SOUL Stories

In several of her recent works, Dina El Kaisy Friemuth has engaged in close collaboration with her mother, Maha El Kaisy. Together, they create spaces that highlight feminist figures through storytelling and celebrate intergenerational dialogue. Maha El Kaisy participates in the conversation, during which Dina will also discuss the significance of storytelling in her own artistic practice. In addition, Dina will read from “SOUL” – a zine compiling a selection of her projects, transformed into a new archive of comics, texts, and contributions from, among others, María Berríos, Agnieszka Roguski, and Duygu Ağal. “SOUL” was created in collaboration with graphic designer Sibel Beyer and supported by the M.1 Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung and the BPA// Berlin program for artists. The zine will be available for purchase during the evening. 

The event has been made possible with support from Goethe-Institut Dänemark. 

About SOUL Stories 
“SOUL Stories” (2021–present) is a series of meetings and conversations. The first, “SOUL Stories / What cannot be said will be wept”, was presented at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (2022), and the second in the series, “SOUL Stories / I have flown to you like a child to her mother”, took place at Savvy Contemporary and Archive Books in Berlin (2023). Since then, the project has continued through various public spaces and private homes. 

About Dina El Kaisy Friemuth 
Dina El Kaisy Friemuth (b. 1988) investigates themes of belonging and representation through installations, performances, and socially engaged projects. Her work carries a strong political dimension, critically examining and challenging norms and structures both within the art world and in society at large. She graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and from Universität der Künste Berlin and has lived and worked in both cities since 2017. 

The artwork ISIS (2025) 
Dina El Kaisy Friemuth works with postcolonial and feminist questions, often intertwining personal and grand historical narratives to explore who claims ownership of stories. 

The artwork “ISIS” is a photo series portraying three members of the artist’s family: her newborn child with the father, her mother, and her cat. The series draws inspiration from depictions of the goddess Isis with the child Horus, as well as from Akhenaton and Nefertiti’s family portrait in the Egyptian collection at the Neues Museum in Berlin. El Kaisy Friemuth and her mother frequently visited the museum when she was a child, where her mother sought to introduce her to Arab culture, storytelling, and history in ways that differed from dominant societal narratives. 

At the Neues Museum, Akhenaton and Nefertiti are depicted in an image that introduces a monotheistic approach, with a single god shining down on their happy family of father, mother, and three daughters. Isis was one of the most beloved goddesses of ancient Egypt and was often portrayed nursing her son Horus. 

The history and iconography of Isis and Akhenaton provide early evidence of cultural intertwinings but also of Eurocentric modes of historical narration. In her work with the three portraits, El Kaisy Friemuth refers to both the Christian iconography of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child, inspired by the figure of Isis, and the monotheistic religion. At the same time, the title “ISIS” plays on the coincidence of the name with the abbreviation for the Islamic State, which generates fear and is often associated with the Arab world.