The fifth edition of an international, multidisciplinary contemporary arts festival held in Cairo roughly once every 2 years. Through an exhibition of existing and newly commissioned works, a two-day symposium and a publication, this edition of PhotoCairo addresses art as a space of freedom by responding strongly to the post-2011 emerging cultural politics, which position artists between paradoxically confining roles: either as mouthpieces of the presumed ideals of the 2011 revolutionary events; or under the censorious gaze of culturally conservative forces.