Within a few days he showed me the contact sheet. “This one has the magic,” he said.

When I look at it now, I never see me. I see us.

This exhibition is inspired by the quote from “Just Kids”, a memoir penned by the poet, artist and singer Patti Smith about her complicated and intimate relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. The quote refers to a black and white photographic portrait he shot of her for the cover of her first album in 1975. Smith’s words suggest that artists are often present in their works even when they are not the subjects.

Featuring video, photography, photomontage, painting and drawing, the show brings together a group of works in which artist and subject are inextricably bound. Many of the works stem from a private story, a recurring memory or an intense personal experience. They compress and translate, through the physical form of an artwork, intangible desires and vulnerabilities. Because of the introspective and psychological nature of the work, they often trigger in the viewer a sense of unease, as if they are seeing or partaking in something that is not quite legitimate. And often, beneath the veneer of the personal revelations, more complex and collective power relations reveal themself.

Artists:

Doa Aly

Tamara Al-Samerraei

Shady Elnoshokaty

Nermine Hammam

Mahmoud Khaled

Jumana Manna

Setareh Shahbazi