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Solo show in Egypt after 11 years. 30 March - 26 April 2014, Kodak Passageway. Part of D-CAF, Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival in Cairo.
Apr 2014While internationally celebrated, including a recent nomination for the Hugo Boss prize, and an early influence in Cairo's independent art and music scene, the artist has never before presented such a large number of works in Egypt. Khan premiered his artwork in Cairo in 1995, and this show will feature a selection of his works from the mid 90s to the present day.
The selections in this exhibition span Khan's diverse artistic practice. Text based works (some presented here in Arabic for the first time) charged with myth, dreams, calculation and chance are juxtaposed with enigmatic yet storied sculptural forms. Popular shaabi musical compositions are broken down, analyzed, and re-synthesized in automated improvisations, playing on strains of the archival, and the collective conscious. Portraiture makes an about face, reframing notions of identity, performance, and power.
The exhibition is sited in what had been unutilized storefronts alongside the Kodak passageway in Downtown Cairo, designed and curated by CLUSTER to present a procession of exhibition spaces, interjecting the artist’s ouevre amidst the public and pedestrian activities of the arcade.
>> Photo tour through the exhibition
Hassan Khan (* 1975) is an artist, musician, and writer. Recent exhibitions include: The Unrest of Forms, Secession, Vienna, 2013; Hassan Khan, SALT, Istanbul, 2012; Documenta 13, Kassel, 2012; Intense Proximity, Paris Triennial, 2012; and The Ungovernables, New Museum Triennial, New Museum, New York, 2012.
His first solo show was i am a hero / you are a hero in 1999 at the Gezira Art Center, Cairo. Most recently for the Nuit Blanche Festival Khan premiered Composition for a Public Park a large-scale multichannel music and lights installation at the Parc du Belleville in Paris.
In 2009 Khan was a member of the jury of the controversial 20th Youth Salon in Cairo, and in 2011 served as president of the jury of the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
He also regularly performs his own music live; recent appearances include: Klangzeit Festival, Münster; März Musik Festival, Berlin 2013; Ghetto, Istanbul, 2013; Auditorium du Louvre, Paris 2012; Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Venice, 2012; and as the opening act for the 1st D-CAF Festival, Cairo, 2012.
His publications include The Agreement (2011) and Nine Lessons Learned from Sherif El Azma (2009).
Khan lives and works in Cairo, Egypt.
More information: www.d-caf.org
30 March - 26 April 2014
Kodak Passageway
Downtown Cairo
Part of D-CAF, international multi-disciplinary contemporary arts festival that takes place over three weeks in March-April each year, at multiple sites in Downtown Cairo.