Wael Shawky's current exhibition reveals a new take on social transformations The change from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agricultural society was perhaps the most important transformation in the history of the world. The next came as humanity moved from an agricultural society to a manufacture based society. Each transformation is generally seen as an improvement. These concepts form the basis of Egyptian artist Wael Shawky's latest exhibition titled Clean History and on display at the Townhouse Gallery until 24 October. The exhibition features drawings and videos that use storytelling, reenactment, and animation to analyze the outcome of social transformation, while not passing judgment. Instead, his work focuses on the process societies pass through as they transform. Shawky plays on the idea of hybridism, suggesting that there is no definite differentiation between lifestyles and saying that communities adopt characteristics of different cultures as the need arises. The exhibition, which opened on September 29, comprises two video installations: Darb el-Arbaeen or Forty Days' Road (40 minutes) and Telematch Suburb (9 minutes). It also includes drawings that accompanied Telematch Suburb when it was exhibited at the 2008 Santa Fe Biennial. After attaining his college degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria, where he still lives, Shawky completed his master's studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. His work has received numerous prizes including The Grand Nile Prize at the 6th International Cairo Biennial in 1996, as well as The International Commissioning Grant, and an award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2005. Darb el-Arbaeen is a four-channel video projection that tells the story of a man and his water buffalo who leave their village on a journey across Darb el-Arbaeen searching for a water well. During their journey, they come across bare and dry lands, as well as thick green landscapes until they eventually reach a Bedouin village inhabited by children. The video addresses the hybrid lifestyles that coexist in contemporary Egypt. The travelling farmer adopts Bedouin survival techniques when he searches for water. His water buffalo is also a fantastic creature with a camel hump on its back. The village children are shown building their homes using mud bricks and sticks, a technique developed by Egyptian farmers during ancient times. Upon reaching his destination, the old man tells the village children about his journey. He uses a microphone in his speech, manifesting hybridism and relating it to the exhibition's audience by bringing symbols of modern day technology into his fictional tale. Shawky uses this simple example to reflect on more complex issues in the Arab world. "Arab countries went through immense changes in terms of cultural behavior, religious thought and class structure over the past decades," said Shawky during the artist talk he held last week at Townhouse Gallery. Darb el-Arbaeen is part of his Wet Culture–Dry Culture series, which aims to capture such transformations and is inspired by historical events and literary texts. The series also includes Asphalt Quarter, a video shown at Townhouse Gallery in 2003. Asphalt Quarter tackles the transformation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from a nomadic to an urban community during the oil boom. It is based on Abdel Rahman Meneif's book Cities of Salt, which recounts how the inhabitants of a small Bedouin village on the Saudi coast built airplane runways and infrastructural projects based on the instructions of a British oil company. The book suggests that the villagers worked on these projects without fully grasping the significance of their labor and the changes it would bring to their livelihoods and history. Shawky's video presented an analogy by filming children building an airplane runway in the Western desert based on his crew's instructions. Both Asphalt Quarter and Darb el-Arbaeen use child actors. “Children provide an unbiased representation of transformation processes,” said the artist. “Their feelings are quite sincere and their sexual identities have not developed yet. Thus, the audience focuses on the transformation process without relating it to gender or social class.” Defining the concept of modernity is another recurring element in Shawky's work. He is interested in juxtaposing different cultures: Those perceived as modern vis-à-vis the traditional, those gradually overlooked by contemporary history in relation to those presently dominant. Shawky addresses these issues in the second part of the exhibition, Telematch Suburb. The video installation is part of the Telematch series, which also include Telematch Market, Telematch Sadat, Telematch Shelter and Telematch Crusades. The series is inspired by a German television show of the same title. The show, which was aired in the 1970s, presented competitions between German cities and filmed in a setting resembling the Middle Ages. Shawky built on the show's idea of one culture performing to entertain another to develop his Telematch series. In Telematch Suburb, he reverses the traditional dynamic of the exotic or primitive entertaining the modern: He organized a rock and roll concert at a village in the Egyptian Delta. Curiosity brought the village people to see the show. But their dissatisfaction with the event is evident in the video. The idea for the video was initially very different. During his stay in Santa Fe, New Mexico a few years ago, Shawky was surprised by how some aspects of American history are overlooked. For instance, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe gave a simplistic representation of Native American and Hispanic cultures. In response, Shawky decided to organize a live performance where members of Native American tribes danced on a stage. The stage was built from electric appliances found at the junk yards of Native American reservations in the area. The audience of the show would also stand on an opposite stage, playing with the question of who entertains whom. When the organizers of the Santa Fe Biennial objected to the project due to local sensitivities, Shawky decided to present his idea using the video filmed in Egypt and a selection of drawings based on the museum's collections. The drawings incorporate symbols from different cultures, including animals dressed in suits and cowboy hats smoking cigars, kings eating hotdogs, and cars destroying the natural habitat of the area. The title of the exhibition Clean History is not meant to suggest a factual account of social history. Rather, it aims to question prevailing ideas of modernity that are manifested through historical texts, cultural institutions and mass media. Presenting the videos as looped installations instead of short screenings strengthens the message as it makes the events continuous and timely. The exhibition encourages critical reflection on social and cultural history, reflecting the African proverb: “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.” The exhibition is on display until 24 October. Townhouse Gallery is open Saturday through Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and on Friday 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Town House Gallery of Contemporary Arts 10 Nabarawy st. off Champollion St., Downtown Cairo 202-25768086
