Cairo Expo City - Egypt Documentary
client - Cairo Expo City
architect - Zaha Hadid Architects
project - Documentary Art
sound - Lou Mallozzi of Experimental Sound Studio
length - 10:00
In late 2009 the Egyptians chose Zaha Hadid Architects to design Cairo Expo City, and The Gray Circle, recommended by ZHA, to design a film promoting Cairo and Egypt as a prime business and tourist destination, they are showing commitment to forwarding thinking and cutting edge design.
The film, completed in 2010, is a 10-minute artistic documentary, needed to represent a country of enterprise and progression alongside tradition and the wonders of its 5000 years of history. We wanted to reveal many unexpected qualities of Egypt and its variety of natural beauty to surprise and inspire the audience, as well as familiar images of the Sphinx, Pyramids and the Nile.
The curved ribbon of the pavilion expands to create a natural screen and focal point for the projected images.
Very different aspects of Egypt’s culture were evoked by portraying Timeless, Modern and Pharaonic Egypt with The Gray Circle trademark of exquisite moving images, layered and projected, continually changing without a clear boundary or fixed screen size. We created multiple versions of the film for large-scale projection, plasma screen for touring exhibition and DVDs.
In 2010 the film was shown as part of the Egypt Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo. As a projection onto the pavilion, a ribbon of cloth wraps around the audience creating a living, touchable experience as a sound-scape fills the entire space. Panoramas of the Cairo sunset dissolve into the organic shapes of Expo City and then into grains of sand, infinite in their minute detail.
Find out more about the rest of the creative team..
Zaha Hadid Architects - here...
Lou Mallozzi of Experimental Sound Studio - here...
