An excerpt of my film-in-progress “Voices from the Revolution” (working title) was screened at Mizna’s 7th Twin Cities Arab Film Fest on November 10, 2011 along with many other great Arab filmmakers at the beautiful historic Heights Theatre where, rumor has it, the crystal chandeliers reign from Egypt. Although initially hesitant to show a work still in progress, it was an opportunity to see what resonates with people.

I HAD A HECKLER.

I had a heckler, and perhaps in my tired state it didn’t phase me as much as it could have, or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that my heckler would have preferred to see a tourism video, either way he livened the discussion. Bless him for being so emotionally disturbed by my footage, as he felt this was not the time nor place to show “negative” visuals of the country he loves so much. Nor did he think I had an “authentic” voice as on several occasions he and his friends questioned my identity (which is ironic given the topic that dominated a panel discussion I was part of just hours before).

“I AM ALSO FROM EGYPT, AND ALSO HATED MUBARAK, AND ALSO LOVE THE REVOLUTION.”

We are from Egypt, he said, and we hate Mubarak, and we love the Revolution! Where? Where do you come from? Where are these buildings? We have skyscrapers in Egypt!

His sentiment was clear, he felt I was somehow hijacking the revolution. He disliked my film and, I never thought I would say this but, I am so glad he did! While perhaps he misunderstood my intentions, he had a very strong reaction to the footage. And at the end of the day, any artist would wish for that.

photos by NidoPhotography.com

I am very happy to share with you information about Voices from the Revolution, an experimental documentary I am directing! I see this project as a platform to discuss very important issues addressed by the film including democratization of communication, rights to internet access, impact of neglected infrastructure, and importance of historical structures, among others. This is not another documentary about the revolution but rather an artistic presentation that not only gives you intimate insight on what the emotional state of the people was before their government fell but also features beautiful architecture in Cairo, much of which has been abandoned, neglected and forgotten, relaying the context in which revolution happened.

To contribute to the project:
http://www.hebaamin.com/speak2Tweet.html

Also, please join our Facebook group to help spread the word:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Voices-from-the-Revolution/150658441691544?sk=wall

Kunst am Spreeknie 2011, Schoeneweide, Berlin July 23, 2011

Projection Performance by Heba Amin and Marc Fantini
http://www.meinschoeneweide.de/index.php?option=com_content&​view=article&id=143&Itemid=344

Photos courtesy of Kareem Hammam

I was abroad during the 18 days of revolution and returned to Cairo a couple weeks after February 11, 2011 when Mubarak stepped down. I felt I had missed out on the revolution’s 18 days of “utopia” and, like any Egyptian away during that time, I wanted to go to Tahrir square immediately. It just so happened that that day was March 8th: International Women’s Day. I thought surely there would be many women there, and it would be a beautiful symbolic moment, because now was the time, if there was any right time. But the outcome was something entirely different, and oh so disappointing: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/03/09/long-battle-ahead-egyptian-women

I was successfully intimidated that day, but at the same time I couldn’t pass up the window of time of what my friends described as a photographer’s haven. Egyptians have always had a paranoia towards picture taking, especially if you aren’t photographing the standard touristy “beauty” shots. It isn’t the easiest thing to take pictures in public space, and I’ve been stopped many times before. But for the first time, I went downtown and took pics without any problems as people assumed I was documenting something revolution related. That, and the fact that there was no police presence helped matters.

I ended up with these photos that reveal a complete fantasy, with European looking figures and European looking buildings and am writing up a piece about the body politic in the context of Cairo’s urban infrastructure, especially in the context of the revolution and that day, in particular.

These quick animations with their raw drawing style, primitive animation techniques, and quirky sounds explore instances of the city. The figures resemble something familiar, something man-made, yet with strange combinations that give them an otherworldly appearance. They emerge in post-industrial landscapes and reveal a sort of futuristic fantasy that addresses correlations between memory and machines.

Drawings: Heba Amin
Sound: Marc Fantini

Dar el Shorouk, Egyptian publishing house, has published the arabic version of “Extraordinary Women”, a children’s book I illustrated in 2008. The book can be found at major bookstores in Egypt. More information on their website: http://www.shorouk.com/

Images of the book can be seen here: http://www.hebaamin.com/womenBook.html#images/WomenBook/01.jpg

Heba Amin (Kairo / Berlin) – Projektion und Zeichnung
Angiola Bonanni (Madrid / Rom) – Installation und Videoschein
Emily Pütter (Berlin / Madrid) – Zeichnung und Widerschein
Ausstellung vom 29. April bis 30. Juni 2011.

