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CAIRO ARCHIVES
مجلة ماكغافين
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Coinciding with MacGuffin Nº 13 The Letter, the magazine collaborated with Archief Cairo, a design collective based in Egypt, to organise a temporary design studio in November 2023. This week-long event brought together a diverse group of young image-makers, designers, and writers that went in search of the meaning and empowerment of Arabic letters. Many of the letters they came upon were part of private archives, of collections that attempted to fill the gaps in ‘official’ records.  “In Cairo everything disappears. Archiving is a form of resistance,” said one of the studio participants. “Artists, designers, houses, letters, and trees: they vanish abroad or are replaced by propaganda and shopping malls. We must recapture them.” In Cairo the group explored typographical archives to see what should be preserved and what is kept out of the public realm. This publication showcases the results of their search – a collection of Cairo Archives.

48 p., English / Arabic, 2024, € 12. ISBN 978-90-9038756-7.

Contributors: Khodeir Al Borsaedy, Oda Algera, Najla Badran, David Bennewith, Salma El Barbary, Ghalia Elsrakbi, Eman Fikri, Lama Ghamoum, Kinda Ghannoum, Ryan Grees, Farah Hallaba, Sandra Kassenaar, Mariam Khattab, Benjamin McMillan, Eman Morgan, Hana Neuman, Engy Sabry, Salma Tarek Safaan, Rana Wassef, Noha Zayed.

Printed by IFAO, Cairo.

MacGuffin Muselets
Franca Ullrich
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A muselet is the wire cage that prevents the cork of a carbonated drink from emerging under the pressure of its contents. It derives its name from the French ‘museler’, to muzzle. When the bottle is uncorked the wire loses its restraining power. Abandoned on streets and run over by cars, flattened muselets embark on an afterlife of fresh hope in the form of a pendant. Each of these party remnants, found by MacGuffin on the streets of Amsterdam during the lockdowns, recalls a moment of euphoric release. Starting out as identical objects, the muselets fulfil their sole function by deforming into unique individuals that tell their own tales of free speech.
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Balls
Lernert & Sander
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Artist duo Lernert & Sander transformed 98 golf balls into meticulous cubes of 25 × 25 mm. Balls (2018) is available as C-print, 400 × 318 mm, in an edition of 50, printed on Ilford Goldfiber Silk, signed by the artists. Price €300 including shipping and tax.