The Art Pledge
Portrait of Basim Magdy

Basim Magdy

Born in
1977
From
Assiut, Egypt
Lives and works
Basel, Switzerland
Represented by
Hunt Kastner
Website
https://www.basimmagdy.com/

UN goals

Tags

I like to think of what I do as fiction. I believe for fiction to be believable, it has to be rooted in reality, there has to be something that people can relate to as real.

Biography

Basim Magdy’s colorful and poetic universes provide us with a vision of the future that was never accomplished, one permeated with dreams of planetary conquest and nurtured by science-fiction tales. Punctuated by humor, his dystopian landscapes question the past and analyze previous mistakes while exploring manifold mediums like painting, drawing, video, photography and more. 


His are alternative scenarios akin to Jon Rafman’s other-worldly videos where he speculates about the archeology of the present. Humor is a chief ingredient, a coping mechanism to confront the disillusion that ensues from uncertainty and a bleak perspective of what lies ahead.  


Utopian ideals were particularly stressed in brutalist designs, aligning socialist ethos from the USSR, this architecture intended to join functionality and prepare soviets for modern life. The style is analogous to Magdy’s views of the future, conjuring both nostalgia and skepticism over the past, bringing new utopias for the future. 

Career highlights

Solo shows

Group shows

Collections

Media

Selected artworks

Related artists