Expired Corona

Corona (COVID 19) was an ugly surprise, which I and the majority of humanity were not prepared for. It imposed isolation and social distancing on us, and our daily lives were devoid of any real activity, and hours and days lengthened into months while we were within the walls of one place. The confinement allowed me to contemplate the spaces that I used to be in, I saw details that I had not noticed before, or perhaps passed my eyes, but I did not pay attention to their beauty and privacy. I traced the sun's diffusion on the floor and walls of the house like a climbing plant, and watched the shadows cast by the furniture and other contents of the apartment when these luminous branches reached it. I have re-acquainted again with the things within the space of several meters which occupy my existence, especially those so long in existence that I have forgotten when I had them, and I have re-acquainted myself and my relationship with my body as my first dwelling, and I do not know what hides behind its many closed doors, which I have not dared to open before. I valued my relationship with others, and the cessation of social practices narrowed the circles of people around me. I became a more lonely being than I was before, or so I thought at first, but the deprivation of what I took for granted, such as the presence of my family in my life, revealed to me some of the truth of my inflated loneliness, and I became I see that our family quarrels together, face to face, is much easier than deprivation and communicating with them from a distance. On the analogue film, I preserved the daily life practices of my family members in those stolen meetings in the time between the ban and the movement ban. I chose general documentation from Corona with a 35mm film camera and expired films, and I saw that absurd moment was blurred, marred by flaws and problems like these films, shaky and distorted, stained with spots of bright light or surrounded by black halos. My loneliness, my body and my family, and what I saw during a year of emptying the streets of its people, and some people getting around the ban. Flying over rooftops, and perhaps also those few days before the emergency situation was declared in the country and the world, I visited a number of museums that I love, thinking that we are about to bid farewell to the world I know and love, and we will enter a new world devoid of all the people or places I love and there is no way To restore only the image.

Curated by

Karoline Kamel@karoline-kamel

23

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