Kayfa-ta Independent Publishing Initiative

A conversation Between Ala Younis and Maha Mamoun

Ala Younis, Image #1 and (below) #2,Streets covered by their own trees. Gardens with grounds touched by the sun. I bought two mango trees from Cairo flower fair for 30 EGP each because they were planted in imported soil. Exporting national soil is not allowed in Egypt. They were small but their trunks to long to fit in the suitcase and so I packed them separately. At the airport, the officer said no soil can leave from the country. He’d let me pass if I checked the plants in my luggage. In Amman, in the garden in front of my window I planted the two mango trees. The Egyptian gardener gave them special care when he knew where they came from. Courtesy of the artist. 

Courtesy of the artists.

In 2012, artists Maha Mamoun and Ala Younis co-founded Kayfa-ta, an independent publishing initiative that uses the popular form of how-to manuals (how=kayfa, to=ta) to respond to some of today’s perceived needs; be they the development of skills, tools, thoughts, or sensibilities. These monographic books situate themselves in the space between the technical and reflective, the everyday and speculative, the instructional and the intuitive, the factual and the fictional.

Tribe asked them to answer the questions they would pose for themselves as they attempt to plan and situate the future processes of their project.

Why do I produce what I produce?

Maha Mamoun: In general, I do what I do to be able to live. It’s how I process and engage with the world.

It my mode of personal engagement and processing. Finding threads of interest, looking at patterns of thought/ cultural production that shape our world and resonate or intrigue me at a certain moment is how I chose to go about. It’s my form of thinking through the world. It often starts from an ambiguous emotional/conceptual space that shifts from one project to the other and often only becomes clear to me in its real intent in retrospect when the work is done. Collective work that I’ve engaged in so far whether with you or CiC for example has been similar to the above motive of survival in the sense of creating better terms of existence for oneself and one’s field, in an attempt to shape the cultural environment we live in and through. So in a sense both kinds of work complete each other, one focuses on my individual practice, the other on the ground we stand on.

Ala Younis: My work is meant to be a preparation (as small as a one step ahead) towards the future.

I understand we stand on shakey grounds and see knowledge lives longer and could move people faster towards knowing how to deal with critical situations. I have learnt so much from other artist’s related to the area, and think, despite the commercial aspect of art production and its acquisition, I want more space for such potential knowledge.

Who do I address in the first place?- myself or others-and why?

AY: I feel I address time; not a particular person/ community, not myself though in a way it starts and ends at myself. I feel my work makes me speak to and in the name of the makers. O also think I produce for the public domain, even when I know the material is not necessarily of interest to the general public, the mere possibility of this being of value to someone (even if in the non present time) makes me put it out. Also, sometimes, I feel I’m speaking to and about Arabs, though not all or any Arabs.

MM: One is not separate from others. We develop in relation to each other and in response to one another. And so, a work that is sensitive and strong, or maybe any work in general, addresses both oneself and others. I think starting off from oneself, as opposed to setting out to address others, stands a better chance of being sincere and strong.

Who does my work speak to and in what circles does it circulate? Contemporary art circles and audiences, other?

MM: I do not know really who my work “speaks to” in the sense of who feels and is affected by it. But clearly it circulates in the more or less closed contemporary art circles. Maybe these circles are the most suited for the reception and circulation of my work. Though I would prefer of course if the contemporary art circles were more open and engaging to a wider audience.

AY: So far, and mostly, my work is received by contemporary art networks. Do I invest in a relationship with the local audience? I hope/feel Kay-fata helps here. I also sometimes use the space of my work in a foreign language as a refuge or a shield from unwanted (local) intervention.

What subjects, gaps, issues, emotions, ideas (kayfa ta lingo) do I want to touch in this collective work?

AY: I seek to understand what knowledge can relate or allow to deal with the current and coming times. I want to commission the production of this knowledge. And I want to unpack the permissions and relationships that allow our work.

MM: For me, kayfa ta was a response to a clear shift in the values and needs of our time. 2011 saw the expression of the depth and breadth of this real and desired shift. One aspect that relates to this publishing project, was our experiencing, during the difficult years of 2011 onwards, of the ethical and political fall of figures and writers one believed in before. And the rise of new voices whose political, ethical and intellectual positions were much worthy of respect and much more attuned to the real needs and desired values of our time. It is those individuals whom Kayfa-ta wishes to give a platform to. We commission artists, writers, theorists… etc whose language and thought we believe is pertinent and valuable. And we ask them to point the readers to what they believe are the pressing ‘subjects, gaps, issues, emotions, ideas of our time.’

Ala Younis

Hanging Gardens is an growing set of photographs and texts that are attempts to prepare the ground for a future garden. They are collected from public gardens, or personal gardens that exist in the public space like in front of someone’s house, and from statements produced by others, who happen to share the same fondness for certain elements from these gardens.

Maha Maamoun

The Subduer was born out of a regular visit to one of the many public notary offices in Egypt. In these offices, citizens, state functionaries and legal/bureaucratic processes strain on a daily basis to continue functioning with and against each other. In the midst of these tense relationships, or maybe because of them, prayers abound. A slew of soiled and aging sheets of paper, informally pinned or taped on the walls, appear on the walls of these offices.

Calling on our higher selves, our finer temperaments, our sense of forgiveness, and reminding us of the brevity of this material world, these prayers project a parallel or supplementary world-view to the highly regulated material world of these offices.

Following this paper-trail, Maamoun visited many public notary offices across Cairo to surreptitiously record the appearance of these prayers with the camera of her mobile phone. A photographic installation is accompanied by a publication that reflects on these prayers and their context.