Bringing together Wael Shawky’s large-scale films, sculptures and drawings, this exhibition celebrates an extraordinary artist.

Wael Shawky’s penetrating film installations explore histories that have shaped our world. Intricately created sets and painted environments become host to exquisitely crafted and costumed characters, who perform versions of history connected to conflicts that continue to rage around us.

Across Shawky’s Cabaret Crusades series and the recent Drama 1882 (created for the Egyptian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024), Shawky reopens the narrative of the series of religious wars known as the Crusades, from an Arab perspective. He also highlights the events leading up to the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, destabilising any singular authority by embracing the irregular, subjective and contradictory accounts that more authentically represent the formation of history.

Supported by Creative Scotland; Edinburgh College of Art; Henry Moore Foundation; The Al Waleed Centre, University of Edinburgh in association with Edinburgh International Festival.