MacGuffin Cairo Archives

Coinciding with MacGuffin Nº 13 The Letter, the magazine collaborated with Archief Cairo, a design collective based in Egypt, to organise a temporary design studio in November 2023. This week-long event brought together a diverse group of young image-makers, designers, and writers that went in search of the meaning and empowerment of Arabic letters. Many of the letters they came upon were part of private archives, of collections that attempted to fill the gaps in ‘official’ records.  “In Cairo everything disappears. Archiving is a form of resistance,” said one of the studio participants. “Artists, designers, houses, letters, and trees: they vanish abroad or are replaced by propaganda and shopping malls. We must recapture them.” In Cairo the group explored typographical archives to see what should be preserved and what is kept out of the public realm. This publication showcases the results of their search – a collection of Cairo Archives.

Contributors:
Khodeir Al Borsaedy, Oda Algera, Najla Badran, David Bennewith, Salma El Barbary, Ghalia Elsrakbi, Eman Fikri, Lama Ghamoum, Kinda Ghannoum, Ryan Grees, Farah Hallaba, Sandra Kassenaar, Mariam Khattab, Benjamin McMillan, Eman Morgan, Hana Neuman, Engy Sabry, Salma Tarek Safaan, Rana Wassef, Noha Zayed.