MKMAEL is presented as a series of ongoing mini-projects that will form a complete project when put together in a finale. The first in this series of mini-projects is MKMAEL STORIES. MKMAEL STORIES has at its core a tactical reinterpretation of Egypt’s once astoundingly popular line of romance fiction pocket paperbacks “Abeer”. Khaled blurs fact retrieved from the chat archive with fictionist narration to create a frustrating recipe for a same-sex romance story written in the Middle-East in the digital age. Many of “Abeer’s” traits have been kept alive by Khaled, the idea of the super-romance that is almost too intense thus becoming a little melodramatic, the intrigue, and the unspoken desire. The first book from the MKMAEL STORIES series is titled “An Image Passionate” it sets both the visual and conceptual tones for the titles to come. The cover is a take on the original “Abeer” book covers, but the cover illustration does not feature a Man and a Woman in a close-up shot as usual, but a rather dark icon of lone masculinity where a silhouetted male figure stands facing a sunset horizon with a can of soda in one hand, wearing a rather funny hat. What are we to make of this image? Is it the passionate image the narrator is referring to in the title? The only way the audience can attempt to find out is by actually reading this short story, but don’t expect all the answers to your questions to be revealed in one go.
