A double exhibition by artists Mahmoud Khaled and Szabolcs KissPál, titled “On Building Nations,” is in progress at the Edith-Russ-Haus, Olden, Germany. The event commenced on August 19 and will continue through October 23, 2016. The exhibition explores notions of the construction of national identities as the artists themselves come from complicated political spaces, namely Egypt and Hungary. Their artwork is highly influenced by the socio-political flux of their countries.“The New Commission for an Old State” is a new site-specific exhibition by Mahmoud Khaled. It bears similarities with that of a memorial and provides an architectural framework for the complex narrative of the artist’s new body of work. Mahmoud draws his inspiration from two iconic artifacts of the Egyptian cultural ethos. His work touches upon the themes of love, violence, modernity, and the architecture in the political context of Egypt.Szabolcs KissPál in his three-part docu-fiction project “From Fake Mountains to Faith (Hungarian Trilogy)” uses different representational techniques to revisit and manipulate a series of problematic and ever changing symbols that create a homogenous and oppressive idea of the Hungarian nation. The final two episodes were completed under commission from Edith-Russ-Haus.Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek of the exhibition.
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