Trailblazers

Trailblazers is an inquiry into Egypt’s feminist history using socially engaged self-portraiture, performance, and the public archive as tools to reclaim and inscribe a counter-history.

Trailblazers is an inquiry into Egypt’s feminist history. Growing up, I was deeply impacted by Egyptian films that were made from the 1940s to the 1960s—a period known as the golden age of cinema in Egypt—in which women played powerful leading roles, and a pivotal period in Egyptian history. These portrayals were in stark contrast to the conservative reality that I witnessed the women around me navigate from the 90s onwards. Responding to this dissonance, I build an archive informed by a feminist impulse. Through performance, influenced by studio portraiture in mid-twentieth century Egypt, particularly by Armenian Egyptian photographer, Van Leo, I embody different narratives of trailblazing women—often overlooked by mainstream records—and present multiple readings of female liberation.