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This Egypt, we do not see anywhere else; Intense, intimate images, stories told from the inside by 16 young Egyptian photographers, men and women. The result is stunning. "Hakawi" promises " stories of a contemporary Egypt ". This salutary exhibition invests the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, as part of the Biennale of Photographers of the Contemporary Arab World.
Promise held. In the four floors of the exhibition, no trace of exoticism or Orientalism, but stories of an Egypt lived from within. Each of these stories is irreplaceable. All put together, they set off a little irresistible tune on today's Egypt.
" On their own, they want to document and tell their country, their society," explains co-curator Bruno Boudjelal , himself a photographer and a member of the Vu Agency, while knowing that in Egypt, doing this type of photography, we do not live. They really have that commitment. "
The gateways of Mai Al Shazly show us the way. With a keen sense of derision and the eagle eyes of a sociologist, this 34-year-old artist, born in Cairo, examines " the way people invest and decorate the entrance to their apartments ."
The motive is limited, but everything goes: creativity, despair, wealth, poverty, graffiti of claims and insipid inscriptions ... Public Performance is the deliberate lighting of the involuntary staging 'a society through gateways finally not so commonplace.
Mohamed Anwar plunges us into the night. Sitting behind his camera, this independent videographer, born in 1996 in Giza, captures in the city the nocturnal presence of passers-by: the way they walk, dress, move alone, in pairs or in groups, with bags or empty, veiled, helmeted or bearded ... " At night, we show our true" me ". We are more relaxed. So here we see the "real" people. "
With Fares Zaitoon , we enter the drug rehabilitation centers in Egypt. A former drug addict himself, this 29-year-old self-taught photographer is fighting for the true atmosphere of these places of mutual aid. His visual language imbued with nightmares seeks to free these castaways from society of their feeling of shame and madness.
The Way to Hell , the life before and after failed suicide attempts, is documented by Hesham Elsherif . Born in 1997 in Fayoum, himself affected by depression, he brings up the words and actions of his characters. Attempts to find the light in the middle of the night.
Fatma Fahmy interprets stolen tramway images as a metaphor for society: tired faces of workers, embellished or veiled girls, looking through dirty windows ... " The locomotive seems infallible, but for how long ? Wonders the 28-year-old photographer based in Cairo.
The common point of all these series exposed: a certain spirit of self-determination. This also affects the photos of Roger Ani , born in 1986 in Menia. He invites us to spend with him a summer day at the beach. A whole fringe of Egyptian society is parading before its objective.
Decisive detail: it is they who decide where, with whom and how they will be photographed, explains Bruno Boudjelal. " Photographers, they tell us : we, this orientalism that was very present when we showed Egypt, we have enough. We want to show our stories. It also speaks of their awareness. "
Ebrahim El Moly was 19 years old during the Arab Spring. Today, his fuzzy, offbeat and misleading images in Once Upon A Time are reminiscent of the events of 2011, but especially of the hopes, dreams and loved ones lost during the revolution.
The exhibition speaks more about the freedoms and less limits of society and photography in Egypt. To the point of forgetting the question of human rights regularly pointed out by Amnesty International ?
" Yes, it also speaks of things, underlying things, says Bruno Boudjelal. It's subtle. When we see the problems around this cement plant where people are being intoxicated, the way women can be treated, that speaks to that, but it's not frontal. "
Getting closer to reality and bodies in Egypt
Exemplary by their subtle and powerful approach, the images of Heba Khamis touch us in the heart. Transit Bodies puts us close to reality and transgender bodies in Egypt. For the 30-year-old photographer, this experience made her understand things that were both simple and existential that she had never imagined before.
" I discovered that behind all these fights, this desire to change gender, there is the observation that our body is our first and only home. But transgender people struggle with that. Their body, their "house", does not represent them. They do not feel at home. "
Born in Alexandria and already awarded with prestigious awards like the World Press Photo, Heba Khamis is a surprising artist: her young voice contrasts with her inner calm, her youthful face surrounded by a veil seems to contradict her extraordinary experiences. In fact, his exhibition challenges the writings of the Qur'an against the cruel reality of transgender people in Egyptian society:
" I have discovered that for Islam, being transgender does not pose a problem, but it is a cultural problem and individuals who can not accept it. When she began to expose her images in Egypt, the reactions were very mixed: " They always have these stereotypes in mind and think that transgender people ruin our culture and our society and that they do this only to satisfy their sexual desires . "
As with many of the photographers at the Hakawi exhibition, the Arab Spring was a turning point in his life. That's when she made her decision to become a photographer. " I always wanted to have a camera. After school, it's the photojournalism that chose me somehow ... I started during the revolution and I did both revolutions, 2011 and 2013. It was dangerous and very hard, but also very important to document that moment. "
Today she is dedicated to documentaries and social issues such as "breast ironing" in Cameroon or male prostitution of refugees in Germany. His approach to the subject of transgender people in Egypt is of great delicacy in his photographic compositions. Only the position of the body refers to the suppression suffered by society and the anxieties provoked. A trans man remembers trouble when he had his first period as a girl. Another confesses her fear of not knowing whether God will judge her as a man or a woman.
It was the meeting with Dahab, a trans woman, who started her project. " Despite a surgery, she did not dare to go out like a woman outside. With me, she came out for the first time dressed like a woman in the street. She could finally put on high heels and hear her footsteps. I had chills. For me, this sound was a banal thing, for her it was her dream. "
Being a woman and a photographer in Egypt
" The soul is more important than anything, " says Hana Gamal , speaking of her resurrected feelings in the form of prints torn from the shadows. " It's in black and white to bring a certain feeling to the viewer. With color photos, that would not be the case. "
His project We're All Fugitives , "We're all fugitives," explores the depths of the human soul. She transforms a bus window into a mirror of society, shows the interior of a house as a metaphor for a life in perdition or dwells on a woman sitting, eyes closed, next to a man standing, supported on a cane.
Far from usual images or events, his shots are guided by his emotions related to the outside world. Like this old woman whose sad face is partly masked by a cushion in the shape of a heart. " She was so alone. Her husband is dead, all her children are married. All he has left is this little shop. It's human to feel lonely and vulnerable. I felt a connection between her and me. So I took this picture. "
Being a woman and a photographer in Egypt means " combining two battles," says co-curator Diane Augier. And the women we present here are really fighters who have managed to win as artists. "
For Hana Gamal, there are also positive sides. " Because I'm a woman, I can go into houses, sit with women and spend time with them to listen to their stories. I put them in the light. "
Born in 1993 in Cairo, Hana Gamal became a photographer at the age of 18 in 2011. " It was totally by chance. Everything started during the revolution, January 25 , it triggered my passion for photography. At the time, I was studying [arts-communication and psychology] at university. At the same time, I observed everything that was happening and I wanted to document it. I had the impression that the story was happening before my eyes. It was a strange feeling. So, I started taking pictures with my cell phone. Since then, it has become my life [laughing]. It was absolutely not planned. But I can not stop taking photos anymore ... "
► Hakawi, stories of a contemporary Egypt , exhibition at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris, from 11 to 28 September 2019.
► Read also: The limits of freedom of thought in Egypt: Alaa El Aswany , rfi, 18/5/2019
► Read also: Biennial photographers of the Arab world: Algeria and Tunisia in the spotlight, rfi, 15/9/2017
► See also: The Arab world photographed by a pioneering Biennale, rfi, 11/11/2015