All Eyes On Her!
The project is led in partnership with curator and UCL researcher Heba Abd El Gawad, Research Associate on the AHRC-funded ‘Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change: Egypt at the Horniman’ project, and Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp, UCL co-investigator on the project.
Heba and the Horniman will be collaborating with groups of Egyptian women who are engaged in acts of everyday activism. These women work to reclaim their position within public spaces. From social media, to streets and their walls, to balconies, washing lines, sports arenas, offices, professional kitchens, art collectives and local street cafes.
All Eyes on Her! will present contemporary Egypt through the voices and experiences of its women today. This will be the starting point for a more people-centred understanding of the archaeological objects from Egypt’s deep past. It will work to challenge a long history of representing Egypt through a European lens.
!كل العيون عليها / All Eyes on Her! is open in the World Gallery now until March 2028.
Podcast
Hear Johanna and Heba on their podcast ‘Only Collections in the Building‘.
Hey Jukebox! playlist
Egypt has always captivated the world—but what does it mean to be Egyptian today? Inspired by the All Eyes on Her! display at the World Gallery, this playlist is a sonic tribute to the coded rhythms of Egyptian resistance.
Listen to the playlist and read more about the music choices.
Bikeee by Hadeer Khalil
Hadeer Khalil tells us about making her short film ‘Bikeee’, and how the film came to be.
Watch the film and learn more.
Lead image: Returning the soul to the Egyptian character. A work in progress… Artwork by Hanaa el Degham 2013. Hanaa el Degham is an Egyptian activist, visual artist, and researcher in the history of art and societies and their relation to the present.
