PITTSBURGH.- On September 9, 2011, the Mattress Factory opened Sites of Passage, an exhibition with new and context-specific work by artists from Egypt and the United States. This exhibition is the final exposé of the first “dig” of The Firefly Tunnels Project. The project began in August of 2010 when artist, workshop leader, and co-curator Tavia La Follette went to Egypt to begin the exchange. The project is a dialogue between Egypt and the United States during Egypt’s fight for democracy, as the U.S. enters the 10th anniversary of 9/11, executes its architect, questions its own democracy and as both countries go into an election for a new leader. Performance and installation artists from both Egypt and the U.S. converse through a virtual lab/website, where they exchange ideas and materials. The commonality between both sides of the “tunnel”/website is that the artists have gone through an intensive