Mai Al Shazly (Egypt)
July-August 2018
Project in collaboration with Pro Helvetia Cairo
The Third Trace
Photography, installation and video project, 2018.
The work I came up with during my stay in Switzerland is a part of integrated topic related to the identity of a given place. The approach I started with two years ago. I have continued investigating the relationship between identity and affect.
In the village of Cortasc, the work seeks to re define the geographical and cultural identity through the forsaken places in the south region of Switzerland. Mountain ranges as a physical structure that separates communities physically and socially a part.
By creating a visual dialogue between the body and these environments. Through my experimental performance to interact with the material and visual culture of this village.
Mai Al Shazly (b. Cairo, 1985) is an Egyptian visual artist working with photography, video, and installation. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently exhibiting her collective work at Biennale Africaine de la photographie at BAMAKO, receiving both a video art and experimental film production award through Goethe Institute Kairo in collaboration with Contemporary Image Collective, as well as a production funding grant through the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia Cairo(2016). Mai focuses on the identity and its relationship to surrounding environmental (e.g., city’s size, urban density, location) and political issues(e.g., regimes stability and authority). She has exhibited her work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in United Kingdom (2017), Institute Francais Egypte in Cairo (2017), Second Street Gallery and Sewanee University in United States(2015-2016), the Goethe Institute Kairo (2014), and Al-Madina Theater in Beirut(2014). Currently she lives and work in Cairo.
https://prohelvetia.org.eg/en/