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Yasmine El Meleegy


Qalawoon’s Bimerstan Giftshop,
2019- Ongoing



The sculptural piece is a recreation of an anatomical eye model artifact:  located in the pharmacy museum in Basel. El Meleegy re-produced a similar version of it; only she decontextualized it, displaying it in Bimerstan Qalalwoon (Islamic old hospital in Cairo) like a non functional museum giftshop – the only obvious reference to its origin being the work's title "Ivory Eye Model -The 16th century-The pharmacy museum Basel''. as reflection of the narratives of power that are invested in pharmaceutical artifacts. Over the course of the project, El Meleegy traces the trajectory of those narratives surrounding the history of medicine in an age of globalization and museology. It seeks to reconcile early forms of looting and dispossession, and official, accepted narrative forms that are found in science museums and pharmacy museums. 

📸Mostafa Samy


Qalawoon's Bimerstan Giftshop, 2019- ongoing, glass, epoxy, marble, stainless,
installation dimensions variable.






Qalawoon's Bimerstan Giftshop, 2019- ongoing, glass, epoxy, marble, stainless,
installation dimensions variable.






📸Mostafa Samy