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Bermuda Chairs is a video by Aida el Kashef in collaboration with Manar Moursi and David Puig. Music by Aya Metwalli.

In the Sidewalk Salon is a video by Sarah and Salma Amir in collaboration with Manar Moursi and David Puig.
Bermuda Chairs, In the Sidewalk Salon Cairo, 2014

Bermuda Chairs (2014), a stop-motion animation created in collaboration with Aida el Kashef, features street chairs gathering and marching through a quiet Cairo street. This synchronized movement symbolizes resistance, defiance, and collective action. The chairs, typically utilitarian objects, are transformed into powerful symbols of unity and social cohesion, emphasizing the strength found in solidarity when addressing shared struggles.  

 In the Sidewalk Salon (2014), a collaboration with Sarah and Salma Amir, we incorporated interviews recorded between 2011-2015 for our book Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo. Using Polaroid photos and footage the twins captured from Cairo's streets, this video offers a poetic narrative centered on the ubiquitous street chair as a metaphor for the struggles of everyday people. One interviewee reflects on the fleeting nature of life, drawing on the phrase, "For you were made of dust and to dust you will return," suggesting that humanity is fundamentally unified in its experiences. The video weaves raw, unfiltered moments from Cairo’s streets, blending humor and somberness, while highlighting the stark disparities in power and privilege through the contrasting imagery of ornate thrones and worn chairs. Interviewees express frustration with the political elite clinging to "chairs of power" while the masses struggle for basic survival, calling for genuine leadership.

Video link


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