Lyre

Egypt, oasis of Siwa in the Libyan-Egyptian desert. Sliman Sheib Said wants to craft a five-stringed lyre. Not a typical instrument for this oasis, where flutes, drums, tambourines, and the rhythmic clapping of hands dominate the music. Such lyres are at home in Nubia or the Sudan. In the 1950s, the first transistor radios go into serial production in Europe and the United States. Since the 1970s, there is continuous radio reception in Siwa. Affordable transistor radios invade the oasis. Men dance and sing to radio music. Then, Walkmen and iPods bring the era of the battery-operated transistor radios to an end. Throw them away! From the casing of such a discarded portable transistor radio, Sliman creates his desired musical instrument. In 1993 an ethnologist documents the transformation of the material culture in the oasis. One evening, as she is hanging out in the "East-West Restaurant", Sliman passes by with his lyre. He declares himself ready to sell her his lyre, but only on the next day, after the evening party in the palm garden, to which he is making his way.