Cairo Rooftops – PoshX Meets BandO and His Stencils

4 February 2025 · 17:50 · PoshX

Cairo – 4 February 2025, 17:50. Winter in Zurich means grey mornings after night shifts. Winter in Cairo means warm afternoons and a sky that turns pink, orange and then gold. I needed that.

A rooftop full of stencils

DonD gave me a name before I left Istanbul last time: "In Cairo, find BandO. He sketches on roofs." I found him exactly there – on a rooftop above the Nile, cutting stencils at a wobbly table, a teapot next to the scalpel.

BandO's stencils are geometric patterns, inspired by the carved wooden window screens of old houses. When the sun shines through them, the shadows on the wall look like lace. He showed me how one stencil can be turned, flipped and layered until a simple shape becomes a whole field of stars.

Patterns and faces

I drew faces, as always. BandO looked at them for a long time and then cut a stencil around one of my sketches: a cat face framed by his star pattern. It fitted perfectly, as if we had planned it for years.

We talked until the call to prayer drifted over the rooftops and the city lights came on. He wants to try something with movable boards instead of a fixed wall – art that can travel.

"A pattern is just patience you can see," BandO said. I wrote it on the first page of my new sketchbook.

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