Basim Magdy “When Rain Clouds Gather 4 The Birds Choose the Cards” at Kunsthalle Bern

Magdy is a prolific practi­ tioner whose work manifests itself through films, paintings and photographic works. His practice is multi­layered and visually charged. The works are a form of visual observations of otherwise mundane details of everyday life. Their dream­ like imagery often references and depicts vaguely familiar historical monuments, or other cultural references and signifiers.

The artist reflects on notions of collective failure and hope, the misreading of history and the dissemination of knowledge, presenting these reflections often in the form of film installations. The texts, which he authors in his films, could be characterised as poetic, at time incoherent declarations or inner thoughts, narrated to his audience as statements, one­liners, mantras or disillusioned observations. This way of making imagery brings us into a world that seems to be without a clear sense of place and time; Magdy skillfully introduces ideas related to globalisation, universalism and over­touristification in an uncanny, critical way.

The presentation on the ground floor of the Kunsthalle Bern revisits Magdy’s film The Dent (2014, 19 min), which won the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2014, which the artist and the curator iLiana Fokianaki decided to pair with his most recent work The Birds Choose the Cards (2024, 24 min), in a loop, aiming to juxtapose these two works as one bigger story that reflects on current global sociopolitical realities. Two more films, New Acid (2019, 14 min) and FEARDEATHLOVEDEATH (2022, 17 min), offer other readings into subjects that relate to existential questions, such as death, love and self­realization. The presentation aims to deepen the understanding of his comprehensive practice as a filmmaker and translator of the entangled world in which we live.

at Kunsthalle Bern
until March 30, 2025