Things and stuff | حاجات ومحتاجات
the little objects that give us comfort and grounding
There was a time where we carried the ID pictures of friends and family in our wallets. Maybe having cameras on our phones now, is how we carry the ones we love with us.
The Ramadan Fawazeer* started in 1960 on Egyptian Radio. It was simple, every day the creators of the show asked the listeners a question, who then mailed their answers in. A winner was announced (I couldn’t find information on wether the winner was announced daily of after the month of Ramadan had passed as it was the case in later years.) The year after that the Fawazeer* were broadcast on TV and a few years after, it turned from a simple riddle/question to a production that contained drama and performance.
Growing up in the 80s in Egypt, the daily Fawazeer* were the highlight during the holy month of Ramadan. My whole family sat in front of the TV after breaking our fast to watch the Fawazeer*. Every year was different, a theme song/dance at the beginning and the end (we all memorized it by heart) and every day there was a new “riddle” to solve.
A long way to say: In 1993 the topic of the Fawazeer* was “حاجات ومحتاجات”. For the purposes of my residency at the Arab American National Museum my translation is “Things and stuff”. The Fawazeer* series was about inventions. Every episode Sherihan* invited us to guess the invention she was talking about in her singing and dancing.
I was thinking about the word حاجة in Arabic, which in Egypt we use for a thing or an object, but looking at the root of the word, it contains the word “need”. I guess it makes sense, we need things/objects.
In 2008 when I left Egypt for the first time to go to study in Germany, I went to buy little objects to decorate my new space. The first thing I did the moment I moved in, is to tack pictures of my friends and loved ones to the wall, get the little objects out and put them on the shelves. I am here now.
Since then I have moved about 5 times into spaces where I lived in anywhere between 3 months or now the longest space I have been in, nine years. Some of the objects I bought in 2008 are still with me: 2 ceramic pigeons I got in a souvenir shop I like downtown Cairo.
When I had to come up with the theme for my time at AANM I looked at the website and saw that a big part of the collection consists of everyday objects people brought with them as they migrated to the US or objects donated to the archive. Objects that hold stories and document a history of a person/of a people.
On Friday the 13th from 6-8pm, I will be on the rooftop of the AANM for the “rooftop rendevouz” series, hosting an event, where people can come and talk to me about things and stuff they have been carrying around or moving with them and what it means to them. A way to get a look into how we create comfort for ourselves and how we make our own little homes.
My dad ran an antique shop in Cairo for about 40 years until he passed away. Every year I would go visit him and every year I brought little objects with me. Now I am in the process of cleaning up his shop and every time I go, I come back with some broken pieces of what used to be a watch, a coat rack, a frame…
I am making my own little home. Piece by Piece with things and stuff and at the end, I think it’s about carrying love around with us.
*Fawazeer a daily show of riddles presented by a actors and dancers over the years during the month of Ramadan. Typically produced in Egypt and aired around the Arab world.
*Sherihan Egyptian performer, actor and dancer, who was one of the most known artists to present the Fawazeer for many years.