The View From Cairo: probing the rise of the “Made in Egypt” aesthetic movement

To speak about the present Egyptian design landscape, I find myself sorting through an array of “low-resolution” images from the past. Bringing these images into focus is imperative if we want to trace the emergence of distinct aesthetic qualities currently permeating the Egyptian cultural landscape across graphic design, music, fashion photography, and film. I believe these qualities can be encapsulated in the phrase, ‘Made in Egypt’.

This ‘Made in Egypt’ aesthetic describes the synthesis and embrace of local and regional street cultures, and revitalised interest in traditional crafts, calligraphy, graphic practices, kitsch visuals, and the vernacular. To probe and contextualise this aesthetic, I want to look at its history and evolution.

This interest in local culture, although sporadic, has been present over the past century, with slight contextual differences across generations. Nevertheless, Egyptian creative practitioners seem to always circle back to these subjects and themes, perhaps as part of an ongoing quest for a yet unrealised post-colonial identity.

To fully understand this aesthetic, I think we need to start by looking at how Egyptian culture has been represented through the Western gaze – because one cannot ignore the echoes of these representations in contemporary Egyptian cultural expressions.

In early ethnography, orientalist art, and travel literature, Egypt consistently appeared as the quintessential object of the colonial gaze, viewed through a lens that accentuated its otherness, reinforcing a colonial narrative of inferiority.

Orientalist photographs of Egyptian culture were frequently turned into postcards. These photographs claimed to offer “real” glimpses of Egyptian culture, as opposed to the “subjective” expressions of orientalist art. They facilitated the widespread dissemination of an “exotic” perception of the so-called Orient, enticing Western audiences with the allure of these “marvellous” lands.

Following Egypt's independence, numerous Western fashion photographers began using Egypt as a backdrop, where the rugged, heritage-rich environment starkly contrasted with Western high fashion and “modernity”. This positioning of Egypt exposes a neocolonial thread in which the Western gaze continues to control and commodify the representation of non-Western spaces.

In 2010, fresh out of the Fine Arts school in Cairo, I gravitated towards a very vibrant visual arts, music, and design scene. We embraced the global post-internet art movement and discovered a new language of expression through digital anomalies — glitches, errors, dithers, gifs, pixels, and the bitmap. Alongside that, numerous creative practitioners drew inspiration from street culture, the vernacular, pop-culture, and kitsch visual elements.

Throughout the 2000s, music and design converged harmoniously at various cultural venues. One such venue was the Townhouse Gallery, a centre (albeit Western owned) that advocated for cultural exchange and experimentation. Musicians frequented the gallery and, in dialogue with the various genres of music they were rubbing up against, explored what constituted authentic contemporary Egyptian music. Many of them experimented with electronic music, dabbling with Shaabi and Mahraganat samples, as well as elements from the street soundscapes and traditional musical instruments.

Visual elements that accompanied this music (CD covers, posters, etc.) mirrored this curiosity around local identity through graphic experimentation. Yet, despite the gallery's cultural vibrancy, it exposed inherent tensions. There was a fine line to navigate between advocating for local culture and engaging global audiences — often sparking debates on cultural authenticity and neocolonial influences.

Amidst the hope and frustration that marked the unfolding of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the need for a cohesive national identity grew more urgent.

In 2013, Egyptian designer Omar Mobarak founded Unty, a fashion brand inspired by the streets of contemporary Cairo. After the brand gained traction for its unique exploration of street and pop cultures, it helped preserve interest in these local aesthetics.

A 2017 documentary by Egyptian musician and filmmaker Wael Alaa, titled Bulaq, features a journey into one of Cairo’s most impoverished neighbourhoods, the epicentre of an emerging music genre Mahraganat (‘festivals’ in Arabic). The film is a thoughtful inquiry and a historically important one: it was neither a Western interpretation, nor a superficial feature by local media of the culture behind this genre. According to Alaa, the film “sought to challenge class perceptions of these less privileged musicians [...] drawing attention to the originality and authenticity of their music and culture”. However, its platforming by Nowness inadvertently signalled to other aspiring local creatives that this culture holds currency in the Global North, opening it up to both genuine curiosity and appropriation for commercial interests.

In 2019, the launch of ZOOBA’s branding, designed by New York-based Jessica Walsh, introduced a “polished” interpretation of Egyptian street aesthetics, aiming to appeal to a higher Egyptian social class and a Western audience. The branding, rooted in the designer’s perception of the “beauty of Cairo”, which in reality were spaces of socio-economic struggles, raises concerns about neocolonial dynamics. The fetishisation of poverty and decay and the “palatable” repackaging of Egyptian culture for Western consumption was far from a new phenomena. Nonetheless, it is worth acknowledging the thoughtful inclusion of local talents from these areas in the design process — a theme of integration that continues with the visual identity of the 100/100 project designed by 40 Mustaqel, in 2022, Kairo Kitsch, Hadath al-Khat (calligraphy event), and others.

When we look at the current Egyptian cultural landscape, we see reinvigorated interest in Arabic calligraphy, traditional crafts and a surge in preservation and documentation initiatives, as well as a heightened interest in street culture and an embrace of aesthetics often dismissed as “low-culture”.

This convergence of efforts signals that something thrilling is simmering under the surface of Egypt's current cultural landscape. A movement is emerging that attempts to anchor our creative expressions — that are inextricably linked to our identities — in both our traditions and contemporary local realities. Yet, there are several interconnected tensions that make this pursuit a precarious one. There is a tension between cultural authenticity and the pervasive Western gaze, and the risk of replicating neocolonial dynamics. There is also a fine line between genuine curiosity and inspiration, and appropriation and exploitation. Navigating these intricate tensions is pivotal as we seek to define what it means for contemporary Egyptian creative expression to be authentically “Made in Egypt”.

Moe shares some exciting local design events and endeavours coming to Cairo this month, including a print exhibition, a design film festival, and an important social impact project.

• The CairoPrints exhibition by Cairopolitan is back for its fifth round, celebrating over 180 local and regional artists. It opens on 18 October 2024, with an exhibition poster designed by Shennawy.

• Cairo-based design film festival Film My Design will take place from 3–12 October, 2024, at Zawya Cinema and Consoleya in Downtown Cairo.

• Cluster Cairo launches a new social impact project, titled Community Care Vehicle, a locally produced innovative tricycle-based vehicle, which includes a set of basic equipment to treat and transport patients not in critical conditions as well as wheelchair users. A beta version of the vehicle capable of reaching narrow streets will be operated in a trial period by local organisations in Ard al-Liwa in coordination with official authorities.