Esraa Elfeki
∗1989, Egypt
In her work, artist and filmmaker Esraa Elfeky explores the complex relationships between landscape, nature, and human experience. As part ofan ongoing exploration of her native Egypt, the desert landscape becomesa recurring site of imagination and storytelling, often about historical and political events between apocalypse, decay, and reconstruction. In her short filmI’ve Known Rivers, together with Saif Fradj, she researched desert areas in NorthAfrica that were once home to seas that dried up over time. Following a slow, meditative rhythm, the images trace the radical transformation of these places.As part ofThe Parliament of Marmots, Esraa Elfeky adapted her ongoing project entitled What is beyond you for the natural history department of the MuseumGherdëina in Ortisei. In doing so, she appropriated the museum’s standard modes of presentation to tell stories of apocalypse, survival, adaptation, and extinctionusing the example of non-human bodies, in this case, rare butterfly species. She reflects on the power relations between humans and animals by emphasizing that animals are often used as metaphors with political connotations. The drawings present imaginary, hybrid butterflies inspired by endangered species that the artist researched and documented in the mountains of Saint Catherine in Egypt and in the Alps in Switzerland.The idea of hybridity, as well as the strategy of mating with other strains that occur in nature, can be read in this sense as an act of survival in situations of extreme change and catastrophe.
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