Infinite Flight: El Gouna Film Festival Recycling and Sustainability Design Initiative

The 5th Edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF), launched a sustainability and recycling initiative under the name “Not the End ”, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and “Random Content” Agency. The initiative aims to promote environmental sustainability by upcycling cinematic waste into art pieces and design products.

I was invited among 13 of Egypt’s top designers to take part in the initiative, alongside Ahmed Fayad, Karim El Hayawan, Soha Omar, Cherif Morsi, Shosha Kamal, Mohamed Radwan, Marwan Fayed, Mariam Hazem, Sherif Nour, Nedal Badr, Nehal Leheta, Huda Lashin, and Hend Riad.

With Random Content, we (the designers) produced the ten pieces in less than a month before the festival kicked off. The pieces were displayed in GFF’s main plaza last Tuesday and will be auctioned after the GFF concludes.

I chose to participate with a piece that is titled: Infinite Flight

Initial Design Drawings

Inspired by the ideas of Resurrection, Rebirth, Renewal & Rejuvenation, as embodied by the Ancient Egyptian Mythical Creature, known as the Phoenix, this experimental design attempts to breath new life into the old, the discarded, the unloved, and unwanted. It is an effort to remove the dust, clean the decay, and Resurrect that which was once thought dead.

The Making of Infinite Flight

It attempts to achieve that by introducing a new function to the discarded film sets wooden doors, using it as outdoor seating, so that this new functionality may bring about a new life. The choice of doors comes from both their symbolism as pathways into other worlds, and their challenging nature, because it’s hard to perceive another use for doors, other than being doors!

Design Photos

The overall form of the outdoor seating is inspired by the flight of the Phoenix, the doors are trying to fly away, and the introduction of the mirror back is to give the feel of infinity & endlessness, a concept associated with the eternal cycle of death and rebirth of the Phoenix.

Event Photos