Basim Magdy

In the poetic film ‘Many Colors of the Sky Radiate Forgetfulness’ Basim Magdy, living and working in Basel, conjures up a kind of dreamstate of imagery, cobbled together with seemingly unrelated footage. Magdy shoots his film with a 16mm camera, cultivating the character of found footage by applying manual distortions: from unhinging the focus for a kaleidoscopic effect, to allowing double exposure or deliberate light leaks to saturate the film with flares of colour, thus endowing each frame with an anachronistic antiquity. Often, his films are ‘pickled’ in household solutions of Coca-Cola, vinegar or yeast, enhancing their ambiguity. Magdy was recently awarded Artist of the Year 2016 by the Deutsche Bank.

Basim Magdy (Asyut, Egypt, 1977) completed his studies of Fine Arts at the Helwan University, Cairo. He has received several awards for his work, including the Abraaj Art Prize Dubai (2014), and was announced ‘Artist of the Year 2016’ by the Deutsche Bank. He has had numerous solo exhibition at  a.o. The Green Parrot, Barcelona (2015); Art in General, New York (2014)—where subsequently completed a residency; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Roubaix (2013); Platform Sarai, Frankfurt (2012); KÖR Kunsthalle Wien (2010); and ARCO  Projects, Madrid (2007). Group shows include MoMA, New York (2015); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2015); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2015); Royal Institute of Stockholm (2014); Seoul Museum of Art (2014); Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart (2013); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Centre Pompidu, Paris (2011); and, repeatedly, artSümer, Istanbul. Magdy has numerous publications on his name. He lives and works in Basel, Switzerland.