(b.1971, Alexandria, Egypt)


Wael Shawky's installations, performances and videos explore pivotal issues in society, politics, culture and religion in the Arab World. He aims to show 'a society in transition, a condition that is not clear, a translation,' and uses many of the techniques of popular entertainment - both ancient and modern - to re-present the causes and effects of political events. Taking the format of a TV gameshow, with children as actors, he has re-staged the assassination of Egypt's President Sadat in 1981 and, using 200-year-old Italian marionettes, he has retold episodes from the history of the Crusades as a horror show seen through Arab eyes. His animated film installation Al-Aqsa Park re-imagines the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem as a fairground carousel while Larvae Channel 2 (2009), in which an elderly Palestinian couple describe their forced eviction from their home in the West Bank, combines film with animation with cartoon-like outlines drawn around the figures, emphasising their every move and gesture.