Egypt’s youth, the spark behind the country’s revolution, including both familiar faces and unknowns, have disappeared from screens – and that’s not all: they are nowhere to be seen on the streets either. The country’s future has been reduced to silence, muzzled, gagged, stifled. In the land of the pharaohs, repression against young people has become fierce and arbitrary. Since Field Marshal El Sissi came to power, a policy of terror has been rolled out indiscriminately, hitting activists and political opponents hard. His predecessor, Muslim Brotherhood representative Mohamed Morsi, had already done the groundwork when it came to restricting basic freedoms. Now, how many people are behind bars facing increasing absurd accusations? How many have fallen under bullets or fled from Egypt over the last five years?
The return to a totalitarian state has led to discouragement and indeed despair, and we are left wondering what has actually changed in the country since the January 2011 uprising. Maybe these young people are those ones who can answer that question? They account for more than a quarter of the population yet have long been viewed as a powerless minority, marginalised from work, family life and politics. Since the mobilisation that began in Tahrir, they are willing to contest the authority of the State and of their fathers, and to question the stranglehold of traditional social relations, ready to fight through culture and activism, or simply in their day-to-day life with a mindset that differs from that of the previous generations.
My project is an intimate portrait of an emerging generation that is opting for emancipation over the tyranny of the patriarchy.
Pauline Beugnies
BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY
Génération Tahrir, 2010-2015
Pauline Beugnies
From November 11th, 2015 to January 17th, 2016
Mairie du 4ème
2 place Baudoyer, Cour d’honneur
75004 Paris
France
Monday – Saturday 9am – 5.30pm
Free Entrance
+33 1 44 54 75 04
http://biennalephotomondearabe.com
Picto Lab is partner of event www.picto.fr
BOOK
Génération Tahrir, 2010-2015
Pauline Beugnies
Release on January 7th, 2015
Editions Le Bec en L’air
French | Arab
ISBN 978-2-36744-090-3
30 €
http://www.becair.com
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Génération Tahrir, 2010-2015
Pauline Beugnies
• From December 12 2015 to May 22, 2016
Musée de la photographie de Charleroi
Avenue Paul Pastur 11
6032 Charleroi
Belgium
http://www.museephoto.be
• January 2016
Fondation Boghossian Villa Empain
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 67
1000 Bruxelles
Belgium
http://www.villaempain.com
• From January 28 to February 2016
Marseille | Friche La Belle de Mai
41 Rue Jobin
13003 Marseille
France
http://www.lafriche.org
