By Sara Payne
For the Point Park News Service

A dimly lit room has its walls painted a golden color with a light blue design circling the space. Cushions are placed on the floor for seating. The projector in the center of the room displays a video on the ceiling.

This is no action-packed video. Viewers watch as a camera is placed below tufts of green grass with a blue sky viewable between the spaces. A camel bends down slowly to eat the grass above the camera. The entirety of this room is just one sample of the art created for the “Sites of Passage” exhibit.

“Sites of Passage” is a satellite exhibit in conjunction with The Mattress Factory museum on the North Side. The exhibit located at 1414 Monterey St. opened on Sept. 9. Marked by the then current revolution in Egypt and the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, it is a collection of pieces from a larger project, the “Firefly Tunnel Project,” started by co-curator Tavia La Follette.

“The Firefly Tunnels are metaphorical passageways for the exchange of ideas through the language of Performance Art,” said La Follette, as she described the project on The Mattress Factory’s website. “One can think of them as an Underground Railroad that crosses the borders of language, a system of tunnels [aided by the Internet] that doesn’t believe in the barriers of countries or the obstruction of segregated tongues.”

The first of these tunnels was created between artists in the U.S. and Egypt.

The project’s website hosts a place that allows artists from both countries to upload their work and allow it to be edited by other artists, or to leave it protected to remain as it is.

An invitation to a three-week workshop in Cairo, Egypt gave Holly Thuma, a Pittsburgh artist, the chance to work along side Egyptian artists and learn a new culture for the first time.

Thuma traveled to Egypt in late February of this year, just after the revolution. She thought that first checking into the country was a little intense, but once the group started meeting people the feeling was completely different.

“Once we were there, we were very welcomed,” said Thuma, during a phone interview on Dec. 9. “They were so happy to see Americans.”

The experience gave the group an opportunity to view Egypt from the eyes of an insider. Thuma and the other American artists were always with the Egyptians artists they worked with; they didn’t stay any nights in fancy hotels. Both groups were able to just talk and discuss their home lives and families.

“It is an entirely different way to see a country,” said Thuma.

Thuma recalled the most significant part of the workshop was making art with people that had been in Tahrir Square. The group built a giant puppet modeled after a statue in Cairo called the “Mother of Egypt.” Her white dress was adorned with the names of those who died in Tahrir Square and a symbol of one hand. “One hand on Egypt” was a phrase used during the revolution. It represented the idea of the coming together of all the people in Egypt.

“There was a sense of euphoria about accomplishing this thing,” said Thuma. “It was just amazing to me. They are so young and full of hope and joy and everything for their country.”

Jennie Snyder, a professor at the Community College of Allegheny County, viewed the exhibit as “very visually arresting and beautiful.”

Snyder initially brought students from her Art Appreciation class to the main part of the Mattress Factory Dec. 2, but was directed to the satellite exhibit. She had no idea what the purpose of the exhibit was.

“I saw a lot of parallels,” said the 46-year-old Carrick resident. “We took our cue from Egypt and their uprising.”

“Sites of Passage” pulls together two distant countries that are not normally related. The project’s art blurs the lines of the different cultures, religions and languages and focuses on the similarities that are found between two places.

As a TV screen flashes between images of police brutality in Pittsburgh and Egypt, the viewer quickly realizes the two aren’t so different after all.

The participants in the project plan to eventually create a network of tunnels between various countries to allow for more dialogue through their art.

“Sites of Passage” will be hosting a tour led by La Follette on Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. and the exhibit will be open until Feb. 12, 2012. Admittance to the museum is free to all Point Park University students with their IDs.