Visions of a Contaminated Memory
About
Visions of a Contaminated Memory is a 2007 three-channel 5-minutes experimental video by Egyptian-French visual artist and filmmaker Khaled Hafez. The work is shot in mini-DV format and assembled with found-and- television footage in a diary-like narrative. Commissioned by the 6th Sharjah Biennale, directed by Jack Persekian. Synopsis The 5-minute three-channel video project (U-shaped projection) takes a comparative visual approach to past and present in the city of Cairo, once one of the most beautiful cities during the early years of the twentieth century. The decline in public taste, manifested by images of degraded architecture, is insinuated upon and explored. The right screen shows overlapping imagery of deserts and Cairo people from the twenties till the fifties of the twentieth century. The left screen shows overlapping imagery of water currents from the Nile shot upon a trip on the once popular Nile boat / bus, a continuum that hosts Cairo people of the new millennium. This juxtaposition is split by the front projection that shows manipulated deja-vu material, found and TV material footage, representing the official media machine of a 1952 military coup-d’etat / revolution. Info Three-Channel video installation and single-channel adaptation Mini-DV, stock images, footage & text Duration: 5 minutes Year of Production: 2007 Producer: Khaled Hafez and Sharjah Biennale Credits: Concept and Script: Khaled Hafez Shooting: Khaled Hafez Editor: Mohamed El Sharkawi Copyrights: Khaled Hafez Public Screenings: Sharjah Biennale, UAE, 2007 Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany, 2007 Fotofest Biennale, Houston, Texas, USA, 2014 57th Venice Biennale, National Pavilion of Grenada, Italy, 2017
