The Black Box Project

THE BLACK BOX came to life at 5:00 am on June 22nd 2012, whilst Karim Al Husseini and Documentarist Khaled Ramadan had decided to welcome statements towards the elections in Egypt on the brink of a new presidency after 30 years of static presence.

THE BLACK BOX is a reference to the actual box found usually in airplanes, a flight data recording system where it is usually used for accident investigations. Fifteen minutes prior to a plane crash, would it identify what had happened if there was nothing but debris left to witness the collapse of a system. It is here, Karim Al Husseini, a Palestinian brought up and residing in Cairo the majority of his life, wanted to re-identify a presence whilst in the square where his voice is unnecessary since it is the Egyptian people's voice that needed to be broadcast, and actually heard without any rigging or manipulation done onto them whilst following a puppeteer authority.

When they went down to Tahrir Square, on June 22nd at 5:00 pm, 12 hours since the birth of this new idea, were they first welcomed and attracted to the people who were occupying the square, each picking up a colored cansen card of their choice, and on it they wrote how they felt about the events that had brought them to the square. Without any commitment but to express themselves freely, without any outside control, without even writing their names - were they asked to express their thoughts; how they felt and what they wanted.

The experience then lead to something suspicious, since the artists Karim Al Husseini being filmed by his Lebanese colleague Khaled Ramadan were not accepted as an "Art project" were they arrested by a team who were not convinced with the idea that these two artists were there to welcome people's thoughts on the turn of events, and were present to document this changing moment in their history.

The film will show you some of the scenes captured by Khaled Ramadan whilst in the square, from how defensive the audience was to desiring the freedom to express themselves on a colored card and throwing into a BLACK BOX that would safe keep their anonymous opinions, to an attack against the safety, security and authority over freely writing your opinion to an individual, though Palestinian, did not appear to be "one of us".

This work is part of THE CHANGING ROOM project, and will be on view in London this coming August 2012 at the 2012 London Olympics. More information will be released soon.