I Smell Cairo
The Shallow Water part of the exhibition reflects Maayouf’s personal emotional struggles between her home in Cairo and living in Paris for six months. It documents the struggles she experienced during this, her first-ever period of displacement.
it difficult for me to merge with the foreign world. Shallow Water is a metaphor for my experience in Paris. I was neither a temporary tourist nor a permanent resident. I was swimming in a foreign world but still grounded to my home country,” she adds.
“Arriving in Paris, a developed and free world, I thought I would get over all that I had suffered in Cairo. However, I still battled anxiety. I was chased by my memories, my unbreakable family bond, and my conservative upbringing, making
Aside from this inspiration, Maayouf’s time in Paris also saw her expanding her art practice to include video. This, says Dr Paul Bayliss, Absa Art and Museum Curator, speaks to the power of the Absa L’Atelier art competition to not only
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