SOMA Art Gallery Presents “Between Here & Elsewhere”, a Solo Exhibition by Karim El Hayawan

Believing that one must look for one thing, to find many and that a fragment is not merely a part of a larger whole, but is an entity of its own. In “Between Here & Elsewhere”, Karim El Hayawan questions the concept of donated domestic rugs positioned randomly and perhaps even accidentally within some of Cairo’s most iconic Mosques. 

El Hayawan’s latest body of work constructs a subjective, perhaps imagined narrative about these rugs through where and how they’re placed: where did these rugs come from? What can the history of the rugs tell us about them, their owners and the urban fabric they belong to? As well the contemporary aesthetic narrative they have organically created. 

The result is a triangular exchange between the artist, the anonymous (original) rug-owner, and the viewer – through the image. Each entity arrives at this exchange with a subjective experience; combining these three experiences creates a multifaceted dialogue, or possibly an even newer narrative.

 

“In remembrance of my late uncle, who was as multilayered as these organic totalities are.”  – Karim El Hayawan