Wael Shawky is a leading contemporary Egyptian artist, known for his work blending reality and fiction in a variety of media – drawing, painting, performance, music and film.
The exhibition Je suis les hymnes des nouveaux temples transforms La Grande Halle de LUMA Arles into an immersive experience that blurs the boundaries between the metaphysical and the real. At the heart of the installation is the legendary city of Pompeii, buried under volcanic ash and debris for centuries. Its exceptional state of preservation offers a fascinating testimony to the diversity of cultures that have shaped its identity, at the crossroads of civilizations and trade routes. Shawky reinterprets the Greek myth of creation by combining a spectacular choreography of movement, images and sound, sculpture and painting, reflecting the human need to understand and make sense of the world.
