Untitled (Cairo)
2010
Iron, paint, marble, artificial leather.
Installation dimensions variable
Created on-site, this work features replicated pairs of café tables and chairs sourced from Maison Groppi, a renowned Cairo tea shop. The tables and chairs are interconnected by welded iron bars, rendering them immobile and creating a blockage in a long corridor intended to connect different galleries within Cairo's Palace of Arts. The deliberate spacing between the tables and chairs prevents communication, contradicting the corridor's intended function.
The sculpture is part of a series of works that explore themes of the body, distance, proximity, tension, and the desire for communication, using standard furniture elements as raw material. These include Strength (2013), High Five (2015) and Idle (2017).
With support from the Federal Office of Culture.
Switzerland's official contribution to the 12th Cairo International Art Biennale, 2010. Photo: Studio Luca Frei