The films in the exhibition are visually lucid and dreamlike, exploring themes of solitude and collective will. Through lyrical and poetic narratives, Basim Magdy examines the reciprocity between human relationships, utopian visions, time, perception, and memory.
Engaging with the materiality of film and the transition from analogue to digital, the artist addresses the reconciliation of tradition and ritual within increasingly futuristic and industrialised modes of existence. Working through multiple visual and narrative lenses, Magdy reflects on how these shifts shape contemporary human experience.
For this project at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the artist and curator experiment with approaches to reading and sharing time-based works, highlighting the capacity of film to articulate the urgencies of contemporary conditions.
About the artist
Basim Magdy (b. 1977, Assiut, Egypt) is a leading artist of his generation. His solo exhibitions include The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings at the MCA Chicago and MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome (2016), and Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin (2016); No Shooting Stars at Jeu de Paume, Paris, and CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux (2016); and An Absent Population Laughs at Its Haunting Withdrawal at Art in General, New York (2014). He has also participated in numerous international group exhibitions and biennials.
Magdy is the recipient of the Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year Award (2016) and the Abraaj Art Prize, Dubai (2014). He lives and works between Basel, Switzerland, and Cairo, Egypt.
Working across painting, drawing, text, photography, and film, Magdy’s practice constructs ephemeral narratives that blur fictional and real stories of lived and imagined experiences. His work traces cyclical processes of desire and disappointment in humanity’s ongoing attempts to reshape societal systems and structures.
