Magdy, Basim

The tension between collective and individual memory drives the work of Basim Magdy, whose project Every Subtle Gesture (2012–ongoing) pairs disparate images from his personal archive with ambiguous texts that often summon authoritative historical declarations. Inspired partly by a revolution in Egypt and the utopianism he witnessed eventually morphing into a “tangled web of confusion,” Magdy describes Every Subtle Gesture as a reflection of collective disappointment, as he constructs a “loose narrative based on a group of people who keep trying to succeed but continually fail.”

Basim Magdy completed a BFA in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt (2000). He has held numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including at FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, France (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA (2016); Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Hasselt, Belgium (2016); The Green Parrot, Barcelona (2015); Gypsum Gallery, Cairo, Egypt (2014); Art in General, New York (2014); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2013). He was included in the 2015 New Photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and was named Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year in 2016.