Wael Shawky
PROJECT
I Am Hymns of the New Temples explores how myths are disseminated and transformed across cultures, often overlapping as one civilisation fades into another. Featuring ornate masks, live animals and reimagined Classical tales, the film is an otherworldly unfurling of how fact and fiction often become indistinguishable over time. Centring on the story of the Egyptian goddess Isis, the film explores her transformation into Io within Greek mythology and her subsequent emergence in Christian iconography. The video was shot among the archaeological ruins of Pompeii, themselves a testament to the interwoven histories of the Mediterranean region, transforming the site into a physical expression of the stratified histories that have shaped the figure of Isis.
ABOUT
Wael Shawky’s work, meticulously researched in his native country, Egypt, encompasses drawing and sculpture but focuses primarily on film, performance and storytelling. These techniques are often combined to create a fairytale yet tangible universe in which elements of traditional Arab culture and images of the contemporary world coexist. Shawky studied at Alexandria University before taking a master’s degree in fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (US). Major solo exhibitions have been held at the ARoS Museum, Aarhus (Denmark); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli (Italy); Kunsthalle Bregenz, Bregenz (Austria); Fondazione Merz, Turin (Italy); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (Qatar); MoMA PS1, New York (US); Tate Modern, London (UK); and M Leuven, Leuven (Belgium). Shawky represented Egypt in its national pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.