Medhat Shafik
Medhat Shafik was born in Egypt in 1956. He has lived and worked in lta|y since
1976.
After graduating in painting and stage design from the Brera school of art, from
the 1980s he began to take part successfully in various national and international
exhibitions. His breakthrough carne in 1995 when the Egyptian pavilion at that year's
Venice Biennale, which was presenting his work, was awarded the Leone d'Oro alle
Nazioni prize.
From 1995 onwards his presence in public and private spaces, both in Italy and abroad,
increased: in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua; the museum of the Republic of San Marino;
and a monumental work, Qanat, le rotte del cielo, for the Orestiadi in Ghibellina.
In 1998 he took part in the international show
Mediterranea in the Hotel de Ville,
Brussels; Le Mans, France, devoted a solo show to him in its cultural centre L'Espal,
with a catalogue introduction by Pierre Restany. Again in 1998 his video Il percorso
dell'asceta
was seen at the VI international film festival in the Pompidou centre
in Paris.
In 1999 he created his first installation La via della seta
in the deconsecrated
church of San Francesco, Como, curated by Alberto Fiz and Elena Pontiggia; the Galleria
Blu, Milan, presented a solo show of his works at that year's Basel art fair, and
his installation II risveglio della Fenice: Fuoco
was shown in the Galleria Comunale,
Cervia, curated by Claudio Ceritelli.
In 2001 he exhibited in the contemporary art
gallery in Bad Homberg, Germany, the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna in Spoleto,
and in the Arengaria, Milan. In 2002 he began a new series of works called Sabbie,
presented by Marco Meneguzzo both in Pietrasanta and in Milan, and he participated
in
Glass Way-le stanze del vetro dall'archeologia ai giorni nostri,
an exhibition
curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga in the Museo Archeologico in Aosta. In 2003 he held
a solo show in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Brescia and also took part in the
Cairo international biennale where he won The Nile Grand Prize.
In 2004 the installation
La dimora del poeta was exhibited in the Palazzo Forti gallery and then acquired
for its permanent collection. In the same year he also took part in Medioevo prossimo venturo,
curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga in Palazzo Pretorio, Certaldo. In 2005
he took part on the group show Identità e nomadismo curated by Lorezo Fusi and Marco
Pierini in the Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena.
In 2006 his solo show Aiqunat - territori
dell'anima was seen in the Spirale Arte gallery in Milan. He also took part in the
X international Cairo biennale with his video Flashback and at the same time, in
the international show curated by Antonio D'Avossa in the Taranto Arsenale called
Mediterraneo Contemporaneo. In 2007 he exhibited in the II Settimo Splendore in
Verona, curated by Giorgio Cortenova, a show which inaugurated the renovated Palazzo
della Ragione; in the same year, in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Genoa, he participated
in the international exhibition Linee all'orizzonte, curated by M. Sciaccaluga.
In September he also held a solo show, Luogo di frontiera,
in Rocca di Umbertine,
and, in the Palazzo della Penna, Perugina, once again in the Umbria region, he took
part in the international show, curated by Luca Beatrice,
Anatomia dell'irrequietezza.
In November his solo show,
Le città invisibili, is to be held in the Palazzo Forti
modem art gallery in Verona.