When Cairo was Modern
Publicity photo of the Giza Solar Boat Museum, circa 1960s Courtesy personal collection of Mohamed Elshahed
Cairo Modern, curated by Mohamed Elshahed, ran at the Center for Architecture in New York from October 1, 2021 to January 22, 2022
In college I did a reckless thing. I wrote my thesis on the potential for a military takeover in Egypt after the (presumably far-off) death of its president, Hosni Mubarak. I got a grant to spend a month in Cairo, seeking out officials and former generals for interviews. It was the summer of 2010. There were few takers. It was dumb luck no one from the government took me.
Within the year, Mubarak was out and a Supreme Council of Armed Forces was in, serving as the self-declared champion of the popular revolution that took flight in January 2011. In many ways, however, the military already ran Egypt, and had since 1952, when Gamal Abdel Nasser led a cohort of military officers in seizing power from a British-backed regime. In contrast to the 2011 revolution, which led to a status-quo-friendly consolidation of military power under officers with huge portfolios spanning key sectors of the Egyptian economy, the milit…
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