“LE TEMPS QUI PASSE…” BY MARIA SABA AT TINTERA

Le temps qui passe… is the first solo exhibition by Maria Saba in Cairo. Throughout the main gallery space of TINTERA, Saba presents four bodies of work from 2017 to the present day, in which she examines issues of identity and place in relation to living between two countries and cultures: Egypt and France.

Urban Jungle (2017-2022) is a photographic series that evokes the relationship between body language and the urban environment. Primarily focused on public spaces in both Egypt and France, the 15 black and white self-portraits mounted on aluminium and displayed like street signs, question Saba’s her ‘place’ within these various sites, illustrating the tension between the public, the private and the self.

Maria Saba, Urban Jungle 12, 2017-2021, UV cured inkjet on aluminium, 72 x 99 cm, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery
Maria Saba, Urban Jungle 12, 2017-2021, UV cured inkjet on aluminium, 72 x 99 cm, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery
Maria Saba, Urban Jungle 10, 2017-2021, UV cured inkjet on aluminium, 72 x 99 cm, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery
Maria Saba, Urban Jungle 10, 2017-2021, UV cured inkjet on aluminium, 72 x 99 cm, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery

The series Virtual Paintings (2020), are six time-based, photographic, performative and site-specific self-portraits. By revealing the slightest movement in the image, they emphasise both the temporal and the performative, immortalising a moment and slowing down time rendering the moment more visible. Without sound, these silent, moving photographs allude to the cinematic and yet they retain their photographic form.

Maria Saba, Unfading (Love),from the series Virtual Paintings, 2021-2022 , digital video loop, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery
Maria Saba, Unfading (Love),from the series Virtual Paintings, 2021-2022 , digital video loop, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery

Also on display, The Virgin’s Suicide, (2017-2022), is a multi media installation consisting of a large self-portrait, a ‘death mask’ and an audio component.

Maria Saba, The Virgin's Suicide, 2018-2022, archival pigment print, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery
Maria Saba, The Virgin’s Suicide, 2018-2022, archival pigment print, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery

Trying to Say Something (2020), is a short duration experimental video incorporating 16mm analogue film which explores the extreme condition of confinement experienced during the lockdown of the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Maria Saba, Trying to Say Something, Still 1, digital audio-video loop, 1:02min, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery
Maria Saba, Trying to Say Something, Still 1, digital audio-video loop, 1:02min, courtesy of the artist/TINTERA gallery

The exhibition is on view until the 6th of July, 2022

Courtesy of TINTERA Gallery

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