The Fallacy of 33 Terms, 2021/work-in-progress
Rawan Abbas, Doha Aboelezz, Yara Mekawei
Six audio fragments with animation
I’m sick of mediating with your worst self
On behalf your better selves
—“The Bridge Poem” by Kate Rushin, 1981
The Fallacy of 33 Terms is a collaborative sound art piece by Rawan Abbas, Yara Mekawei, and Doha Aboelezz. The work explores the current dialogues surrounding feminism, women’s rights, and the state of marginalized groups within the Egyptian context. There is much emotional labour required in activist work, such as to take on the role of the educator, the facilitator, and the mediator, and to navigate the nuances of various social groups. The number 33 references the number of beads on a Sibha, the absent object around which this project revolves.
In its current iteration, this work investigates the efficiency of communication frameworks implemented by activists in Egypt by applying them in the context of storytelling. A collection of six audio recordings references fictional narratives of an object’s origin. Across these fragments, two voices tell you their own version of their shared reality, both demanding to be heard and valued. Working on making space between the individual and the environment, the six 33-second recordings blur the lines between a fabricated reality and logic, questioning what appears to be better than it really is. In the future, we plan on developing this project into an immersive sound installation, which will expand to include 33 narrative fragments and an Arabic version of the sound recordings.
*[Fallacy of 33 Terms], [Rawan Abbas, Doha Abo El Ezz, and Yara Mekawei], is a project of Creative Impact Lab Cairo (2021), a ZERO1
international exchange supported by U.S. Embassy Cairo and hosted by Medrar for Contemporary Art.
Artist | Rawan Abbas 