Cairo. Open City.

Group Exhibition
East Wing, with Museum Folkwang
19 March – 15 May 2014


East Wing is proud to present this compelling story of social awakening and political discourse that followed the 25 January 2011 uprising in Cairo.

Cairo. Open City- New Testimonies from an Ongoing Revolution is divided into various chapters curated by different protagonists of the Cairo art scene, including the artists: Lara Baladi and Heba Farid, the photographers, Thomas Hartwell and Tarek Hefny, the artist Jasmina Metwaly, the filmmaker Philip Rizk and journalists Rowan El Shimi and Alex Nunns.

Included in the exhibition are photographs, videos, drawings and texts by: Antro, Kim Badawi, Taha Belal, Denis Dailleux, Osama Dawod, Rowan El Shimi, Hossam el-Hamalawy, Mosa’ab Elshamy, Ahmed Kamel, Mosireen, Nasser Nouri, Alex Nunns, Jonathan Rashad, Ivor Prickett, Philip Rizk, Randa Shaath, Thawra Media and Lilian Wagdy .

This exhibition does not attempt to showcase a finished work, but rather utilizes the openness of the ongoing process of change taking place in Egypt through the works created, mostly by Egyptian artists, photographers, curators and activists.  

Cairo. Open City explores how visual media has been transformed by a digital revolution, and the creation of ‘citizen journalism’. The exhibition includes video works from some important archives such as, Mosireen, a media collective that disseminates video content of the revolution and the Thawra Media, an open platform for people to share photos and videos, reporting their own experience of bearing witness to ongoing change.

East Wing’s exhibition of Cairo. Open City- New Testimonies from an Ongoing Revolution was originally launched in German cities: Braunschweig, Berlin, Essen and Hamberg, initiated and co-curated by Florian Ebner , Head of Photographic Collections at Museum Folkwang and Curator, Constanze Wicke. This exhibition in Dubai has been mounted by East Wing to illustrate and illuminate how these new digital networks have contributed to changes in the way photographs are perceived; raising exciting discourse on documentary photography, video, art, audio recordings and journalism.