10 Sep - 6 Dec 2025

Mohamed Ismail ( Egypt )

At ZK/U Berlin, Mohamed Ismail will develop Visualizing Liminality: Hostile Architectures and the Politics of In-Betweenness, a project that examines how urban design enforces exclusion while opening possibilities for subversive reclaiming. Drawing on his practice in Cairo—where barricades and walls often shift between instruments of control and sites of communal expression—Ismail will explore Berlin’s transitional urban zones, from gentrifying neighborhoods to contested public spaces. Through photography, collage, and modular sculptures made from repurposed materials, he will create a comparative visual atlas of hostile architectures in Berlin. The project also incorporates participatory workshops with Arabic-speaking communities, generating counter-narratives through wheat-paste murals and augmented reality overlays. By reframing hostile design as a liminal condition—simultaneously visible and invisible—the work interrogates how power is inscribed into the built environment while proposing collective strategies of resistance. The residency will culminate in site-specific installations and an exhibition at ZK/U.