Mona Marzouk
Trayvon
30 September–11 November 2014
Basim Magdy
Measuring the Last Breaths of Time on a Fading Scale
18 November 2014–30 January 2015
Gypsum Gallery
5a Bahgat Ali Street
Zamalek, Cairo
Egypt
Hours: Monday–Saturday noon–8pm,
Friday 4–8pm
Mona Marzouk
Trayvon
For her first solo show in Cairo since 2006 Mona Marzouk presents a new series of paintings collectively titled Trayvon. The project takes the courtroom as its starting point. The past few years of demonstrations and socio-political upheaval have been intense, and the courtroom as a space in these unfolding narratives has been featured extensively in the media as a space for the implementation of justice. But, the rule of law and justice are in many cases at opposite ends of the spectrum. The courtroom as a psychological space, as a space of argumentation, and as a problematic construct leads to research of cases in different parts of the world where there has been an evident miscarriage of justice or a wrongful conviction. Cases in the present and in history, and speculations about such cases in the future. These trials generate the material from which the paintings are made. Evidence, phrases, and uttered sentences become forms, shapes, and colors. The project’s title refers to the much-publicized case of Trayvon Martin.
Mona Marzouk is an artist based in Alexandria, Egypt. A painter and sculptor, her work has often taken the form of large site-specific murals sometimes incorporating animations. Her work has been featured at the EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick, 2014; 11th Havana Biennial, Cuba, 2012; Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 2011; the 7th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea, 2008; and the 1st Canary Islands Biennial, Spain, 2006. Marzouk’s solo exhibitions include The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Energy’s Evil, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK, 2008 and The New World, Art in General, New York, 2006.
Basim Magdy
Measuring the Last Breaths of Time on a Fading Scale
In Basim Magdy’s work we are subjected to the world through a satirical eye. His drawings, sculptures, films and installations are conceived with a taste for the absurd. They build a universe that has gone off-kilter. Like dreams, elements of a familiar landscape stem out of reality. Past, present and future exist as a single realm and depictions—often of foliage and ruins, astronauts and rockets, airplanes, soldiers, cranes and modernist structures—take on a surreal aggressive quality.
Despite a preoccupation with analogue film, narrative sequences are seldom linear. Fragments, gaps, and clues suggest rather than tell a story. His films, in particular, progress like a series of still images permeated with a haunted air that heightens our sense of suspense. Magdy stretches the boundaries of our imagination to test the logic of the truth, which often lies somewhere between reality and fiction.
For his first exhibition at Gypsum Gallery, Magdy shows Time Laughs Back at You Like a Sunken Ship (2012), a short film shot on Super 8, alongside a new suite of chromogenic color prints produced from chemically altered slides. Nature, as a state that occurs in the wild and a force that has been harnessed and cultivated throughout civilization, features in both works and becomes a witness to the inevitable passing of time.
Basim Magdy (b. 1977) is an artist based in Basel, Switzerland and Cairo, Egypt. His upcoming exhibitions include La Biennale de Montreal, Canada; MUMA – Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne and a solo presentation at Art in General, New York. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group shows including the SeMA Biennial MediaCity, Seoul, Korea, 2014; the 13th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 2013; Biennale Jogja XII, Indonesia, 2013; the Sharjah Biennial 11, UAE, 2013; La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012 and Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2012. He was shortlisted for the second edition of the Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Centre in 2012 and is the winner of Abraaj Art Prize, Dubai, 2014.
Gypsum Gallery is a contemporary art gallery based in Cairo, Egypt. Since it has opened its doors to the public in October 2013, its exhibitions and artists have been featured in Artforum, Frieze magazine, Flash Art, Modern Painters, Canvas, Harper’s Bazaar Art, Metropolis M, art-agenda, Art Daily, Mada Masr, Al-Ahram Online, Cairo Art Blog and Cairobserver, amongst others. A rigorous practice and a singular vision characterize the work of its roster of artists with whom the gallery is committed to forging long-standing relationships.
