Wael Shawky: I Am Hymns of the New Temples

From May 12th–14th, The Small Theatre “Odeion”, one of the theatres of the Archaeological Park of Pompei, hosts the international preview of the new film work by the Egyptian artist Wael Shawky (Alexandria, Egypt, 1971) I Am Hymns of the New Temples. The screening will be introduced with a conversation between the artist, Andrea Viliani, curator, and Carolyn Christov Bakargiev—Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Rivoli-Turin—introduced by Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

The work, winner of the PAC—Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea 2020, promoted by the Italian Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, is the outcome of the collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, in the context of the programme Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters co-founded by Massimo Osanna and Andrea Viliani.

Filmed in the summer of 2022 among the ruins of ancient Pompeii, struck by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and therefore the witness of the impermanence as well as the continuous transformation not only of matter but also of stories, Shawky’s new film shows what rises to the surface of the different cultures that make Pompeii an authentic theatre of different yet inevitably connected narrations. Basing his own narration on Greek and Roman mythology, and demonstrating how they overlap with ancient Egyptian cults, Shawky recreates the stratifications of ancient stories, and how these have contributed to shaping plural relationships between history and myth.

LaM-Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain, d’art brut is the partner institution for the international valorisation of the work. Two other Italian institutions, Fondazione Teatro di San Carlo and Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, have also collaborated in the realisation of the work, with the support of Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan/ Naples.