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MIRROR MIRROR

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Left, Cabaret Crusades trilogy (2010, 2012 and 2015); right, Drama 1882 (2024), Wael Shawky. Installation view, Talbot Rice Gallery (2025). Courtesy Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. Photos by Sally Jubb

“History,” as Wael Shawky says, “is a human creation.” Born in Alexandria, Shawky spent his childhood in Mecca before returning to Egypt aged 13. Renowned for his ambitious, multi-media retellings of historical events, his Cabaret Crusades trilogy (2010, 2012 and 2015) and Drama 1882 (created for the Egyptian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale) examine history as a form of entertainment. These video works dramatise the Crusades from an Arab perspective and the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 respectively, rendering them as mesmeric, filmed musicals. “People always discuss history as if it had a beginning and end,” Shawky says, “which is, of course, not the case. It is a continuous, endless matter.” Christabel Stewart