Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth presents FOCUS: Wael Shawky
15 March 2021
From 2 April to 20 June 2021, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth's latest FOCUS exhibition highlights work by Wael Shawky, who presents a film from his ambitious trilogy Cabaret Crusades, along with new and related drawings and sculpture. In this exhibition, as with much of his work, Shawky explores the ambiguities between history and myth.
Shawky’s projects combine artistic imagination and purportedly accurate facts. This mix of truth and fiction raises questions about the role of history—and the biases held by those writing it—in forming longstanding national identities and geographies. For the Cabaret Crusades films, the scripts are based on the work of ancient Arab historians and geographers, such as Ibn al-Qalanisi, Ibn Jubayr, and Ibn al-Athir. However, the scripts are acted out by fanciful, childlike marionettes to foil the serious nature and horrors of the original narratives. Shawky’s themes of religious and geographical antagonism still have much relevance today, leading the work to resonate equally with the present and the past. FOCUS: Wael Shawky will be the artist’s first exhibition in the southwestern United States.
On 30 March, Shawky will present a lecture for the latest edition of the Museum's online events season 'Being There: Tuesday Evenings with the Modern'. The artist will discuss the work in the show as well as his broader artistic career.
Register for the lecture and find further information here.
