From the Image, We Build Walls, a Roof, and Windows, 2025

From the Image, We Build Walls, a Roof, and Windows

An exhibition of personal geographies and shared sensibilities of home

Cairo, Egypte — April, 2025

In a world where migration, displacement, and memory continuously redefine our relationship to space, belonging, and intimacy, eleven women artists — Egyptian and migrant artists living in Cairo — explore what “home” means. Is it a place, a memory, an absence? A language, an object, a window left open?

From the Image, We Build Walls, a Roof, and Windows is the outcome of a workshop led by Tunisian artist and researcher Aya Chriki. This collective project gave rise to a series of sensitive and powerful visual installations conceived as symbolic shelters, spaces of memory, resistance, and reinvention.

Through photography, drawing, text, and installation, the exhibited works question the home as a shifting idea: a “home” that is sought, lost, and reinvented. Together, the works weave a cartography of intimacy where loss and creation, exile and transmission coexist.

This project is part of Aya Chriki’s doctoral research in art history at Université Rennes 2 and is supported by the CAPS Graduate School of Research and the Brittany Region. It is produced in partnership with Kalam Aflam as part of its e7kili yakhti program, which provides a space for creation and reflection for women artists from North Africa.

Artists’ Biographies

Amal Al Nakhala (1999, Gaza) is a visual artist currently based in Cairo. Her practice began as an inner journey shaped by doubt, guilt, and introspection. Since the war on Gaza in October 2023, it has transformed into an artistic diary combining image and text to endure and document the ruptures that occurred. Her work exists between memory and reinvention, using symbolism and surrealism to explore and process the contradictions of forced displacement.

Aya Chriki (1995, Gabès, Tunisia) is a visual artist and PhD candidate in art history at the University of Rennes 2. Her artistic and research practice explores exile, gender, displacement, and identity through photography, video, and writing. She has participated in several international exhibitions in Tunisia, France, and Lebanon. In 2022, she received the photography award at Gabès Cinéma Fen, and in 2024, one of her texts was selected among the winning entries of the “Outre-mer” writing competition.

Groovy (2000) is a new media and 3D generalist artist based in Giza, Egypt. She spent part of her life between Malaysia and Kuwait. Her work explores memory, diaspora, and identity through augmented reality, internet art, and glitch aesthetics. She has exhibited in events such as To Be a Woman is to Perform (Projection Mapping, Alexandria, 2024), Wau Bulan (Augmented Reality, Kuala Lumpur, 2024), and Luminous Reverie (Interactive Projection, Kuala Lumpur, 2023). Groovy creates playful and immersive experiences that bridge nostalgia and the virtual.

Iman Hamam (1976, London, United Kingdom) is an Egyptian researcher who has published and presented work on subjects such as Arab comics and graphic novels, Cairo’s urban expansion, Egyptian mainstream cinema, and representations of the body and technology in television and science fiction. She has also collaborated with visual artists on music videos, installations, and films. Drawing from her personal archive, her practice challenges colonial and orientalist readings of ancient Egypt, folklore, heritage, and popular culture.

Inès Bezad (1998, Rabat, Morocco) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working between Rabat, Strasbourg, and Cairo. A graduate of the HEAR and currently a student at the University of Strasbourg, she explores intersections between performance, installation, and culture. A member of the 2023–2024 cohort of the CFPI in Strasbourg, she is currently pursuing research at the DEAC of the French Institute in Cairo through an excellence scholarship. Her work has been exhibited in Strasbourg, Nice, Montreuil, and Paris.

Israa Alrayeh is a Sudanese documentary photographer and visual storyteller whose work captures human emotions while shedding light on cultural, historical, and human rights issues. She began her career amid the hardships of war in 2023, and her works have since been exhibited internationally in South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, and Denmark. As a Sudanese woman, Israa is committed to uncovering overlooked truths and conveying messages of hope and peace.

Metche Jaafar is a Sudanese visual artist, photographer, and storyteller based in Egypt. With a background in architecture and photojournalism, her work explores folklore, identity, and memory. Through photography and mixed media, she reflects on displacement, cultural heritage, and belonging. Her works have been presented in various cultural initiatives aiming to use art as a tool for healing and social dialogue. Metche is passionate about preserving Sudanese traditions and narratives through her artistic practice.

Ola Mohamed (1997, Khartoum, Sudan) is a Sudanese photographer based in Cairo, Egypt. With a background in humanitarian and development work, she uses photography to document social impact and lived realities. Her journey in documentary photography began with Postcards from Cairo, a collective exhibition by the Goethe-Institut Sudan in 2024. Through her lens, Ola seeks to highlight everyday lives, amplify marginalized voices, and challenge perceptions through visual storytelling.

Omnia Najm is an Egyptian artist working across photography, film, writing, poetry, and performance. A graduate of the Alexandria Media Institute, her work explores identity, migration, and storytelling, often integrating movement and voice. In 2023, she organized her first exhibition in Beirut following a bicycle journey from Cairo to Khartoum. Omnia also contributes to photobooks and leads workshops. Through her art, she aims to create immersive narratives connecting personal and collective experiences.

Nagla Badr is an Egyptian journalist and podcast producer. She studied media in the United States and received a fellowship from the German Counter Academy for Journalism and Social Sciences. She trained at the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut, where she contributed to a photobook and research on refugee archives in the Arab region. Nagla has worked with platforms such as Sowt, ARIJ, and CFI, and received the heya Fi Al-Cinema fellowship from the Drosos Foundation to study filmmaking.

Yumna Elmazny is an emerging Egyptian filmmaker and writer exploring themes of gender, the body, and emotional visibility. Her short film series Alternative Intimacies delves into love, desire, and intimacy in Cairo, with Alt. Intimacies Pt. 3: My Neighbor premiering at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2024. Her upcoming film, Alt. Intimacies Pt. 1: Don’t Worry, We’ll Be in Tunis, is currently in pre-production. Yumna’s video Why Does Consent Look So Non-consensual? was featured in the 2025 exhibition of Dawar Arts.