In Seach of a City (in the Papers of Sein) (Al Bahth An Madina - Fi Awraaq Sein)

A journey through Cairo, led by the voice of the contemporary 'flâneuse' Sein. Her journey leads through the age-old streets, through colonial districts modelled on Paris to new apartments in international style. Using voices from now and from the past, Hala Elkoussy shows how 'the City' is repeatedly reborn, resisting meanings just as recalcitrantly as its eight million inhabitants and in this way becoming into the megalopolis it is today.

Hala Elkoussy lives and works in Cairo and Amsterdam. Elkoussy is a visual artist, filmmaker and writer. She obtained a BA from the American University in Cairo and an MA from Goldsmith College, University of London in 2002.In 2004, she co-founded the Contemporary Image Collective. In 2006, she completed a residency at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 2010, she received the Abraaj Capital Art Prize. In 2014, she started Fotomasr, a photographic archive dedicated to the raising of awareness around the value of photographs as historical documents.

Elkoussy produced a number of short films that were screened in exhibitions and film festivals across the world. Her artwork is in the collections of Tate Modern, Stedelijk Museum, Bristol Museum of Fine Arts. In 2017, her first feature film Cactus Flower premiered in the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It went on to win Best Actress Award at Dubai Inernational Film Festival and Special Jury Prize at Aswan International Women’s Film Festival. In 2020, Her second feature film project East of Noon was granted the Verbeelding Prize. Hala Elkoussy currently chairs the board of De Appel Amsterdam.