Negative III by Inass Yassin

Inass Yassin draws inspiration for her artistic practice from the seventies and eighties, in which an enchanting image of Arab cities was consolidated by popular Egyptian films. Film scenes on the beaches of Alexandria and Beirut reflected an ideal image of Arab cities and contributed to the Arab collective perception of these cities at the time. in “Sparkling Cities” evokes that period through a comparison between the images perceived of the cities with the reality of those places in recent times where commercial buildings and investment projects transformed the scenery whether in films or the very cinema houses that used to screen them. Using printing, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas, Yassin examines the replacement of those familiar spaces with detached and distant unfriendly sites.

Yassin’s project is derived from the Egyptian movie ” Abee Fawq Al Shajara” starring Abdel Halim Hafez, Emad Hamdy, and Nadia Lotfi, produced in 1969 based on a story by Ihsan Abdel Quddous. She takes this movie as a visual and archival reference point for charmingly public spaces in Arab cities. The concept of the “Sparkling Cities” exhibition consists of several paths that all converge under the concept of urban transformations. Visually, Yassin focuses on the shores, by linking them to her personal experiences.

Yassin explores the urban developments that transformed these cities, through what happened to the Rouche beach that appeared in the movie “Abee Fawg Al Shajara”. While the majority of Palestinians cannot reach their seashore due to the Israeli occupation, Raouche Beach, as appeared in the movie, with its beautiful small forest, was destroyed and obscured from sight by real estate investment.