Basim Magdy

Basim Magdy was born in 1977 in Assiut, Egypt. He now lives in Basel and Cairo. His interest in the unconscious and memory is at the root of his often-surreal works on paper, film, photography, and installation.

Growing up with an artist father, Magdy was influenced by such artists as Joan Miró, Paul Klee, and Marc Chagall, as well as Hamid Nada, Abdel Hadi El-Gazzar, and Ragheb Ayad. Magdy has produced work that deals with both the imagined future as envisioned in the 1960s and the reality that ensued, exploring the space between reality and fiction and the role that media systematically plays in filling up that space. Since reading Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, and Jean Paul Sartre as a teenager, the artist has honed his use of absurdity to make visually arresting works.

Links:
Artist’s website

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