Artwork Details
- Artist Wael Shawky
- Title Al Araba Al Madfuna
- Date 2012
- Medium Black and white video projection with sound
- Duration 21 minutes, 21 seconds
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Dressed like grown men, with glued-on moustaches and dubbed with the voices of adults, a group of boys retell a story by Egyptian writer Mohamed Mustagab. Shawky builds upon his own experiences with researchers and archaeologists involved in treasure hunting in Upper Egypt to consider this parable about the folly of blindly following one’s forebears.
In photographs, installations, videos and performances, Wael Shawky mines traditions of entertainment and performance through multilayered historical reconstructions that force viewers to navigate the territory of truth, myth, stereotype and cliché.