HIDDEN ANGELS / FALDIR ENGLAR / الملائكة الخفية
Site-specific installation, 2019, photomontage digital printings, black sand from Grótta, concrete bricks from Hvervisgata, video 5mn loop
I was in Cairo in the years of what they called the Arab Spring which was, in fact, the Arab destruction. I was watching on the TV screen, the destruction of cities. Cities turning into ruins: in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and before that time in Iraq.
At the same time, I was watching people crawling villages and looking for accommodation in the Capital, Cairo. Failing on finding a shelter or getting a governmental response, people will sit on a piece of agricultural land and start to make red bricks from the clay of farming earth and build small houses where they would live. While I saw the joy in the thrill of creating a brick-tile industry and building houses, I saw the brutal demolition; entire cities turned into ruins, ending all lives, transformed into Ghost Cities.
I was intrigued by the idea of making these houses that on one hand are very similar to ruins and on the other hand look like the houses of those who build them in order to live.
