\"Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo\"
A projection as part of \"The Museum Enters The Square\" series

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The film "Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo" is another opening of Wael Shawky’s project devoted to the crusades, reinterpreted on the basis of Arab chroniclers' accounts and historic Arab documents.

The source of the screenplay is a book by Amin Maalouf entitled “The Crusades Through Arab Eyes.” An hour-long film covers events stretched over 48 years – from the end of the first crusade in 1009 to the beginning of the second one in 1147. The film follows the convention of a puppet show and includes elements stemming from a musical, popular science programme, Nativity Play or even horror.

It was created owing to the artist’s collaboration with a group of over 200 persons – musicians, pyrotechnics specialists and puppet makers. All puppets starring in the movie (over 130 figurines of Christians, Muslims, kings, Caliphs, popes, martyrs and saints) were made during workshops in Provence, following the provisions of the XVIII-century santons technique, applied at making ceramic dolls for Nativity Plays. The film was recorded in a cathedral in Aubagne and premiered during dOCUMENTA13 exhibition in Kassel (2012).

Wael Shawky (born 1971) is an author of films and video installations as well as a founder and art director of the Mass Alexandria art institution – an atelier and a meeting place for artists.

Other events from that cycle: