Cabaret Crusades
by Wael Shawky

  • Cabaret Crusades

We offer an exceptional opportunity to see on a big screen two parts of a monumental film project by the Egyptian artist Wael Shawky.


The movies Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File and Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo make up a masterpiece dedicated to crusades reinterpreted based on Arab chronicler’s recounts and Arab historical documents. Amin Maalouf’s book The Crusades through Arab Eyes was an inspiration for the script. Altogether, the two parts encompass events that took place over a fifty two year span. The first part concerns the years of the Justinian Plague in the Byzantine Empire and the first crusade (1096-1099), while the second part refers to the period between the end of the first crusade in 1099 and start of the second one in 1147.


The convention of the movies is a blend of a puppet show with elements of a musical film, science-fiction program, Nativity plays and a horror show. They were made possible thanks to the artist’s collaboration with more than 200 persons – musicians, puppet makers and specialists in pyrotechnics. 200 years old figurines from the Lupi collection in Turin were used in the production of the first part. All the puppets “starring” in the second part (more than 130 figurines representing Christians, Muslims, kings, caliphs, popes, martyrs and saints) were created during workshops in Provence, France, according to w 18th century technique called Santons – china dolls used in Nativity plays. The second part of the movie was shot in a cathedral in Aubagne, France. The premiere took place during the exhibition “dOCUMENTA 13” in Kassel, Germany.

 

Wael Shawky (born in 1971, Alexandria, Egypt) is a filmmaker and video installation artist, a founder and art director at the art institution Mass Alexandria.

Other archival events from that cycle:

DzieńGodzinaNazwa wydarzeniaMiejsce wydarzenia
16:00 Guided tour Guided tour by Joanna Rajkowska Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
18:00 Meeting Max Cegielski talks with Marcin Ogdowski Polish soldiers in Afghanistan: heroes or mercenaries? Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
19:00 Film screening Alexanderby Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
16:00 Guided tour Guided tour by Leszek Knaflewski Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
18:00 Meeting Roman Kurkiewicz talks with Marta DzidoInvisible women of the Solidarity movement Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
19:00 Film screening Restricted Sensationby Deimantas Narkevicius Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
18:00 Meeting Sylwia Chutnik talks with Bianka Rolando Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
19:00 Film screening Sarah Lucas: Two Melons and a Stinking Fishby Vanessa Engle Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw
18:00 Meeting Max Cegielski talks with Błażej Brzostek Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Emilia Pavilion
ul. Emilii Plater 51, Warsaw