THE SKY ABOVE US: Exhibition and conferences announcement

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE CFEETK / THE SKY ABOVE US EXHIBITION

Exhibition: December 11, 2022 – January 1, 2023

Three lectures will be held along with THE SKY ABOVE US exhibition to present the activities of the CFEETK (MoTA/UAR3172 of the CNRS). The first lecture will be presented by Drs. Ahmed al-Taher and Luc Gabolde, both co-directors of the CFEETK. The second talk will be delivered by the photographer Émilie Saubestre, and will focus on both aims and challenges she faces in managing the photography and multimedia department in Karnak. The last talk will be given by Timothée Sassolas-Serrayet, engineer in photogrammetry, to reveal both techniques and methods he applies to the Hieroteka 3D project supported by the CFEETK and the LabEx ARCHIMEDE.

The exhibition THE SKY ABOVE US features works by Émilie Saubestre who proposes to place contemporary creation out of the archive of Henri Chevrier as a focal point to observe the bonds between photography and researchers at the CFEETK. In her series of photographs THE SKY ABOVE US (2019), Émilie Saubestre (French, b.1986) references both to the history of the archeology photography and the contemporary photography appropriation. In this series, she reframes archive images from Henri Chevrier, an architect who coordinated the researches and restorations of the temples of Karnak between 1926 and 1954 on behalf of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Émilie Saubestre explores the production and use of photographs in both archeology and egyptology fields, and thus she proposes to open the cultural heritage documentary photography to the art practices. The pictures presented drawn on excavation activities to allude to poetic snapshot, playing with photographic conventions: subjects are unframing, chemical deterioration are highlighted and traces from the
past revealed.

© Image from Émilie Saubestre series of photographs THE SKY ABOVE US.
Date: Just before 1937
Alleged photographer: Henri Chevrier
Location: The Open Air Museum, White Chapel of Sesostris I (*)

Adress of the event

Bibliotheca Alexandrina
— Exhibition at the west exhibition hall
— Conferences at the multipurpose hall
Al Azaritah WA Ash. Shatebi, Bab Sharqi
Alexandria 21526 – Egypt


About the conservation project of the archive of Henri Chevrier: Link.


(*) Documentation work in collaboration with Valentine Marlot (Univ. Lyon II, HiSoMA) – link.