in the room next door.
And it also makes me appreciate what Marwa Zakaria, Sylvia Winkler and Stephan Köperl experienced while working on their Car of Happiness project. Winkler and Köperl have been working together on installation projects since 1997 and are interested in exploring social, cultural as well as linguistic interaction in various countries. Together with ceramic artist Marwa Zakaria they set off into the Cairo suburbs in a converted Datsun pick-up truck equipped with speakers, chair, table and recording device. The mission? To invite ordinary Cairenes to share something of themselves with complete strangers. And this is how it worked: the car was parked at various locations in Cairo and the surrounding area, and pedestrians were invited into the structure to record a sentence starting with "I'm happy because....".
As Sylvia Winkler points out, Cairenes are natural communicators; there are few shrinking violets in this city. The artists travelled to different areas of the metropolis, both wealthy and working class neighbourhoods, and were greeted by friendly and enthusiastic crowds at all locations. The entire spectacle was captured on film and the results are on display in the garden. So why exactly are Cairenes happy? Well, a trip to the Goethe Institut in downtown Cairo will help you find out.
