Something’s rumbling around Cairo. We can’t quite put our finger on it, but there’s definitely a rumbling in the air. Among the countless billboards for real estate, telecommunications and whatnot, the words CAIRO REIMAGINED began to appear, emblazoned along the city’s highways and bridges.
You’d be forgiven for dismissing it as just another vague advertisement for an equally vague product – in fact, it could actually work as a throwaway slogan for the city’s latest real estate project. Yet I can't help myself but think it's actually much, much more. Although details are scarce, Cairo Reimagined can only, thus far, be considered some kind of initiative or campaign that stands for something more than the bold all caps words.
On Facebook, an equally enigmatic Facebook page has emerged that doesn’t give away much either. It features familiar photos of Cairo – but they're unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. A sense of fantasia engulfs your senses as explosions of colors come to alter photos of the places we’ve come to think of as flat and dull, revealing that, despite what we may have come to believe, Egypt’s capital is a rather visually and aesthetically interesting place – a perfect palate waiting to be re-touched and re-imagined by something and anything. In some of the posts, the page challenges you to reimagine Cairo using a variety of artistic talents, whether it's graphic design, painting, music, animation, photography or otherwise.
Other posts on the page try to incite and channel your sense of imagination; one even using a Rumi quote. Many, if not all, of the posts have gone viral, with thousands of likes and hundreds of shares, once again suggesting that something is rumbling across the virtual air of the city; something out of left-field is coming our way. All we can really do is wait and see what it may just be.
For more information, check out Cairo Reimagined on Facebook.