ADAPTED FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FARIDA YOUSSEF
BY MEGAN ORTIZ FERREIRA V.
Malak Yacout, Living Spaces of Murmur: A Thousand and One Voices
Installation views by Georges and Samuel Mohsen Photography
Cairo-based curator Farida Youssef approaches her work with a penchant for exploring the value of spatial theory for artistic inquiries. In the process, Youssef’s curatorial endeavors have bolstered the booming art scene in Egypt. After curating The Valley of Walls, one of apexart’s International Open call winners, in October of 2023, Youssef quickly pivoted to curate The City is Stuck to My Skin in November of that same year - part of the third edition of Something Else at the Citadel by Darb1718.
After receiving her Master’s degree in European Philosophy from University College London (UCL), where she spent time learning about aesthetic theory and its relationship to spatial theory, Youssef decided to pursue a career as a curator. This decision led her to apply and be selected for a fellowship at The British Museum, where she worked in the archives of the Egypt and Sudan Department, examining how their exhibitions evolved, what questions the department and museum were asking, and what image of Egypt they wanted to portray.
….
Cairo is “a chaotic city… it’s always changing and you never really know how to pin it down in just one word,” states Youssef. Within this hecticness, the artists — Ehab Behairy, Karim El Hayawan, Amina Kadous, Maria Saba, Mahmoud Talaat, Ali Zaaray, and Fares Zaitoon — manipulated photography to illustrate how they relate to the city and how it has made them feel. With the exception of Behairy, the artists altered their images through different printing techniques or by displaying them in various ways. The City is Stuck to My Skin questions documentary photography as the artists’ manipulations turn the documentary into the uncanny and the city becomes overwhelming.
Fascinated by the way photography was introduced to Egypt through colonialism, Youssef uses exhibitions as a way of questioning who is taking a picture and who or what the subject of that image is, as well as how photographs materialize and the various ways they can be manipulated. In these interrogations, Youssef views the camera as an extension of one’s eye and hand and illustrates how a photograph isn’t limited to what you see but how it makes you see or feel something.
To read more, email Tribe for a copy of Issue 14.