PHOTOGRAPHY and SOUND INSTALLATION

13 a.m. is a photography and sound installation exhibit. It is composed of an assembly of images capturing the crowded public spaces of Ardellewa, a suburban “slum” in Greater Cairo, Egypt, accompanied by an acoustic journey through the immersive sound­scape of Ardellewa as it travels around the clock, into the extra hour (13 a.m.). The exhibition is the product of a three­month­residency in Ardellewa. Once an agricultural farm land, Ardellewa is now a testimony to urban misery; a site for urban sprawl and refuse, clusters of overpopulation and below the belt­line poverty. The exhibition is a process of haunting change/constancy through two components "space and time" analyzed in the context of Ardellewa.

Space: The first part is composed of snapshots of daily life in the public space of Ardellewa, focusing on the intimate, the private and the personal in the general assembly of life on the streets, through glimpses of the intimately decorated Tok­Toks (tricycle vehicles used as a method of transportation) that exude the private desires, dreams and fantasies of the inhabitants, or the home furniture (sofas and bed­pieces) that line the street corners of the crowded alleys casting a homey feel to a haphazard public arena, etc... Ardellewa is an area of blurred distinctions between the private and the public spaces.

Time: The second part is a sonic trip depicting the soundscape of Ardellewa a cacophony of sounds lifted from the streets which stream through a loop, from morning break until nightfall and back again, street sellers and workers, car horns, Tok­Tok songs, coffee shop conversations, recorded music, stray dogs, etc... A combination of sounds that create the sensational experience of the immersive environment that is Ardellewa. An acoustic journey through the crowded space as it travels through a symphony into the night and back into day.

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