Ahmed Basiony at the Venice Biennale

Left: Ahmed Basiony, Documentation of 30 Days of Running in the Place, February–March 2010,
Palace of the Arts Gallery, Opera House Grounds, Cairo, Egypt. Photo by Magdi Mostafa
Right: Ahmed Basiony, 28th of January (Friday of Rage) 6:50 pm, Tahrir Square.

Ahmed Basiony, an Egyptian new media artist, musician, and professor who was killed in Tahrir Square on January 28th, is representing Egypt at the Venice Biennale. The exhibition features documentation of Basiony’s 30 Days of Running in the Space, a 2010 performance, projected over five screens and juxtaposed with Basiony's footage of the Tahrir Square protests filmed in the days before his death. In 30 Days of Running in the Space Basiony performed daily for one hour wearing a plastic suit that covered his entire body with digital sensors calculating the amount of sweat he produced and the number of steps he took while jogging around the room. The data, which was then projected onto a large screen with a graphic grid and geometrical colored shapes, corresponded to the physiological changes of the artist's body in motion. The unedited partnering protest footage depicts Basiony's experience of Tahrir Square on January 25th- 27th. The exhibition for the Egyptian Pavilion was conceived by Basiony's friend Shady El Noshokat and curated by Aida Eltorie.

An interview with commissioner Shady El Noshokaty and curator Aida Eltorie

More information and coverage of Basiony's work at the Biennale can be found at:
Hyperallergic
e-flux
Art and Culture
Universes in Universe