Basim Magdy
01 Oct 2020
Im Rahmen der Ausstellung «The Incredible World of Photography» redet Aïcha Revellat mit Basler Künstler:innen.
Basim Magdy (*1977 in Assiut, Egypt, lives and works in Basel)
Basim Magdy came to photography through his interest in film. He uses traditional analogue and Polaroid cameras which he likes to reassemble and and experiment with, pushing their the apparatus past what it was traditionally designed to do. Magdy creates elusive images of empty landscapes, monuments that allude to the human need to leave a mark on this earth and of people who seem eerily out of place in their environment. In works like Someone Tried to Lock up Time (2018) and Apology to a Love Story that crashed into a Whale (2016) a series of images and poetic texts make ambiguos references to the way in which history is being written, and perhaps to the role that photography plays in the construction of these perceived "truths" about the world. In addition to an acclaimed international exhibition activity, Magdy makes it a point to make many of his works, notably his films available online. While digital modes of displaying art has gained importance in recent times, he emphazises its potential for democrazising access to art.
Selected group exhibitions:
Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015, MoMA- Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015), Beaufort Tiennale, Oostende, Belgium (2018), New Order, Art and Technology in the 21sr Century, MoMA- Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019), Glitch, Tahrir Cultural Center, Cairo (2020).
Selected solo exhibitions:
The Stars Were Alligned for a Century of New Beginnings, Deutsche Bank "Artist of the Year 2016", Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle Berlin (2016), Basim Magdy: To Hypnotize them with Forgetfulness, University Galleries at Illinois State University, Normal, USA (2018), A Peacock and a Hippo Walk into an Existential Debate, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Mulhouse, France (2019), Basim Magdy: Asleep in Another Dimension, MuHKA, Antwerp (2020, currently on view).
