Art Alert: Film screening of Egyptian artist Wael Shawky's Al-Araba Al-Madfuna

Cairo art space 'Beirut' dedicates an evening to celebrating the artwork of Egyptian artist Shawky on 8 February

Beirut, an art space in Cairo, is hosting a screening of Wael Shawky's filmAl-Araba Al-Madfunaand the launch of his book Wael Shawky: Al-Araba Al-Madfunaon Saturday 8 February. The event will feature a conversation with the artist and other contributors to the book.
Al-Araba Al-Madfunapremiered at a solo exhibition at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin in October 2012. The project was shot with children from Upper Egypt, in a narrative that is based on a story by Egyptian novelist Mohamed Mustagab.
Its screening at Beirut this month will mark its Cairo debut. An introduction by the Ernst Schering Foundation's Heike Mertens and Sarah Rifky (Beirut) will precede the screening.
Shawky studied fine arts at the University of Alexandria and later at the Graduate School of Fine Arts of the University of Pennsylvania. He uses film and installation art to tackle social and political transformations in modern Arab history. Shawky's work aims to blur the line between fact, fiction, and animation.
He was awarded the biannual Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award in 2011.
He was chosen out of 15 artists nominated by global curators, and the judges justified their decision to give his the Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award as follows: "Wael Shawky's film oeuvre is remarkably impressive due to its consistent development and extraordinary precision. His re-performances of historical and political events ignite unconventional perspectives, which exceed reflections of Egyptian societal structures. He creates images that are crafted with technical mastership and therefore induce an immediate persuasiveness."
Programme:
Saturday, 8 February at 7pm
11 Road 12, Mahmoud Sedky, off Shaheen Street, Agouza, Cairo
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/93563.aspx