Flying papers Cairo

This work is part of Cairo Off Biennale @somethingelse.citadel and can be seen until December 23 at Citadel of Saladin.

Javier Peñafiel has a predilection for obsolete objects: gadgets from old machines, facial papers, envelopes for correspondence, calligraphy… Devoid of their original function, these objects become devices that multiply their symbolic possibilities and generate a ritual situation. The installation Flying Papers is presented as a ritual of exchange between the artist and the audience, as a mundus. It contains images that interpret the context that welcomes the artist – the city of Cairo – where ancestral and contemporary times mix, along with a series of facial papers with poetic calligraphy. Overlaid with photographs of the urban landscape, these papers redefine places, subtitle activities, events, and monuments. They are notes from a world open to interpretation, but also subject to error. Each paper attached to the landscape represents a jump in the duration of time and, also possible conversations. All this works as an analog augmented reality that is both flexible and transparent, reminding us of flying carpets. For years, Javier Peñafiel has developed series of texts above paper designed to remove excess facial bait, which are about poetry, social dilemmas and talks to us about contemporary life from the figure of the oxymoron.

Curated by Diana Padrón