Who tells history?
History is never a straightforward record of events: everything depends on who is telling the story. Wael Shawky (b. 1971, Alexandria, lives in western Asia), a leading multimedia artist, shifts perspectives and destabilizes certainties. In virtuoso films, installations and musical theatre productions, he combines multiple artistic disciplines and shows human beings caught up in a web of political, religious and social forces. The exhibition brings together the celebrated ‘Cabaret Crusades’ trilogy (2010–2014), which uses puppets to recount the history of the Crusades from an Arab perspective, and ‘Drama 1882’ (2024), a filmed opera about British colonialism in Egypt. A new film installation on the history of the Gulf region will have its European premiere at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
In cooperation with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, EMST, Athens, and Bozar, Brussels.
Supported by Swiss Re, Partner for contemporary art.
