Heidrun Holzfeind

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Friday market (Cairo)
2008, series of 10 digital C prints, 11x14"

The photographs were taken during the course of one day at Cairo’s Souk Gomma (Friday Market) in a popular neighborhood in the outskirts of Cairo. In the early morning hours, every Friday, locals and vendors from all over the city set up their products for sale along the train tracks framed by the highway and the Al-Imam As Safi’i cemetery – from used radios, books, clothing, house ware, tools, bicycles, broken telephones or light bulbs to living animals such as pigeons or dogs. The ground around the train tracks is littered with the remains of discarded, once for sale items. In the late afternoon the sellers pack up and the neigborhood is taken over again by the locals.
The slide film was developed in Cairo. Due to the use of old lab chemicals the images have a tint reminiscent of old photographs which augments the friction between the present reality of the site, its past and future.

...In many parts of the world, make shift markets are regularly installed which disturb the flow and transit of the city. In spite of complaints of motorists and interventions of urban planners, these markets do not conform to the demands of official structures of society but rather follow a traditional and popular logic. Beyond the picturesque appearance which presents itself to the foreign gaze, the temporary space of the market evolves from a reconciliation between tradition and practical necessity which ignores governmental norms and facilitates the relations between sellers and buyers – relations which do not conform to customs and tax laws of the official economy.
Holzfeind documents the Friday Market with cinematographic camera movements and wide angle views. The processing of the slides with old, bad chemicals causes a tint in the pictures reminiscent of old photographs. This “accidental” aging of a contemporary recording, as well as the panoramic view create an epic effect which refers to the inevitable ruptures between social reality and social project in the region. (Jorge Reynoso Pohlenz)

commissioned by the Austrian art magazine "Quart Heft für Kultur Tirol #13" with a text by Jorge Reynoso Pohlenz
www.haymonverlag.at