Cairo. Open City

New Testimonies from an Ongoing Revolution

Lara Baladi, Kaya Behkalam, Taha Belal, Chris Michalski & Sebastian Stumpf, Denis Dailleux, Osama Dawod, Hala Elkoussy, Mohamed Ezz, Fotojournalisten der Zeitung El Shorouk, Nermine Hammam, Johanna Domke & Marouan Omara, Ahmed Kamel, Nadine Khan, Alex Majoli, Jasmina Metwaly, van Agtmael Peter, Philip Rizk

The exhibition Cairo. Open City tells two stories. The first reports on the political and social upheaval of a young generation, which began on 25 January 2011 with the mass protests on Tahrir Square in Cairo and continues until today. The second deals with the role of images and digital media, which to a certain extent initiate these protests and documented them.
Cairo. Open City is based on different practices in time-based media: the photos of photojournalists, scenes recorded by activists and the documents collected by artists. In the digital age and within the specific context of the Egyptian revolution, this testimony of images faces new challenges and opportunities: the omnipresent eye of digital devices, new distribution channels and alternative reporters. The exhibition provides an insight into the freedom movements in the Arab world and at the same time writes a new chapter in the history of images. In the exhibition, the work Excursions in the Dark (2011) by Kaya Behkalam, which is part of the European project distURBANces, is presented.