For Art Düsseldorf 2023 Dürst Britt & Mayhew is proud to present a solo exhibition with works from Marwan Bassiouni’s series ‘New Western Views’.
In this ongoing series the artist captures the Western landscape as framed by the windows of mosques and Islamic prayer rooms. Bassiouni spent time traveling across The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and his native Switzerland to investigate how its landscape and architecture can be observed anew from the perspective of the religious sites of its Islamic communities. Through this journey Bassiouni challenges the stereotypes and clichés associated with the representation of Arab culture and Islamic religion within Western countries.
Bassiouni invites us to reconsider our viewpoints and questions the phenomenon of ‘othering’. In his New Western Views one is confronted with an unexpected representation of Islamic communities in the West, one where similarities and common experience are in focus and beauty is found in the harmonious co-existence of different spaces and perspectives.
Although the photographs appear to be precisely composed, they are in fact documents of existing situations which have been carefully selected by the artist. Bassiouni uses multiple exposures in a single image, causing the foreground and background to appear equally focused and creating an evenly distributed light. In doing so he eliminates the hierarchy between interior and exterior spaces, and also between the specific interiors of his images, known only to those who frequent these places of worship, and the exterior landscape that is shared by all.
Marwan Bassiouni (1985) holds a BA in photography from The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague and a photographer CFC from the Photography School of Vevey (CEPV). He is the recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Student Grant, the Harry Pennings Prize, the Prix Circulation(s)-Fujifilm and in 2022 was named as FOAM Talent. In 2021 one of his photographs was selected for the ‘Gallery of Honour of Dutch Photography’ at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. His work has been reviewed in publications such as The New Yorker, Die Zeit, The Guardian, Frieze, Artforum, the British Journal of Photography, Lens culture, Aperture, and FOAM Magazine.
In 2019, Bassiouni had a solo exhibition at the Hague Museum of Photography and published the photo book New Dutch Views. His work has been exhibited at Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam, Z33 Hasselt, Sharjah Art Foundation, Shanghai Center of Photography, Three Shadows Photography Center Beijing, FOAM Amsterdam, Cultuurhuis De Warande Turnhout, Museum IJsselstein, Workplace London, Rencontres de la Photographie Marrakech, Bienne Festival of Photography, Festival Circulation(s) Paris, Athens Photo Festival, Fotofestival Naarden, Si Fest Savignano.
Bassiouni’s work is held in private and public collections including Kunstmuseum Bern, International Center of Photography New York, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam, Amsterdam Museum, Museum De Domijnen Sittard, FENIX Rotterdam, Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs, Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs, AEGON, Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam UMC, Dutch National Bank, Eneco, KPMG and Menzis.
Currently Marwan Bassiouni has a solo exhibition at Halle Nord in Genève and is participating in group exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum Schloss Moyland and Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn. Upcoming projects include group exhibitions at H3h Biennial in Oosterhout and Museum Catharijne Convent in Utrecht.
We thank the Mondriaan Fund for kindly supporting this presentation.
