IN THE PRESS
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OUR STORY
We are David Puig
and Manar Moursi, authors of Sidewalk
Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo, a unique photographic documentation of
original street chair designs that dot the sidewalks of Cairo and create an alternate portrait of the city through their lens.
We first took notice of the street chairs of
Cairo in 2011, walking on Port Said Avenue, which straddles the city from North to South. “A
funny thing about a chair: you hardly ever think it’s there”, the American poet Theodore Roethke once wrote. And yet that
day, all of a sudden, those street chairs were there. Not one or two of them, isolated, but one after the other
creating some kind of invisible thread along the sidewalk.
Repaired, stitched and
embellished, those chairs age graciously despite being constantly on duty
outdoors. The curiosity triggered by these common objects made us
realize how essential they were to the everyday life of people who spend a
considerable amount of time on the sidewalk. We realized we could
understand Cairo and tell some of its stories from the perspective of those
street chairs.
Over the past 3 years we’ve collected more than a 1000
Polaroid images of the street chairs of Cairo as well as interviews with their
owners. We’ve commissioned fiction and poetry inspired by street chairs to
award winning writers from the city. In the past few months we’ve gone through
a rigorous process of selecting and arranging those images in a book
format. We have been working with the very talented Dutch Graphic Designer
Sandra Kassenaar to create the visual identity of our book. Preview the book here: http://issuu.com/manarmorsi/docs/sidewalk_salon...
We are now almost ready to print Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo, and you can now join us
on our journey through the streets of Cairo, and wander with us in the alleys
of what we call "the biggest open-air chair museum of the world."
WHAT WE NEED
Since Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo is a full-color art book,
its production and printing are expensive. Our goal is to have a
publication of the finest quality available at an affordable price in Egypt and the rest of the world.
We will be co-publishing our book with independent publishers from
Europe and Egypt. Small independent publishers do a great job to give exposure
and to distribute interesting projects like ours but have limited resources for
their production. Your contribution to our campaign goes straight into the
project, to cover final editing, agencies licenses, finalizing
design, printing and shipping costs. With your support, we will be able to
launch a first print edition of at least a thousand copies the book, and you will have your very
own copy, as well as some other exclusive perks from our list!
For more info, check out the diagram below:
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WHAT YOU GET
To
thank you for your help we have prepared some very special perks that you will find in the
right-hand column of this page. Many of our perks have been exclusively
designed for this campaign. We are also offering artworks related to the campaign
by some of our favorite Egyptian and international contemporary artists. No additional fees will be charged for the shipping of the perks.
ABOUT US
David Puig is a diplomat, translator and
publisher from the Dominican Republic. He has worked in France, India and
Egypt. In 2010, he launched Ediciones De a Poco, a publishing house focused on
contemporary literature and art books from the Caribbean region. While in
Delhi, he collaborated with Vislumbres, a literary magazine which brings
together Latin American and Indian writers. His published translations to Spanish
include the novel
Les dollars des sables
by Jean-Noel Pancrazi.
Manar Moursi’s work spans the fields of
architecture, urbanism, design and art. In 2011,
Manar founded Studio Meem (www.studiomeem.me) an interdisciplinary design
studio based in Cairo. In 2014, in recognition of Manar’s
architectural design work for Studio Meem,
she received the ArcVision Women in
Architecture Award. In addition to architecture, Studio Meem’s
practice encompasses product design work.
In 2012 Studio Meem’s inaugural
product line Off the Gireed, inspired
by everyday street objects in Cairo, was awarded a Red Dot and a Good Design
Award. Further to design work,
Manar has worked on multiple art projects, the latest being a
series of public art installations titled the “Wonder Box”. Her latest
photography exhibition was shown at the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo.
It traveled regionally as part of a group exhibition titled “Next to Here” -
curated by Constanze Wicke. Manar’s writings on urban
issues have appeared in Thresholds, Lunch,
Magaz and Al Masry El Yowm.
Indiegogo campaign video: Aida El Kashef
Music for the Indiegogo video: Aya Metwally
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT OUR PROJECT
"A
chair is a container that frames the human body presenting its greatness or
fragility. Whether on a throne or stool we are all united in our act of
sitting, resting, or in the pausing of energy. This book is a collective moment
of, a much-needed, stillness and contemplation from a nation that has been in
perpetual motion for over three years. Moving away from the metaphorical chair
of power that dominates Egyptian authoritarianism, it presents portraits of
mundane chairs, as silent commentators, narrating an overlooked but meaningful
aspect of a nation’s urban existence." Basma Hamdy, Artist, designer and assistant professor at VCU Qatar. Co-author
of Walls of Freedom.
