Basim Magdy at MAXXI

The MAXXI museum, together with the Deutsche Bank, is presenting the first solo exhibition in Italy dedicated to Basim Magdy, named “The stars were aligned for a century of new beginnings”. The event was inaugurated last April at the Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle in Berlin and, after MAXXI, it will move to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago.

The Basim Magdy exhibition at MAXXI is part of Expanding the Horizon, a new initiative promoted by the museum to further develop its global ambitions and explore a new form of public space generated by the collaboration between the museum and other institutions and private collections.

The artist – who was born in 1977 in Assiut (Egypt), and now lives in Basel and Cairo – invites visitors to take a journey into the future, even if he is primarily concerned with the present. His work, consisting of slide projections, photographs, works on paper and installations combine into a stream of images that reflects the fluid boundaries between reality and virtuality. “Collective Failure,” Magdy explains, “has the same relevance as it did in the nineteenth century and as it will in the twenty-second. There is nothing special about our time or what we’re witnessing today. We are just naive enough to reenact the same mistakes that were made so many times before.”

Over 30 works, including films, projections, photographs, paintings and installations from 2006 to 2016, comprise the exhibition, co-curated by Britta Färber, chief curator of Deutsche Bank and Anne Palopoli, curator of MAXXI. 

from 15 September to 30 October 2016
Basim Magdy. The stars were aligned for a century of new beginnings
Curated by Britta Färber and Anne Palopoli
Fondazione MAXXI
via Guido Reni 4, Rome