Wael Shawky: Al Araba Al Madfuna

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Wael Shawky, "Al Araba Al Madfuna III," 2016

video still (detail), courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut/Hamburg

Wael Shawky: Al Araba Al Madfuna 

On January 12, at 3pm, the final day of Wael Shawky's exhibition, join us for a screening of The Secrets of Karbala (2015). the third instalment of Cabaret Crusades.

The Polygon Gallery is thrilled to present the first two films of Wael Shawky’s critically acclaimed trilogy, Cabaret Crusades, The Horror Show File (2010) and The Path to Cairo (2012) in conjunction with the current exhibtion Wael Shawky: Al Araba Al Madfuna.

The screening will begin with an introduction from Laura U. Marks, Grant Strate Professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University and author of the essay "Gifts, Plunder, and a Secret: Wael Shawky's Cabaret Crusades", in the recent monograph of Shawky’s work published by Skira.

Cabaret Crusades re-examines the religious wars of 1095-1291 where Christians and Muslims fought over possession of Jerusalem. Retold exclusively from Arab perspectives, Shawky blends history and myth in an elaborate and theatrical retelling, poignantly dramatised through marionette puppetry. 

This exhibition brings the extraordinary and timely art of Wael Shawky to the west coast for the first time. Shawky’s ambitious, multilayered film productions look at the ways in which history and mythologies are recorded, highlighting the fallibility of cultural memory, while offering critical perspectives on our current narratives of uncertainty and change. Shawky brings into dialogue real and imagined histories of the Arab world in provocative retellings that pose timely questions about truth and fabulation.

The last part of a trilogy of films, Al Araba Al Madfuna III was shot in the temples of the Pharaoh Seti and Osirion in the archeological city of Abydos in Upper Egypt, nowadays the village of Al Araba Al Madfuna. This work is inspired by Egyptian writer Mohamed Mostagab’s short story “Sunflower”, and by the artist’s travels in the region, where he observed local people digging tunnels underground in search of ancient treasures. In Shawky’s theatrical restaging, he employs amateur child actors and film shot in negative to emphasise the many contingencies of historical understanding.

Screenings of Al Araba Al Madfuna I and II will take place at The Polygon Gallery during the run of the exhibition.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Wael Shawky was born in Alexandria Egypt in 1971. He studied at the University of Alexandria and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and is the founder of MASS Alexandria, an artist residency program. His work has been exhibited widely including solo shows at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; Mathaf, Doha; MoMa PSI, New York; Serpentine Gallery, London; and Castello di Rivoli, Turin. He is currently exhibiting at Lisson Gallery, New York. He has participated in major international exhibitions including the Istanbul Biennial, Sharjah Biennial and documenta (13). He is the recipient of the first Mario Merz Prize and his film trilogy The Cabaret Crusades was voted this month as the 7th most important artwork produced in the 21st Century by The Guardian.