2025
digital video, handmade kites, survillance cameras
variable dimensions

The project grew out of a curious news story that happened in Egypt during the first lockdown in 2020, where a kite- flying boom led to a government crackdown and ban on such activity. Among the reasons cited were several accidents caused by the flying, but also the suspicion that the kites could be used as a “threat to national security” if they were equipped with a micro surveillance camera. This particular motivation leads the artist to a subsequent reflection on the logic and methodology of surveillance, its importance in maintaining a state of power, but mostly how art can mock it. To dispel this repressive attitude, conscious of having the privilege of being in a country with a ban-less, the artist wanted to overturn the narrative and build such suspected kite-drones. Without following a specific target, only with an artistic and experimental approach, the goal was to collect sequences of aerial shots over urban and rural landscapes. The final video is a succession of several flight and shooting failures, exuding a constant sense of instability and inability to fully control the game. It was only at the end of the process that she was able to obtain stable recordings with which to complete the experimental video: these took place in a deserted and foggy landscape where, ironically, there was anything possibly to spy on. However, the final installation, which includes handmade kites made from recycled plastic shopping bags and a screen projection of the video, suggests a further level of interpretation with its naïve yet alienating aesthetic. The realisation that surveillance devices can be found in even the most innocent of games could provoke a sense of unease, as we live in a very delicate time where dystopian imagery, previously confined to fiction, is slowly taking shape in reality.