Wael Shawky
El Araba El Madfuna
Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award 2011
August 26–October 21, 2012
Opening: August 25, 5–10pm
Press preview: August 24, 2012, 1pm
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststr. 69
D-10117 Berlin
Hours: Tue–Sun, 12–7pm, Thu 12–9pm
The Egyptian artist Wael Shawky is a storyteller: historiographical and literary sources form the starting point for his concentrated film narratives, in which he interweaves myths, facts, and fiction. The actors, backdrops, and costumes, music, and text each become self-contained narrative voices and through their interplay, fracture ossified views of history. His poetic staging of historical events allows the concealed backgrounds of current thinking and actions to emerge and enables us to think anew about the past and the present.
Wael Shawky (born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1971) is the winner of the Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award 2011. For his solo exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, he has created a new, large-scale work, El Araba El Madfuna, that is based on the artist’s personal experience in Upper Egypt over 10 years ago.
The cultural programs of KW Institute for Contemporary Art are made possible thanks to the support of the Governing Mayor of Berlin—Senate Chancellery—Cultural Affairs.
Further information
Denhart v. Harling: T +49 30 243459 42 / press [at] kw-berlin.de