Press
"At the Biennale, Wael Shawky represented his country with a lush retelling of a failed revolution that offers hope in a troubled political landscape."
"In January, Al Jazeera English aired a segment with a sound analyst named Lawrence Abu Hamdan. He was asked to assess a video that had gone viral online. In the clip, a woman wearing a hijab claimed to be a nurse at a hospital in Gaza. She said that Hamas was attacking the hospital and ransacking its supplies. The sound of bombs could be heard in the background..."
"A second show at the Migros, Dineo Seshee Raisibe Bopape’s “(ka) pheko ye – the dream to come,” subverts this construction of home by bringing to the museum the very real conditions of Bopape’s native South Africa through clay display structures that echo the front yards in which people congregate, work, and socialize."
"Poesie kann auch aus vier Spazierstöcken bestehen: Der Duchamp-Preisträger Tarik Kiswanson stellt im Frankfurter Portikus aus."
"But this booth’s true stars were ceramic versions of grotesque masks that Wael Shawky has featured in his films, which have dealt with topics ranging from the Crusader invasions of Egypt in the 12th century to the country’s nationalist Urabi revolution against imperial influence during the 19th century..."
"Marwan Rechmaoui’s latest body of work includes paintings of popsicles and bags of pink cotton candy. There are poppies, fluffy clouds, a pretty sun, and a full moon. The perfectly green crowns of seven parasol pine trees fill one robust frame while the bushy derrieres of three sheep fill another. Among the objects scattered throughout “Chasing the Sun,” on view in the Sfeir-Semler Gallery’s newish project space located in Downtown Beirut near the mouth of the port, are streamers, a kite, marbles, the outlines of a hopscotch game, and boards for checkers and tic-tac-toe. Knowing the artist’s previous work, one could be forgiven for thinking he’d lost the plot here, or at least wandered off toward divertissement. And yet the toys and games of the current show clarify the importance of play and playfulness in Rechmaoui’s larger project..."
"Wael Shawky has brought a bold musical film to the Egyptian Pavilion. In Drama 1882, the Alexandria-born artist creates a parable confronting history’s grip on the present.
Set against the backdrop of occupation in Egypt, the film delves into the nationalist fervor of the 1879–82 Urabi Revolution. The violent peasant uprising against the Egyptian monarch’s susceptibility to imperial influence eventually backfired and became a catalyst for British rule, which lasted until 1956."
"Depending on who you ask, the Phoenician princess Europa was either wooed or assaulted by the Greek god Zeus, who became her lover after disguising himself as a bull. Lebanon’s representative, Monira Al Solh, seems to view Europa’s seduction as nonconsensual. Take one painting in Al Solh’s expansive installation A Dance with Her Myth (2024) showing a bound-up figure of ambiguous gender identity beside a bull on its back. Whatever is happening here, it isn’t pleasant. But Al Solh, keen to complicate the mythology surrounding Europa, never portrays this princess as a victim."
"Through an impressive range of 41 pieces, including sculptures, drawings, paintings, embroidery, and video, Al Solh focuses on the ancient Phoenician character of Europa and rewrites her narrative of domination by reimagining her as a powerful protagonist. Painted canvases hanging from the ceiling depict Europa engaging with her abductor, the bull (Zeus). In the paintings, Europa is pregnant with the bull standing at her side, connected to the bull with an umbilical cord, or even morphing into the bull herself."
‘The woman lies on her back, feet in the air. She lazily spins an urn, balanced on her hands, containing a bull’s head. During the 12-minute film in which the bull-twirling goddess appears, a haphazard narrative emerges out of images — many of them animated drawings which boast a frail, enchanting quirkiness — that include lapping waves, dancers in antique robes and onions which weep purple ink. Lines from a poem flash intermittently: “I looked for a magnificent white bull . . . but all I found was a goat.” “I looked for Europa passively carried . . . she held him in a jar.”‘
"The Pavilion of Lebanon will present A Dance with her Myth, an exhibition by Mounira Al Solh and curated by Nada Ghandour, for the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Situated in the Arsenale, Mounira Al Solh’s 180m2 multimedia installation, composed of 41 pieces—drawings, paintings, sculptures, embroideries, and video— creates a bridge between myth and reality, revisiting the rapt of Europa to offer a new perspective on the aspirations and challenges faced by women today. On canvas, paper and screen, the artist’s creative process combines allegorical narrative with a documentary approach, appropriation with diversion, and gives realistic, poetic, and very contemporary representations."
"It is said that when Pandora’s box was opened, Zeus looked to earth from his abode on Mount Olympus and saw wars, bloodshed, carnage, and unrest. Horrified, the king of the ancient Greek gods flew into a fit of rage and vowed to destroy humanity for its corruption. And so, he commanded a deluge. ‘When mankind got to that level of power-worship and dictatorship, Zeus created the flood to erase it,’ says Egyptian artist Wael Shawky when describing his film, I Am the Hymns of the New Temple (2023)."
"What’s a museum for? It’s a question that’s been exercising art’s collecting institutions increasingly in recent years, as they try to respond to criticisms coming from all angles of their supposed power and privilege. A Model, a three-stage project mounted by Mudam’s recently appointed director Bettina Steinbrügge, opened with Rayyane Tabet’s standalone installation ‘prelude’ late last year, a work now joined by this second, whole-museum exhibition, which mixes selections from the museum’s collection with other works, all of which variously highlight the implicit parameters of the museum – what can and can’t be here, and why. It will be joined by a third exhibition, Epilogue by Jason Dodge, in April."
"Running from March 13 until July 27, 2024, Sfeir Semler Gallery presents the second edition of ‘The Blind Date’ a concept which debuted in 2017. The show features a group exhibition with artists from outside of the gallery’s roster. Coincidentally, the five invited artists are all young female artists with diverse practices and expressions, all connected to the Arab-speaking world."
"Sfeir Semler Gallery Beirut presents Marwan Rechmaoui’s latest solo show, ‘Chasing the Sun’ at Downtown, Beirut from March 13 until July 20, 2024. Marwan Rechmaoui, known for his conceptual sculptures in concrete, metal, rubber, and wax, delves into an exploration of urban socio-geographies through the lens of play. Reflecting on childhood memories in Beirut, Rechmaoui revisits his youth through playful installations, including marbles, kites, and hopscotch outlines, drawing from sketches made in the 1990s. These recreations are juxtaposed with wax representations of nature, highlighting the transformative power of childhood experiences."