“Cairo is a city that rarely runs on straight lines -
instead it's a patchwork quilt of semi-hidden and contested spaces, and you can
find a dusty street chair in every one of them. Manar and David have chosen a
unique and alternative lens through which to explore the capital, and I can't
wait to see the printed book.” Jack Shenker,
Journalist and author currently working on a book exploring Egypt and resistance, to be published by Allen Lane and Penguin in 2015.
“Sidewalk Salon is a beautiful collection
of stories presenting fragments of life in Cairo though one of the city's most
ubiquitous inanimate objects, the street chair.” Mohamed El Shahed, Founder and editor, Cairo Observer.
“If
you’ve been to Cairo, you've probably wandered by more than a few repurposed,
decrepit, charmingly Frankensteinian street chairs. Moursi and Puig spent years painstakingly documenting, mapping, and carefully curating
these chairs for Sidewalk Salon, a
beautiful ode to these inadvertent objects of art and the denizens who
created them. In
broad terms, the book is a journey through the last few tumultuous years of
Cairo's history; but more specifically it is a tale about Egyptians—their
struggle, passion, humor, and endurance—a story which unfolds as a walking tour
of a fragmented city where conflict is rooted in the movement and reclamation
of public space, the front lines of which are occupied by these fascinating
chairs. This book is evidence that the streets, at least, are still in the hands of the
people.” Yasmin Elayat, New media
artist, interaction designer and technical director at Second Story.
“An invaluable
project romanticizing the seemingly mundane, vividly illustrating the intricate
and complex social landscapes of Cairo in the process. Posterity will look
kindly upon the work of Moursi and Puig.” Joobin
Bekhrad, Founder and editor, Reorient.
“Manar Moursi and David Puig's Sidewalk Salon engages Cairo through the
ubiquity of its street chairs: each chair tells a unique story, together they
create a complex and quirky portrait of Cairo's public spaces.” Beth Stryker, co-founder CLUSTER (Cairo Lab
for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research)
“Sidewalk
Salon is an outstanding documentation of everyday ingenuity
and creative adhocism, as
displayed through a series of chairs, half ready-made and half invented to fit
local and temporal needs of Cairo's citizens. The book showcases not only the
remarkable traits of local craftsmanship, but also the material marks of a
culture in revolt as manifest in urban space.” Lydia Kallipoliti, Assistant professor of architecture at Syracuse
University and principal of EcoRedux Research Network and ANAcycle studio.
"An
interesting and unique project I was lucky enough to take part in. This book
documents a side of Cairo life that visitors and residents see every day but
almost never take note of." Adam Talib,
Assistant professor at the American University of Cairo and literary translator.
PERKS
We've created a reference diagram below with
all the perks we are offering you! Please select a category from below.
If your perk includes options (marked with a star) please follow the
instructions below this diagram. If you are not interested in getting a
perk, but would still like to contribute to our campaign, you can
simply select any category on the right then click "change perks" and
pick the "no perk" option
.
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HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PERK :
(only applies to perks that included options marked with a yellow star):
If you choose a perk with a postcard, poster, tote bag, digital print, original artwork you may select from below:
- Choose your perk category from the list above.
- Look at the list below and check for the CODE that corresponds with your choice.
- After you select your perk and enter your details, type the CODE
corresponding to your choice in between brackets following your STREET
ADDRESS.
- PLEASE NOTE: if you do not enter a CODE we cannot guarantee your choices. Please email us the code if you forget to include it.
For questions send us an email at 1001chairscairo@gmail.com
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Below are more detailed images of each of our perks with a clearer description.![]()
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OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT US
There are many ways
in which you can help and support us!
If you can’t give
money to our campaign there’s still lots you can do for Sidewalk Salon: 1001 Street Chairs of Cairo.
We need people around you to
know about our project and you can become an ambassador of our campaign. Follow us
and stay tuned for details: tweet about us, like us on Facebook, or write a blog
post. Let
people know what we are doing! Thanks for helping us get the word out.
Here's the short link
again to our campaign: bit.ly/sidewalksalon
And our website: www.sidewalksaloncairo.com
You can also
follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
https://twitter.com/1001chairscairo