BASIM MAGDY | RENEGADE DREAMS HANGING FROM THE CLOUDS
30 OCTOBER – 18 DECEMBER 2020
ST. AGNES | CHAPEL
In Basim Magdy’s film NEW ACID, the animals communicate with each other via text message, just like people. The lemurs plan their exit from the animal kingdom; a pensive sea lion contemplates the immateriality of Bitcoins, and close by, a hippopotamus monologises about weight complexes. At first sight, New Acid seems to be about humour and banality, but clearly the film soon enters the realms of more pressing issues: nationalism, racism, social hierarchies. Basim Magdy sets out to visualise our usual communication structures and show that all forms of society, no matter how open they may seem, are guided by similar structures and power relations.
While NEW ACID centers on the world of pure words, with chats as the new reality, Magdy’s paintings also focus on surreal stories and alternative realities, dealing with the extinction of the world, animal species that never existed, and past predictions of the apocalypse. What became of the prophecies that never actually happened? What if you – and the three lemurs – arrive at the gateway to the other world and find it doesn’t open? Driven by the urge to escape, Basim Magdy views the world as an archive with many openings but also a number of dead ends. Rather than focusing merely on what has been, he also explores what might have been and what never was.
© Images Roman März
© Images Roman März
