"Basic Motion" strives to create a composition of 'moving’ installations which reflect on the everyday life of Cairo. Inspired by the intensity of the traffic, the activity of the city and the liveliness of the people, Anastasia Katsidis decided to work on the issue of movement and started looking for kinetic art and traces of this everyday movement in the work of Egyptian artists. After three months of residency, she created the project called "Basic Motion“ and invited two Egyptian artists to take part: Ahmed Badry and Enas El Sadiek. Both of their works also deal with the issue of movement in various forms before.
In "Basic Motion,” three installations will be shown. The works will focus on the needs, wishes and fears in everyday life of the Egyptian society. They will talk about the cohesion and the traditions inside the families (Enas El Sadiek), about the pressure of monthly bills on every member of the society (Ahmed Badry) and about the wish to escape and the imagination of a way to a better life (Anastasia Katsidis).
"Basic Motion" will be realized in the factory space of the Townhouse Gallery Cairo and is supported by Pro Helvetia Cairo.
Ahmed Badry works on objects and pictograms in public space and reproduces them with acrylic colors and brush on canvas or in three-dimensional simplified models/installations. For example, he exhibits his paintings of license plates, traffic signs and tickets in an installation way and puts them in a dialogue with each other. His installations are pointing to existing systems of power, fears and conflicts inside the Egyptian society.
Badry’s project in "Basic Motion“ will deal with the dread of monthly electricity bills in Egypt’s society. He will build an oversized kilowatt-hour-meter (approx. 3x3m) out of wood. In its center a metal counting wheel will slowly be turning. On the opposite wall, he will put an oversized painting of the electricity bill (which shows all its details. It will show the amount of costs and how they are put together.)
Enas Elsadiek achieves movement in her work through organic growth. Usually she uses living materials such as bacteria, fungus and algae for her installations in order to symbolize the breathing of life. As these materials grow fast and change both their colors and shapes quickly, they generate impressively visible motion. Ines Elsadiek uses this kind of motion in different contexts, which are concerned with surfaces, changing and transitoriness.
Elsadiek’s project in "Basic Motion" will deal with the kitchen as a symbol for the cohesion inside the families. Taking a meal together has lost its importance since fast food restaurants have reached a high degree of esteem in Egypt’s everyday life. This also influences the development of the families.
By using algae and fungus, Elsadiek presents this influence as a loss and predicts a kind of collapse of tradition.
The installation will consist of an oversized black and white picture of a kitchen with real shelves on which decaying dishes will be put. In front of this, the artist will build a transparent, putrescent’ wall of Plexiglas.
The works of Anastasia Katsidis are inspired by objects of everyday use. Her interest lies in revealing complex cohesions in social systems, which show themselves in the simplicity of used objects. In the reproduction of existing objects, she tries to build them in a modified and abstract way. By doing this, she makes the collected objects recognizable and lets them initiate associations and dialogues between the personal memory of the spectator and her objects.
Related Links:
Quick Arts
Access:
Cairo (39)
