Alternative Storytelling

One Latvian artist in Cairo, one Egyptian artist in Latvia
September 2016

Alternative Storytelling was a residency exchange programme that focused on the artistic usage of archive photography. We understand the term ‘archive’ in the broadest sense of the word – as a collection of past objects, from museum collections to family albums. More and more artists are becoming interested in the potential of found photography to tell their own stories and express their own creativity. We can recreate images that someone else has taken, put them in an unordinary context to give them new meaning, or even print them on the body of another person in order to make the images tell the story we want – the possibilites working with archives are limitless.

Within the programme two photography artists from Latvia and Egypt had the chance to visit the other country for a 2 - 3 week stay to create work dealing with the subject matter of archives (August – September, 2016). The Egyptian artist also has the opportunity to participate in a workshop during the International Summer School of Photography 2016. The project concluded Fall 2016 with final presentations of the work created during the residencies both in Riga and Cairo.

The artists selected for the programme were Vika Eksta (Latvia) and Eslam Abd El Salam (Egypt). See the results of Vika's stay in Egypt here: www.issp.lv/en/news/dust-and-gold

Alternative Storytelling was a cooperation between ISSP and Townhouse Gallery (Cairo, Egypt) in framework of the Tandem Shaml programme.