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.
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.
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.
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.
The exhibition is on view until the 6th of July, 2022
Courtesy of TINTERA Gallery