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"The Warrior"
Mohamed Abou El Naga reflects on the issue of being a warrior in contemporary times through images that have being taken from archives, films, objects, personalexperience as well appropriated historical characters. The Warrior sees a departure from past phases to new realms where the artist an intervention on mix media painting, video installation, paper making and printmaking, all the work was inspired by an old unique photo archive dating back to the 19th century when the British colonization started in Egypt. The project will discuss this idea through images of the British soldiers who came to occupy Egypt in 1882 where their troupes settled across different cities. The headquarter of the British army became in the Cairo neighborhood of Garden City, where a studio called Bella was the main attraction for these soldiers to take their family members for souvenir photos that reflected a more humane aspect of these soldiers in their military uniform alongside their wives and children.
"Iranian Carpet"
Carpet-weaving is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished manifestations of Persian culture and art, and dates back to ancient Persia. Abou Elnaga take us to a very deep journey without falling into nostalgia, he portrays in a series of photographs and video works, the challenges facing the individual in a country where the lines between traditions and Western influences are constantly renegotiated. Without breaking the tradition of weaving in with the passage of time, the materials used in carpets, including wooll, silk and cotton, will decay. In Iranian Carpets (2013) you will see the reminisce about their lives with their families. The conversation moves from descriptions of families, solitude, women's vulnerability and isolation.These images are testimony to a life lived seen through the transformation of society as whole.
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