Bright Star
2012
Collected jpegs from the World Wide Web
40-part series
Inkjet prints, 30 x 40 cm each
Installation view, On Remote Control, Lothringer13 Halle, Munich, DE, 2015
Photo: Jörg Koopmann

Operation Bright Star is rooted in the Camp David Accords of 1979. After its signing, the military forces of Egypt and the United States started to conduct coalition training in Egypt. The exercises began in 1980 and were centered at the Cairo West Air Base. During the period following the liberation of Kuwait (Operation Desert Storm), the exercises have grown larger and have included allied nations like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Operation Bright Star was suspended in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and the resulting political tensions. In 2017, Bright Star military manoeuvres resumed for the first time since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak.