Cairo. Open City. was a traveling group show I both project-managed during the research phase in Cairo and later co-curated. The German fraction of the International Association of Art Critics IAAC (AICA Deutschland) named Cairo. Open City. the exhibition of the year 2013. The project was shown in various forms at the following venues:
Museum für Fotografie Braunschweig
Photography Museum Braunschweig
September 23–December 23, 2012
5. Europäischer Monat der Fotografie Berlin EMOP (das grösste deutsche Fotofestival)
5th European Month of Photography Berlin (Germany’s largest photography festival)
October 19–November 25, 2012
Museum Folkwang
March 2–May 5, 2013
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts
August 16–November 11, 2013
East Wing
Doha, Qatar
March 19–May 15, 2014
(Edited from the original text) The exhibition presents photographic works [made in] Cairo. In this age of digital recording technology and the omnipresence of images on the Internet, photography plays a key role as a medium of direct testimony and self-presentation. The exhibition investigated the role that pictures play in representing [events] and which players and public forms they reach and influence.
The curators from Egypt and Germany were not only interested in exploring the relationship between the photos and their wide range of interpretation and usage in photography and art, but also the dialogue between graduates and students of art, photography and visual studies at the Universities of Braunschweig and Nîmes. These young scholars spent three weeks in Cairo collaborating with their Egyptian counterparts. The project was organized in cooperation with the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Nîmes and an artists’ collective in Cairo.
Featuring photographs, videos, drawings and texts by: Myriam Abdelaziz, Ahmed Abdel Latif, Peter van Agtmael, Mostafa Bahgat, Lara Baladi, Ahmed Basiony, Taha Belal, Eva Bertram, Denis Dailleux, Osama Dawod, Kaya Behkalam, Johanna Domke and Marouan Omara, Heba El Kholi, Shady Elnoshokaty, Mosa’ab Elshamy, Mohamed El Maymony, Mohamed El Sheshtawy, Rowan El Shimi, Mohamed Ezz, Fadi Ezzat, Heba Farid, Nermine Hammam, Thomas Hartwell, Aly Hazaa, Tarek Hefny, Eman Helal, Gigi Ibrahim, Magdi Ibrahim, Ahmed Kamel, Mahmoud Khaled, Heba Khalifa, Nadine Khan and Mariam Mekiwi, Alex Majoli, Jasmina Metwaly, Chris Michalski and Sebastian Stumpf, George Mohsen, Samuel Mohsen, Jehan Nasr, Mohammad Nouhan, Nasser Nouri, Alex Nunns, Maggie Osama, Jonathan Rashad, Ivor Prickett, Philip Rizk, Ibrahim Saad, Randa Shaath, Ravy Shaker, Lobna Tarek, Lilian Wagdy, Sally Zohny
In February 2012 ten students from the Braunschweig University of Art travelled to Cairo with their professors Dörte Eißfeldt and Bettina Lockeman in order to meet with fellow art students from Egypt. A number of works resulted from this creative exchange, as did with encounters with students from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes. These artworks were also included in the final exhibition.
Artistic directors: Florian Ebner, Constanze Wicke
Curators: Randa Shaath, Tamer El Said, Lara Baladi, Heba Farid, Alexandra Stock, Bettina Lockemann, Dörte Eißfeldt, Katharina Sykora, Brigitte Bauer
Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut
Alexandra Stock 
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