Wael Shawky (Alexandria, 1972) will represent Egypt at the Venice Biennale 2024.

For the Egyptian Pavilion, Shawky has created Drama 1882, a filmed rendition of an original musical play directed, choreographed, and composed by the artist, around Egypt’s nationalist Urabi revolution against imperial influence (1879-82). The year 1882 was the year this revolt was crushed by the British, who then went on to occupy Egypt until 1956. In part inspired by the Biennale Arte 2024 theme “Foreigners Everywhere”, Shawky said:
There was a revolt led by the Egyptian Colonel Ahmed Urabi and his army against the Egyptian monarch, calling him a traitor because he fell prey to the British and French. The interesting thing about this discourse is the idea of the foreigners – what does it mean to be ‘foreigners’? Who were they? They were the occupiers – it was not the idea of immigrants that we have today.

Simultaneously, Wael Shawky's solo exhibition "I Am Hymns of The New Temples," co-curated by Massimo Osanna, Andrea Viliani and Gabriel Zuchtriegel will be on view at Palazzo Grimani Museum, organized in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii as part of the program "Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters."
Shawky's narrative draws on historiographical and literary elements that become the starting point for his storytelling, which interweaves fable, reality and fiction. Dealing with themes such as national, religious and artistic identity, Wael Shawky, through his films, performances, paintings and sculptures provides a glimpse into contemporary culture through the lens of historical tradition.