Basim Magdy | Renegade Dreams Hanging From The Clouds | König Galerie (Chapel) | 30.10.–18.12.2020

until 18.12. | #2889ARTatBerlin | König Galerie (Chapel) shows from 30. October 2020 the solo show Renegade Dreams Hanging From The Clouds with new works by the artist Basim Magdy. It is the first solo exhibition of the artist in the gallery. At CHAPEL, eight works on canvas and a video work will be shown.

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, New Acid, 2019, Super 16 mm film, computer generated text messages transferred to Full HD video, 1/6 + 2 AP, 14:18 min (still), courtesy of the artist and
KÖNIG GALERIE Berlin, London, Tokyo

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 centres 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.

Basim Magdy, New Acid, 2019, Super 16 mm film, computer generated text messages transferred to Full HD video, 1/6 + 2 AP, 14:18 min (still), courtesy of the artist and
KÖNIG GALERIE Berlin, London, Tokyo

Basim Magdy was born in Assuit, Egypt, in 1977 and lives and works in Basel and Cairo. In recent years, Magdy has created multifaceted works of video art and photography. The exhibition Renegade Dreams Hanging from the Clouds at the KÖNIG GALERIE is the first extensive examination of his paintings. Magdy’s works can be found at MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim in New York, the MCA Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Text: Anneli Botz

Exhibition Basim Magdy – König Galerie | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries – ART at Berlin