
Wael Shawky:
Over the past 12 years my work has been concerned
with a number of specific contexts (modernization, displacement,
cultural hybridization, and marginalization). In the last
5 years I experienced a paradigm shift in my work on the
levels of concept, practice and materials. How the material
becomes translated in a "religious" fashion. A
belief in the chemical content of the material leads to
an approach where increasing the value of the conceptual
connections in terms of contrast between the methods of
production and the material itself is achieved.
The contrast arises out of how we actually deal with the
material through a specific belief that is utilized within
a functional practice- a certain pragmatic thinking. For
example using asphalt in my work is religious because of
a basic conceptual belief that the chemical properties of
the material itself possesses a certain excess beyond function.
Such a position takes the work into what I term the "religious".(...)
(...) In most of my work over the last period I have been
aiming to construct a hybridized society. A system of a
society in transition, a condition that is not clear, a
translation. I see my role as that of the translator- this
translation is heightened the closer I come to a system
of an actually existing society. There is an attempt to
imitate exact systems (nomadism, agricultural societies,
urbanism) through an anthropological and artistic analysis,
a level of representation appears because of the nature
of imitation. At the same time all elements that are chosen
are extremely specific, every element has historical and
social references. The act of bringing together all these
elements in a system that is close to the system we function
in socially presents us with an amount of criticism of the
"viability of the social system. When systematizing
these specific elements at the same level of seriousness
of our lived existence- a certain cynicism appears.(...)

"...Cave,
a video work featuring him [Shawky] walking around a local
supermarket reciting sections of the Koran. At first glance,
the video appears much like a news broadcast, Shawky walks
between the aisles talking directly to the camera [...].
Whereas he is in fact delivering fro memory a passage in
the Koran and his focus and faultless flow of verse result
here fro years spent as a child learning it.
The title Cave, refers to the story of the Cave
and seven sleepers. Originally a Greek legend, the
tale can be found in the Latin work of Gregory of Tours
and in many religious writings. Shawky recites the Surah
that contains this narrative of seven men who lived in the
city of Ephesus in Turkey around 250AD and took refuge from
persecution by hiding in a cave. The sleepers awoke to find
that they had slept for 200 years and that Christianity
had become the dominant faith of the empire.
The subtitles that run across the image, do so at such a
pace that rather than offer translation, they support the
belief that there is indeed no substitute for the original
written language of the Koran, namely Arabic. Yet, in his
real-time performance Shawky manages to collapse the hierarchy
of religion and language. [...] The story of seven sleepers
bridges religion and culture, acting as a metaphor to describe
the speed of capitalism [...] and its isolating effect on
the individual."
[N.P.], in: 9th International Istanbul
Biennial, catalogue, Istanbul 2005, p. 76.

wael shawky
b.1971, Alexandria, Egypt
1994 Faculty
of Fine Arts, Alexandria University, Alexandria
1996 Grand
Nile Prize, 6th International Cairo Biennial, Cairo
2001 Graduate
School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia
2001 Honorary
Award, Rita Longa International Symposium, Codema, Bayamo,
Cuba
2004 The
International Award of The Islamic World Arts Initiative,
Arts International, New York
2004 Residency
program, Platform Garanti of Contemporary Art, Istanbul
lives and
works in Cairo

selected solo exhibitions:
2006
Drawings (1998-2006),
The Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, EG
2005
The Green Land Circus, Factory Space, The Townhouse
Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, EG
Loosing Identity, Ludwigsburg Kunstverein, Ludwigsburg,
D
2003
Asphalt Quarter, installation, The Townhouse Gallery
of Contemporary Art, Cairo, EG
2002
When He Decided to Visit the Christmas Village,
performance at Main Space, Cairo, EG
2001
Transitions, installation, Gemmayzeh, Beirut, LB
Sidi El Asphalt's Moulid, installation, The Townhouse
Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, EG
selected group exhibitions:
2006
5 Tage bis zum Ende der Kunst - Fremd
bin ich eingezogen, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel,
D
No Man's Land (Part II), Hellenic American Union,
Athens, GR
Choosing My Religion, Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun, CH
Di-Segni/ Drawings, Studio Trisorio, Napoli, I
Art, Life and Confusion, 47th October Art Salon
Belgrade, RS
No Matter What, I Will Always be Distant From You,
The Artists Cinema, Frieze Art Fair, London, GB
Coding: Decoding, Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary
Art Center and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen,
DK
No Man's Land (Part I), 6th Visual Arts Festival,
Kodra Field, Thessaloniki, GR
Most Probably I Will Be Performing This Dream Tonight,
video installation mounted in cinema Marignan, Hamra, Beirut,
LB
Outside The Living Room, GB Agency, Paris, F
Stile der stadt, Artist's project in Hamburg, Große
Bergstraße, Altona, Hamburg, D
2005
9th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, TR
ADAM, Smart Project Space, Amsterdam, NL
Urban Realities, Focus Istanbul, Martin-Gropius-Bau,
Berlin, D
Museum collection exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art Rome
(MACRO), Rome, I
Normalization, Platform Garanti of Contemporary
Art, Istanbul, TR
FotoCairo 3, The Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary
Art, Cairo, EG
2004
Mediterraneans, The Museum of Modern Art Rome (MACRO),
Rome, I
Meeting Points, Makan House, Amman, JO
4th Les journées de la Photographie, Centre Culturel
Français de Damas, Damascus, SY
2003
Group Exhibition, Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Aubervilliers,
F
24/7 Vilnius, CAC museum, Vilnius, LT
50th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, I
Body and the Archive, Artists Space, New York,
USA
International Video Invitational, Fa Project, London, GB
International Experimental Film Festival, Goethe Institute,
Alexandria / Cairo, EG
2002
Close up an Artistic Collaborative Workshop and Exhibition
(Sweden-Egypt)
Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, EG
2001
Rita Longa International Art Symposium, Codema, Bayamo,
CU
2nd Al Nitaq Festival of Visual Arts, The Townhouse Gallery,
Cairo , EG
2000
Group Exhibition, Meyrson Hall Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
1st Al Nitaq Festival of Visual Arts, Talaat Harb Square,
Cairo, EG
1997
Contemporary Egyptian Art, Kunst Historischan Museum, Vienna,
AUS
1996
6th International Cairo Biennial, Museum of Modern Art,
Cairo, EG
1995
Group exhibition, Al Hanager Gallery, Opera House Complex,
Cairo, EG
1994
6th Salon of Youth, Akhnaton Art Centre, Cairo, EG

[Translated by Ma³gorzata
Sady]
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