Basim Magdy
When Rain Clouds Gather 4
The Birds Choose the Cards

In its fourth edition, When Rain Clouds Gather * presents the Basel-based artist and filmmaker Basim Magdy (*1977 in Assiut, Egypt). Magdy is a prolific practitioner whose work manifests itself through films, paintings and photographic works. His practice is multi-layered with the imagery of the films operating as a form of visual observations of otherwise mundane details of everyday life, dream-like imagery that many times references and depicts vaguely familiar historical monuments, and other cultural references and signifiers.
 
The artist reflects on notions of collective failure and hope, the misreading of history and the dissemination of knowledge, presenting these reflections often in the form of film installations. The texts, which he authors in his films, could be characterised as poetic, at time incoherent declarations or inner thoughts, narrated to his audience as statements, one-liners, mantras or disillusioned observations. This way of making imagery, brings us into a world that seems to be without a clear sense of place and time; Magdy skillfully introduces as such ideas related to globalisation, universalism and over-touristification in an uncanny, critical way.
 
The presentation on the ground floor of the Kunsthalle Bern revisits Magdy’s film The Dent (2014), which won the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2014, which the artist and curator decided to pair with his most recent work The Birds Choose the Cards (2024), in a loop, aiming to juxtapose these two works as one bigger story that reflects on current global sociopolitical realities. Two more films, New Acid (2019) and FEARDEATHLOVEDEATH (2022), offer other readings into subjects that relate to existential questions, such as death, love and self-realization. The presentation aims to deepen the understanding of his comprehensive practice as a filmmaker and translator of the entangled world in which we live.
 
Basim Magdy studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University, Egypt (BFA). He works with film, photography, painting and drawing, text, posters, installation and sculpture. Human constructions to rationalize the unknown are of particular interest to him.
Selected solo and group shows include MoMA, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Arnolfini, Bristol; Castello di Rivoli, Torino; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, New Museum Triennial, New York; MAXXI, Rome; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux; Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin; Whitechapel, London; KW, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; La Biennale de Montreal; MEDIACITY Seoul Biennial; 13th Istanbul Biennial; Sharjah Biennial 11 and 13; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco and La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
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*The film screening program When Rain Clouds Gather discusses artistic imaginaries for possible futures, contemplating social and environmental justice. The series presents an overview of artistic practices that address the different imaginaries and responses that shape how we envision a climatic and more just future. Inspired by the homonymous novel of Bessie Head, the novel is a tale of hope amidst despair, inspiring us to think of possible futures with care and determination, against the damning reality of climate catastrophe.