The need to be part of a precise geopolitical and cultural context and to maintain strong ties with his roots is a fundamental aspect of Moataz Nasr’s life and work. The media he draws on most frequently are installation and video installation, which he uses to offer a reading of the complexities of Egyptian life. Lyrical but also lucid and objective, Nasr’s work explores human weaknesses, power relations and the relationship between high culture and popular culture.
In 1968 Abdel Rahman El Sharkawi wrote a novel entitled “El Ard”, “The Earth”. It discussed the Egyptian struggle against the British Occupation at a time where the World was suffering from the economic depression, specifically, year 1933. In 1969, Youssef Shahine took the novel and turned it into a movie, keeping the same title, “El Ard”.
One of the most important sequences of the Movie takes place in a village house in which the male villagers are gathered. In that sequence the main character Abou Swelem expresses his frustration at noticing the Egyptian people’s attitude, and how passive they have become.
In year 2003, Motaz Nasr took a video of Chirine el Ansary, Egyptian storyteller. She is standing in the middle of a Down Town Cairo coffee shop and is repeating the monologue as it was in the movie, but on the spur of the moment. In The Echo, the two sequences are taken and projected in front of one another, echoing each other, thus pointing at the stagnant political and social situation of the last 70 years. |
