Wael Shawky, I Am Hymns of the New Temples, 2025, La Grande Halle, LUMA Arles, France.
Victor & Simon / Victor Picon

Wael Shawky :
I Am Hymns of the New Temples

La Grande Halle
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Wael Shawky is a leading Egyptian contemporary artist who explores the multiple facets of historical and mythological narratives through diverse media including drawing, painting, performance, music and film.

I Am Hymns of the New Temples is a site-specific exhibition that entirely transforms La Grande Halle of LUMA Arles into an immersive experience that blurs the lines between the real and the metaphysical.

The site of ancient Pompeii—the legendary city that was buried under ash and volcanic debris for centuries—is key to the display. Today, its outstanding state of conservation offers a fascinating record of the diversity of cultures that shaped its identity, at the crossroads of civilizations and trade routes. Intertwining history, stories and contemporary narratives, Shawky reinterprets the ancient Greek myth of creation, combining a spectacular choreography of movement, images and sounds, alongside unique sculptural and painterly elements. By revisiting theatrical traditions, Shawky explores timeless forms of storytelling, symbolism and ritual. This dialogue with the past offers a layered cinematic experience, deepening the emotional and philosophical impact of his work while connecting with a shared cultural memory.

The film at the center of the installation recounts the wandering of Gaia, the primordial goddess of Earth and mother of the Titans, according to Greek mythology. In Shawky’s interpretation, Gaia paces through Pompeii, where a host of mythological figures participate in ritualistic processions. Masked characters, divine creatures and priests honor the goddess with offerings and symbolic performances. Through the journey, Gaia encounters a pantheon of illustrious deities. This heightened reality offers a rich framework for exploring human emotion, moral conflict and transcendence of everyday life. The Temple of Isis, a Roman building dedicated to the Egyptian goddess of magic, motherhood and healing, emerges as a powerful connective thread between ancient Mediterranean faiths. At the crossroads of cultural exchange, where Egyptian religiosity interacted with Roman spiritual life, Isis merges with Io, the Greek nymph that was transformed into a heifer. By showing how myth adapts across civilizations and the fluidity and syncretism of narrative identities through time, Shawky underscores cultural permeability, historical continuity and the power of ancient mythology in shaping shared heritage and cosmology.

In La Grande Halle, under the looming presence of Mount Vesuvius, glass and bronze sculptures feature prominently within the scenery of the ancient city and become potent symbols of fragility, transformation and the suspension of time. Glass evokes the delicate boundary between destruction and preservation. Within the exhibition, sculptures act as both relics and inventions. They are objects that carry the memory of fire, as Pompeii carries the memory of catastrophe, caught between life and afterlife.

A series of drawings and paintings invite viewers to further reflect on the intertwining of stories and the continuous production of narratives. Inspired by a rich array of theatrical traditions, I Am Hymns of the New Temples becomes a powerful meditation on culture and its survival through cycles of destruction and renewal.


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"I think it's nice to try to deal with history in an artistic form." Victor & Simon
Wael Shawky


Wael Shawky


Wael Shawky (b. 1971, Alexandria) is a leading contemporary artist from the Middle East, known for blending fact and fiction across diverse media, including drawing, painting, performance, and installation, focusing on film and video. Through lyrical visuals and extensive inquiry into history and mythology, he reinterprets Middle Eastern historical narratives, challenging fixed Western perspectives. His epic films explore artistic, religious, and transnational identities, offering a nuanced dialogue that bridges cultures rather than without privileging one perspective over another.

Shawky is widely recognized for works such as the Cabaret Crusades trilogy (2010–2015), which uses marionettes to reenact the history of the medieval Crusades from an Arab perspective; the Al Araba Al Madfuna trilogy (2012–2016), which reimagines myths through performances by child actors; and Drama 1882 (2024), showcased at the Egypt Pavilion of the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Based in Alexandria, Egypt, and Philadelphia, USA, Wael Shawky has held numerous major solo exhibitions, including at Daegu Art Museum (2024), the Egypt Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2024); M Leuven in Belgium (2022); the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2021); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and the Fondazione Merz in Turin (2016); MoMA PS1 in New York (2015), Serpentine Galleries in London (2013–14); and KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (2012). His participation in significant group exhibitions includes the Sharjah Biennial (2025, 2019, 2013); Istanbul Biennial (2015, 2005); documenta in Kassel (2012); Gwangju Biennale (2012); and the Venice Biennale (2003). In addition to his artistic practice, Shawky founded MASS Alexandria in 2015, an independent art school in Alexandria that supports emerging artists in the region.

His works are part of major international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Tate Modern in London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha; Sharjah Art Foundation; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; MACBA in Barcelona; and the National Gallery of Canada.

Shawky has received many awards for his work, including the Honorary Citizenship of the City of Palermo (2017); the Sharjah Biennial Award (2013); Award for the Filmic Oeuvre created by Louis Vuitton; Kino der Kunst, Munich (2013); Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Dubai, joint winner (2012); Schering Stiftung Art Award, Berlin (2011); Grand Prize, 25th Alexandria Biennale (2009). In 2011, he was an Artist in Residence at The Center for Possible Studies, Serpentine Gallery, London. He lives between Alexandria and Philadelphia.

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