Shadwa Ali
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Installation
Echoes Beneath the Surface is an installation -a collaborative work with the visual artist Ibrahim Khalid- the work commissioned by Bsarya for the ALXCAD (Alexandria Contemporary Art Days) festival.
The installation explores the Nile River region and the shifting relationship between humans and water. Instead of presenting water as a simple source of life, the work considers it as a reflective space where personal and collective journeys unfold. The river becomes a landscape of memory, revealing through its retreat layers of events, myths, and lived realities that shape how people understand their surroundings.
As the water pulls back, it exposes a layered terrain of stories, histories, and everyday experiences. The uncovered riverbed becomes an active site of presence rather than abandonment, a place where the past merges with present life in subtle and meaningful ways.
In this transitional space between depth and safety, a quiet tension emerges between curiosity about the unknown and the desire for belonging. What once seemed like ordinary geography becomes a living force that shapes history, identity, and the possibilities of the future.
Duration: 06:00 min
ALX Cad (Alexandria Contemporary Art Days) festival at the Cultural Garage, Alexandria, October, 2025.