Ahmed Basiony
The artist died of gunshot wounds inflicted by snipers on Tahrir Square in 2011. His art projects, teaching, and last days.
For an optimal view of our website, please rotate your tablet horizontally.
In parallel to his experimental sound art workshops, Basiony's creative production resulted in a series of artworks that depended mainly on the language of interactive art; this appeared in his first joint project with fellow artist Magdi Mostafa, titled Madena in March 2007. This project won them the Grand Prize of the 13th Salon of Youth. The work was exhibited in the hall of Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum. The project included many levels of multimedia, starting from projections within an installation that were fuelled by an interactive live performance between the visitors and the artists throughout the duration of the exhibition. Madena is an audiovisual journey that transposes the real experience of being on Cairo's streets into a virtual realm inside the exhibition space. Each part of the real Cairo map is translated topographically onto the walls and through recorded environmental sounds coming from strategically placed speakers on the virtual map. The viewers are invited to interact in an audible dialogue with the artists. The dialogue is captured by microphones and processed digitally by the artists. In the centre of the room sits a live performer sewing bits and pieces of the city map, creating a new city. In general, the artwork is an experience that must be perceived through all the senses and reconstructed by the subjective experiences of the viewer.
© Photo: Ahmed Basiony's family
The artist died of gunshot wounds inflicted by snipers on Tahrir Square in 2011. His art projects, teaching, and last days.