EXHIBITION
CAIRO ILLUSTRATED:
STORIES FROM HELIOPOLIS
SEPT–OCT 2021 • DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Cairo Illustrated: Stories from Heliopolis is a debut solo exhibition. The show explores how tourism, infrastructure, and changes in the urban landscape have influenced the way Cairenes define and interact with its heritage, and the overall impact on the narrative and collective memory. This exhibition is the final public outcome under Tashkeel’s Critical Practice Program for 2020.
(Above) Sample from artworks, spreads 2, 9, 13, and 15.
Cairo's ever-changing urban landscape and recent infrastructural projects have sparked debates regarding how such infrastructure affects the city’s harmony.
The value of built heritage in Cairo – and Egypt as a whole – has been greatly tied to age, its celebration often reserved to pharaonic, Islamic, and Coptic sites. Even then, their value is mostly linked to tourism.
Driven with a desire to re-establish her relationship with the city, Zeid gathered memories from the neighborhoods. She found that each memory was tied to the next by space, and a virtual layer of historical facts was added to these personal experiences. This created a duality, between the personal and the general, the small and the big picture, making the topic of heritage more accessible.
