P2.2 / project content — Manar Moursi

The initial work was shown at SOMA in Mexico City in 2019. Artist Su Yu filmed me, assisted by Marwa ben Halim. In 2021, Montserrat Cattaneo filmed me. A second part of this work, "Platanos y Momias," was shown at SOMA, Mexico City, in 2021.

Blue-Black

Rivering Together – Publication

Funeral at the Edge of Drought (WIP)

Blue-Black Liver

Rivering Together – Publication

Funeral at the Edge of Drought (WIP)

Rivering Together – Publication

Summer, God, Rain

Rainbow Moon

Mist Me: Me Mist

Two Stones and Heaven is a Fountain in the Garden of Your Veins

Everything That Remains to be Lived

Dismemberment: Night in Mourning

Rivering Together

Palm Beach

A Light, A Loudspeaker, A Tower

The Loudspeaker and the Tower at TSV

The Loudspeaker and the Tower Zine

The Loudspeaker and the Tower at KAG

Mud, Minarets, and Meaningless Events

Stairway to Heaven

Storm Over Cairo

Mummy Issues Part I: I am not your Mummy

Mummy Issues: Part II: Platanos y Momias

Wonderbox

You can’t Get Blood From A Stone

Bermuda Chairs, In the Sidewalk Salon

Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs in Cairo

Sidewalk Salon at Pikaro

Sidewalk Salon at Onomatopoee

Parks Under Siege

My country is not a suitcase, and I am not a traveler

Kodak Green Oasis

Transient Utopias

Ladders and Ladders

Making "Sense": In Search of Lost Weather

Courtyard House

Deliciosa

Evaporative Clay, Palm Crate Canopy Kit

S-Table

Air, Earth, and Sky

Bamiyan Cultural Center

Mapping Cairo

Off The Gireed

Q House

Sand Sedge House

Science City

Screen House

Small Talk

Plátanos y Momias SOMA, San Rafael and Mexico City, 2021

During a 2021 residency in Veracruz, I revisited my 2019 video performance Mummy Issues: I Am Not Your Mummy, repeating the act of wrapping and unwrapping myself—this time in a cemetery and a banana plantation. The cemetery performance emphasized memory, death, and cultural heritage, while the plantation highlighted the harmful impacts of mono-crop farming introduced in Veracruz in the 19th century. This farming practice, driven by colonial legacies and foreign investment, caused environmental degradation and economic exploitation of local communities. It was also in this banana plantation that a local family found archaeological artifacts that now form part of their informal collection. During my residency, I met this family and learned about their collection, which inspired further exploration.

My draft artist book, Plátanos y Momias, explores informal collections in Mexico, featuring photographs of the artifacts and examining their role in preserving heritage. The text contrasts informal collections with state-held ones, raising questions about the dissemination of cultural heritage and the fate of Mexican and Egyptian artifacts exported globally. Additionally, I explore the phenomenon of Egyptomania and its colonial framing of Egyptian heritage, critiquing how it shaped the Western portrayal of artifacts. At SOMA, I presented this draft publication with a tape mold of my body, a two-channel video installation of I Am Not Your Mummy, and an edible pyramid, creating a constellation that addresses the decolonization of museums, objects, and bodies.