Wir laden Sie herzlich zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung “1256 Stunden Schein” am Donnerstag, 28. April 2011, um 19:00 Uhr in den Industriesalon Schöneweide, Reinbeckstr. 9, 12459 Berlin, ein.

more information here:
http://industriesalon.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=9

A piece on RBB about the industrial heritage of Oberschöneweide briefly highlighting a project with Graduate students at HTW and their mobile mapping project of the neighborhood’s structures and history.

Faszinosum Industriekultur – Ein vernachlässigtes Stück Heimat?
Immer noch werden Schornsteine gesprengt und Tuchfabriken abgerissen. Was sind die Zeugnisse einst besserer Wirtschaftszeiten heute noch wert? Wie kann man sie mit neuem Leben erfüllen? Eine glückliche Synthese gelang in Oberschöneweide, wo hinter alten AEG-Fassaden technische Kulturgüter – ob Brennabor-Motorrad von 1908 oder DDR-Ventilator – so sorgsam behandelt werden wie wertvolle Gemälde.
http://www.rbb-online.de/ozon/archiv/ozon_unterwegs_am4/faszinosum_industriekultur.html

In the wake of what is happening in Egypt right now, I have been rethinking a project I have been working on for the past year. My current work explores narrative through abandoned structures. It addresses the paradox of monuments and memorials as spaces of commemoration that dictate how people remember. Cairo and its clichés of a romanticized Ancient Egypt is banking on fantasy through its tourism industry. The contemporary identity of Cairo is confused, where Egyptians are constantly defined by their country’s history rather than the present moment. Today, while its ancient monuments still define the city, Cairo’s contemporary infrastructure is in a deteriorating state. Heavily populated with abandoned structures, the visuals of the city reveal the neglect for the city’s infrastructure and a disregard for space and resources that could be utilized to aid millions living in poverty. My work attempts to raise awareness to the haphazard structures outnumbering the monuments that represent Cairo. It attempts to depict the harsh reality of the physical state of the city and address the role that the urban infrastructure plays in instigating unrest amongst its inhabitants.

So now the unrest has occurred. It was bound to happen, you could feel it and see it and smell it. After days of clashes, human loss, property destruction, and an economic crash Egypt will face an overwhelmingly long road to recovery. Part of me can’t help but wonder whether or not it is even possible for a new government to give Cairo a face-lift. What will become of the multi-million dollar building projects for Egypt’s elite that were allowed under a corrupt government? What will become of Egypt’s urban planning, which until now has seemingly been progressing sans plan? As for abandoned Cairo, perhaps we can hope for a preservation of a neglected past that is significant to our story but probably unlikely at this point.

I hope for the future that we will not rebuild the city as a construct of a fantasized past. I hope the new narratives of Egypt will incorporate all Egyptians here and now and not ones of a city that never existed except as a construct of flawed memory. The uprising revealed a lot about the way our world works. Are our memories individualistic and self-fulfilling or can we preserve a collective reality of the past which, in turn, helps us build a present that is inclusive of everyone? Times are uncertain. For the first time Egyptians feel they are reclaiming what is theirs. They are cleaning their streets. Egyptians have waited decades for this moment and deserve to not only have pride in their past but, more importantly, pride in an Egypt that supports and promotes the inclusion and well-being of every Egyptian today.

Tower Bawher is a 2005 constructivist-style abstract animated short by Theodore Ushev, set to the musical composition “Time, Forward!” by Russian composer Georgy Sviridov.

The film’s title is an allusion to Tatlin’s Tower, an unbuilt structure conceived by Vladimir Tatlin as a tribute to the glory of the proletariat. Drawing on the tower’s design, the film seems to build toward a utopian goal, until the grandiose, futuristic forms abruptly tumble. In Tower Bawher, Ushev celebrates constructivist art while also critiquing the use of art in the service of ideology. The film contains visual references to such Soviet era artists as Dziga Vertov, the Stenberg brothers, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Lyubov Popova.