Culture alert: ‘My Nineties’ event to be revived this Monday

In a one-hour, one-off event on Monday evening, three elements of “My Nineties: A Panorama of Collective Memory Televised” will be presented at downtown Cairo’s Falaki Theater.

“My Nineties” is a multifaceted project about the 1990s in Egypt, a time remembered for acts of terrorism, the Gulf War and distracting state-sponsored entertainment full of uplifting songs and bad makeup. It is through the lens of television that “My Nineties” approaches the era.

The project is managed by the artist and Medrar founder Mohamed Allam, and is in the form of an archive, a Facebook page, a book by Hassan al-Halougy, a very entertaining documentary film by Emad Maher, a short exhibition hosted by Townhouse earlier this year, and a live audiovisual performance by Allam with musician Rami Abadir.

The project uses VHS tapes recorded and re-recorded in the 1990s and selected from a vast collection compiled by Allam. The tapes include soap operas, adverts, amateur home videos, movies and plays.

The “My Nineties” audiovisual performance was originally performed in April at Rawabet, on the same night the Townhouse show opened. The space was packed and the audience reacted to the show with noisy enthusiasm. (It was also presented at Metro al Medina in Beirut in August.)

The show was visually and sonically sharp-witted, funny and nostalgic. Like the rest of the project, “My Nineties” has a strong political edge, looking back on an era that has yet to take a clear shape in Egypt’s collective memory. But there is increased interest in the period, due to its links with the current moment’s exploration of myth and the empty rhetoric of the state.

For 30 minutes, Abadir made music while Allam manned two VHS players and an analogue mixer from the nineties, using them to mix old found recordings in a clunky, psychedelic way. Clips dug triangular shapes into each other and rotated and pushed each other off the screen. Dramatic scenes from soap operas clashed with pop hits, and jingles from television ads merged with shots of television presenters’ dresses and hairstyles.

With each new cut and mix, the audience cheered with excitement. A commercial showing milk boiling over in a cooker made people laugh as much as a manipulated clip of Hosni Mubarak talking about Egypt’s problems, his voice altered into a high-pitched squeal.

The Falaki Theater is small so it might be worth booking.

“My Nineties” will take place at 8 pm on November 25. Tickets are LE5. For reservations, call 012 8872 1446.