The Third Trace
Photography, installation, and video project, 2018
In The Third Trace, Mai Al Shazly explores the entanglement of identity, memory, and place. Set in the village of Cortasc in southern Switzerland, the work reflects on how geographical boundaries—particularly mountain ranges—shape both physical and social separation.
Through experimental performance and visual documentation, Al Shazly engages with the material and cultural remnants of the village, creating a dialogue between the body and the environment. Abandoned spaces become sites of quiet resistance and reflection, offering new ways to consider belonging, displacement, and the affective dimensions of place.
Featured in the exhibitions;
Verzasca Foto Festival 2018, curated by Alfio Tommasini, Swizerland.
SHE TELLS, group exhibition, Cairo, 2018.
Installation view: From the village of Frasco to the Village Sonogno, Switzerland, 2018.
This three channel video work tracks the yellow hiking signs along the winding road to Cortasc. Signage, typically used for orientation and movement, is reframed as a poetic device one that quietly maps the emotional and political terrain of arrival.
Here, navigation becomes part of a conceptual re-mapping of place and belonging.
Installation View – Red Thread Intervention
As part of The Third Trace, this site-specific installation employs red thread to intervene in the natural landscape of Cortasc.
Stones long-standing, unmoving witnesses to both presence and abandonment are delicately wrapped in vibrant red lines. These markings act as intentional gestures of connection, interruption, and memory.
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