Someone Else’s Home

Someone Else’s Home is a solo exhibition by publista at Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo, Egypt as part of Cairo Photo Week. It accentuates the unnoticed in everyday life: a mundane street view, an abandoned chair, a random passer-by. Steering away from the focal points of world heritage in the tourism industry, publista recomposes the lesser-known wonders and uncovers the overlooked excitement in Egypt.

In this exhibition, photos are transferred onto or attached to found objects familiar to those in Cairo, evoking dynamic materiality that transcends the frame. This combination highlights a stark contrast between the Japanese value of minimalism reflected in the imagery, and the bustling Egyptian society symbolized by the object. Someone Else’s Home references ordinary elements and scenes that, through the lens of the artist, transform into a fascinating intersection of light, geometry, ambiguity and reimagination.

About the artist:

publista / Rui Yasue (born in Nagoya, Japan, currently based in Cairo, Egypt) is an artist whose practice spans lens-based and text-based development. His interdisciplinary creative approach is intertwined with previous experience as a freelance journalist in Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq for Japanese media, as well as a commercial photographer in Japan and France.

Central to Yasue’s artistic practice is a juxtaposition of universality and individuality, underlining stereotypes, identity and power relations. He invites audience to visit a common ground shared with the unexpected ‘other’. In particular, his work subverts the prevailing constructed ideas on the Middle East.

Curated by Yi Li

Collaborators: Apox, Dava Ahmad Ayman, Isha Suhag, Magdy Elshafee, Milos Mihajluv

Image credit: publista