Something Else 2026 - Cairo

Structural Muteness: When Expression No Longer Reaches

 

Artists:

Jonathan Soliman Awadalla (Italy/Egypt)

Deng Yufeng (China)

 

Curated by:

Zhu Yaning, Valeria Contarino

 

Opening Reception:

Thursday, February 5, 2026

19:00 – 22:00

 

Exhibition Dates:

February 5 – 26, 2026

 

Venue:

Bayt Al Sinnari & Darb 1718, Cairo, Egypt

 

 

About Something Else 2026

 

Something Else 2026 takes "Emancipate Yourself" – the theme proposed by Simon Njami – as its theoretical starting point, providing an open platform for practitioners who attempt to understand the world in alternative ways. In the contemporary context, as established ideologies and value systems continuously shift, a fundamental question emerges: How can art still intervene in reality under such conditions?

 

Art cannot stop wars, nor can it directly alter structural dilemmas. Yet it can serve as an alert mechanism, prompting us to rethink the possibilities of coexistence, connection, and community. It is precisely for this reason that art continually carries discussions concerning relationships, responsibility, and mutual connection. And the premise upon which this mission stands always points to one indispensable condition: freedom.

 

Building upon the dialogues initiated in last year’s symposium, this edition further unfolds through new artistic and curatorial perspectives, introducing more diverse and intersectional pathways of practice. Since its inception, Something Else has adopted open questioning as its working method, inviting artists and curators to respond to the questions themselves through their respective practices, while continuously reshaping the questions in the process of responding.

 

About the Exhibition

 

In the contemporary context, to "express oneself" does not necessarily mean to be understood. Language, images, and emotions are constantly filtered through institutional and technological structures that drain them of their force and neutralize their meaning. It is within this displacement that structural muteness emerges: not silence in itself, but the ineffectiveness of expression.

 

This exhibition brings together two artists who respond to this condition through profoundly different, yet equally incisive gestures: Jonathan Soliman Awadalla and Deng Yufeng. Drawing from childhood experience and contemporary hyper-visibility, both construct parallel paths of silent dialogue, where action takes the place of language.

 

Jonathan Soliman Awadalla, in his work Fare breccia, returns to a childhood gesture: kicking a ball repeatedly against a wall. A repetitive, seemingly playful act gradually becomes charged with silent resistance. The wall is both real and symbolic—it represents the cultural, religious, and social layers that shape and constrain us as we grow. Through video, painting, and photography, the work becomes a tool to resist and to reinvent reality.

 

Echoing and expanding on this installation is Soliman's new performance From the Countryside, created specifically for this exhibition. Inspired by a family anecdote—his father being carried to school each day on the back of a donkey that silently repeated the same path—the performance consists of a walk, accompanied by a donkey, from the outskirts to the center of Cairo. It retraces a personal journey, forging a bridge between past and present, memory and the contemporary urban landscape.

 

In contrast, Deng Yufeng's Immortal adopts a radically different extreme: total transparency. The artist made all of his personal data public and invited international media to witness the act, pushing the logic of transparency to its breaking point to reveal its unsustainability. On the day of the performance, he was detained by police for investigation. Immortal is not a denunciation but a paradoxical experiment: in a system that appears to encourage freedom of expression, even an excess of sincerity is censored.

 

Their trajectories differ, but the question is the same: in a systemic structure that produces so much noise, is it still possible to express oneself through action? Or have gestures become invisible, unheard?

 

This is not an exhibition about silence, but a reflection on the failure of expression. No protest, no solution offered. Only two ways of reacting to the impossibility of language: one that tries to break through via a childlike gesture, and another that surrenders to the system’s logic to the point of collapse. Both generate a muted tension in the viewer: we see, but cannot find the words; we want to respond, but no longer know in what language.

 

Perhaps it is precisely along that blurred edge—between ambiguity, fracture, and silence—that new forms of expression might be reinvented.

 

 

About the Venue: Bayt Al Sinnari

 

Bayt Al-Sinnari is a historical space embodying art, history, and cultural memory. Built in 1794 by the Nubian/Sudanese Mamluk Ibrahim Katkhuda Al-Sinnary, it is located in Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district, adjacent to the Sayeda Zeinab Mosque. During Napoleon's expedition to Egypt (1798–1801), the house served as a residence and workspace for French artists and scientists and played a significant role in the compilation of the Description de l'Égypte.

 

Today, under the management of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Bayt Al Sinnari continues its artistic and scholarly legacy as a vibrant cultural center. It actively supports contemporary art practices, heritage preservation, and interdisciplinary creative dialogue through exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and live performances.