"The archive is vast and its teaching endless" between the Egyptian revolution and the perforrmativity of law

general courses

Classroom
Remote learning

In Egypt, in the aftermath of the revolution, the political event with its visual documentation

gets lost in the midst of an overwhelming archive. Evidentiary by default, 'protester made in

the moment’ video testimonies, that were once produced out of a political urgency, have

now become historical. In the attempt to capture and better understand these moments, I

search the footage for blurs, cut-outs, fragments that seem unrepresentative enough or useless to the event at the time of the making. What did we learn from the political

event? What was performed and captured? How was it turned into a spectacle? How do we

speak the law?

In the second section I will read and share images from a collective research on the theatricality of law. I would like to think with you of examples of other participatory works where the outcome (evidence) shapes new trajectories for storytelling, where the line between fiction and fact is blurred and the role of the filmmaker is not clear.

In Egypt, in the aftermath of the revolution, the political event with its visual documentation

gets lost in the midst of an overwhelming archive. Evidentiary by default, ‘protester made in

the moment’ video testimonies, that were once produced out of a political urgency, have

now become historical. In the attempt to capture and better understand these moments, I

search the footage for blurs, cut-outs, fragments that seem unrepresentative enough or

perhaps useless to the event at the time of the making. What did we learn from the political

event? What was performed and captured? How was it turned into a spectacle? How do we

speak the law? The enactment of the legal is a social construct brought about before law

and after its fictions. As socialised ghosts, our collective minds register each others codes,

through methodical patterns of self elevating humans. And through these, on-repeat

renditions of memorised codes, we collectively share, a law-like behaviour.

In the first section of the workshop I would like to look at how documentations were made. How, from the position of an onlooker/participant, the resulting stories dictate form in which they are made.

In the second section I will read and share images from a collective research on the theatricality of law. I would like to think with you of examples of other participatory works where the outcome (evidence) shapes new trajectories for storytelling, where the line between fiction and fact is blurred and the role of the filmmaker is not clear.

Metwaly, Jasmina, and Philip Rizk. "On Trials: The Manual of the Theatre of Law."

Ertür, Basak. "Spectacles and Spectres: Political Trials, Performativity and Scenes of Sovereignty."

Abdelfattah, Alaa. "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated: Selected Works," Chapter: "Palestine on My Mind."

Activity during the workshop,