Extended Cities
Extended Cities is an intersectional artistic residency that explores the relationship between countries and cities and the themes on which they are based, including history, literature, and memory, focusing on the theme of construction and demolition.
“Extended Cities, Khartoum – Port Sudan – Cairo”, studies from a visual and artistic perspective the re-narration of the city of Khartoum in the cities of Port Sudan and Cairo following the post-war displacement in April 2023, which led to social and economic transformations in the city’s space.
Why do we study Port Sudan and Cairo?
Sudan is suffering from the worst displacement crisis in the world after the outbreak of the war on April 15, 2023. About 246,979 thousand people were displaced towards the city of Port Sudan, and about 514,827 thousand people took refuge in the Republic of Egypt. This crisis led to social and economic changes and changes to the city’s space, some of which resulted from a re-narration of the city of Khartoum by the displaced and refugees in these cities.
The displacement movement to the city of Port Sudan led to changes in the shape of the city through the activities of the displaced, which produced a new neighbourhood form and a new economic movement that worked to make the narrative of Khartoum in the city so that the names of the shops and the form of transportation in the city became closer. In the city of Cairo, changes were evident through economic and social activity, as the Sudanese carried with them the narrative of Khartoum through the names of restaurants, types of perfumes, the food market, and dried foodstuffs, which created a space through which the narrative of Khartoum was reproduced.
Why now?
Despite the history and great cultural rapprochement that brings together the countries of Egypt and Sudan externally and Port Sudan and Khartoum internally, the great and surprising changes that the war brought about in the reality of the cities contributed to changing the city in some of the regions and areas in which the Sudanese were stationed. The project seeks to document these changes that occurred during just one year of the war.
The project aims to:
Forming a theoretical framework that allows understanding various aspects of the city and its impact on individuals and communities. Providing narratives to dismantle stereotypes that hinder interaction between communities. It also seeks to explore and understand the city in a new way, through an artistic approach that allows artists to find a common idea about urban life and personal experiences there, in light of war, displacement, and the common suffering experienced by citizens in the three cities. Connecting local artistic communities with expatriate Sudanese artists and creating joint projects that ensure their interaction with each other.
This project is funded by Next Level – Production Fund, a project of the Goethe-Institut as part of the German-Arab Transformation Partnership and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.