The Birds Choose the Cards

The cyclical nature of history is the central focus of Basim Magdy’s latest work, The Birds Choose the Cards. Through titles on screen, a reflective narrator ponders the reality of living in a world in continual crisis, and together we journey on a quest for understanding that stretches through different temporalities. Magdy’s sensitive and inquisitive approach to image making combined with a subdued electronic soundtrack carves out space to ponder the entanglement of our collective fates.

~ Myriam Mouflih

Basim Magdy is an artist and filmmaker born in Assiut, Egypt.

His work appeared recently in solo and group exhibitions at museums such as Frac Bretagne, Rennes; KM21 Museum for Contemporary Art, The Hague; M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux; MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MAXXI Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome; The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Centre Pompidou, Paris. His films are in museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France FRAC Ile-de-France (le Plateau), Paris; MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; Arter, Istanbul and Mathaf: Museum of Modern Arab Art, Doha mong others.

His films were screened at Tate Modern, Locarno Film Festival, New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival among others.

The Birds Choose the Cards (2024), FEARDEATHLOVEDEATH (2022), M.A.G.N.E.T (2019), New Acid (2019), No Shooting Stars (2016), The Everyday Ritual of Solitude Hatching Monkeys (2014), The Many Colors of the Sky Radiate Forgetfulness (2014), The Dent (2014), Crystal Ball (2013), Time Laughs Back at You Like a Sunken Ship (2012), On The Good Earth (2011), 13 Essential Rules for Understanding the World (2011), My Father Looks For An Honest City (2010), A Film About The Way Things Are (2010), Turtles All The Way Down (2009), Maybe There is a Message (2008), Two Days to Apocalypse (2003)