Mohamed Shoukry Profile*

website contain more details and videos for all projectswww.mohamedshoukry.com

The City The GhostSound installation, 2013

100 Copies Music Space, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt

The project is considered as the collective culture memory for the city of cairo, through documentation of various sound of the loud city of cairo where it focus on the current architectural culture of cairo and its relation with the current situation after the 25th of  january. the soon here emphasis the space and time. the installation was created to deepen the concept of architect, space and time, a virtual landscape was created by 25 speakers (7 inch) where it leads in the end with a iconic architectural form constructed from 5 small Tvs (5 inch) showing a deconstructed element of a minaret.

The Minaret was displayed in a dark Confined space giving it more sacred feeling, as the most sacred parts of the old egyptian temples. The minaret here reflect various concepts it refers to the city as cairo was always know the city of thousand minaret and it also reflects the spiritual and islamic feeling of the icon , but it is deconstructed physically and virtually through the installation and manipulated by a static noise through the video. The Strong spiritual believe of cairo in a state of deconstruction that resembles our every day reality. There Is no solid meaning of anything anymore we are living in a state of Ambiguity.

Trap//02Interactive installation, 2013

Di-EGYFEST 0.1 Exhibition, DIgital Art festival at Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egyptians

Trap // 02 interactive installation conveys the interaction between perception of reality and the perception of the spoken words, putting the people in an irritated position leading them unknowably to their deceivable trap.

People entering a dark room with white stand where they can see a small tv in a horizontal position lightened by a dimmed spot light. People can hear voice in the background come out of the tv.The voice saying:We are living the era of freedom, the freedom of thought, the freedom of expression, the freedom of criticism. We are building the glory of our nation, fulfilling all our hopes. Our achievements speaks for itself, in all squares of Egypt giving birth to the great incredible project as the perfect gift to our people. The wheel of investments keeps rolling…

The spoken words for Egyptians who are living in Egypt is very provocative due it’s contradictory nature to our living reality. This is the proactive act which makes people so curious to see the video on the screen, once they come close to the tv they cut a unseen infrared beam that activates a set of laser beams around the spectator emprisoning them. Spectators get stunned and unease. Some even are affected much more that they are afraid to get out as not to get hurt.The project plays on the distraction of the spoken words and perception of reality which enlarges the effect of walking into trap.Laser beams is activated by infrared sensor that runs for 15 secs and then turns off automatically and activated once more when another person approaches the Tv and so on…

StigmaVideo Sculpture, 2013

Six Floor Exhibition | video sculpture project, Venouise Hotel, Down Town Cairo, Egypt

The installation consists of two parts, a construction of a shroud made from plastic sheets in a real life size suspended from the ceiling connected with plastic wires to construction of three plastic containers. The video is projected on all objects.

Disgrace, shame, humiliation seems that these words has no meaning any more. Act of violence towards the human body regardless of genre and age is a daily activity now in Egypt.This project focus on the violation and discrimination towards the human body. The body has been violated in every way possible beaten, electrified, raped and humiliated, it became as plastic puppets dealt with no humanization.

A video collage made from various bruised human parts in abnormal proportions showing a great deal of distortion to human body. Distortion breaks the beautiful rhythm of the human body showing them as a mere flesh moving in a hysterical irritating uncontrolled way that resembles dying animals.

FireVideo Installation, 2011

Group exhibition, Haslla museum, Gangnueung, South Korea, October 2011

fire has been taken within the permanent collection of haslla museum.

Video duration : 4minsIt is 3d video mapping installation, consists of 11 old cubical pieces of wood with the dimensions of 25cm w x 80 cm h x 15 cm d.placed in a room 7m x 5m x 2.5m.

Tis project “fire” is part of series about the four main elements in the universe fire, water, air and soil.Destruction of civilization was the main insight where the wooden pieces served sometimes as gravestone and another as high buildings rising up and falling down. Also there is feeling of mixing different culture through various symbolic geometric shapes, where fire eats all and gives birth to new era where mankind could rise again with a new beginning.

breached silenceVideo Installation, 2011

Personal exhibition, F+F Schule für Kunst und Mediendesign, Zurich, Switzerland, March 2011

Silence was a deafening sound, you could feel it in the eyes of everyone you pass by in the streets of Egypt, or in work or even at home. It was like a huge wall getting thicker and thicker everyday and light of hope was getting darker, but suddenly out of nowhere light breaks through without warning and Silence was breached.

it was thought the egyptians would never speak up but they was wrong. We know how to speak up and very loud too. We made it clear to the whole world that we are not yielding to injustice anymore.

We paid a great price to earn our pride and this work is tribute to those who shed their blood for our freedom.

"Breached silence" is a video installation project which exposes the intensity of the Egyptian revolution and it is impact.

trapDigital Video Animation, 2010

Passage 35, Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo, Egypt March 2010

trap 1 |trap|noun1 a device or enclosure designed to catch and retain animals, typically by allowing entry but not exit or by catching hold of a part of the body.verb ( trapped , trapping ) [ trans. ]induce (someone), by means of trickery or deception, to do something they would not otherwise want to do : I hoped to trap him into an admission.

envisageVideo installation, 2010

Personal Exhibition, Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt January 2010

The installation consists from 32 neon light bulbs and 8 five inch TVs and video projection screen. It is a question about reality and assumed reality, the relation between the physical existence and the imaginary one. The video screen is reflection of the room itself reflecting spectators but with video delay time of 10 seconds so the spectator faced by his digital existence and is trying to realize the relation to his physical existence in the room itself. The delay in time is agitated factor for spectators to react to their image. Seeing a construction with the neon bulbs covered with black cloth gives the feeling of mass without being actually there.

i who consent want to breathVideo Sculpture, 2009

32nd National Exhibition, Art Palace, Cairo Opera House, Egypt June 2009

4m x 4.25m Room | #12 5.5 inches TVs | #1 21-inch TV | Wires | Video splitters | #2 DVD Players | Cables. Video duration: 03:19 minutes

Truth has always been an idea which everyone seeks to achieve one way or another. We are promised to get the truth and nothing but the truth everyday from the powerful roaring animal called “media” but it still seems such a remote vague idea in spite all of the information technology revolution that we are experiencing nowadays. The truth will always be a reflection to what really happened.

We submit unwillingly to this vicious media circle, we want to breathe. In this Project I tried to change the TV viewing angle from what is known and make the viewer in the same position as the TV screen itself, and view its reflected information on the mirror on the opposing wall. Video images are captured from all the enormous information that is transmitted to us by various media sources, all in relation with the eye as the active receiver organ. All 12 screens are connected to the main TV screen in the middle of the room, which shows a video of an eye processing the transmitted information. You could also see the reflection of a TV screen on the eye pupil.

We only get the reflection of the truth.

squeezed cultureVideo Sculpture, 2007

Personal Exhibition, El Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt December 2007

15 balloons trapped inside compressed metal construction in the middle of the room, 2 video screens in the opposing wall, 65 light bulbs (red–yellow–green-blue) distributed along the parameters of the room and changing from one color to the other every 30 sec.

Globalization left no space for identity to emerge, cultures are mingled and squeezed together to the extent that you don’t know where one ends and the other begins. We became a matrix repetition, a statistic, in the modern compressed metal urban civilization. Numb is the way we survive our daily life.

had to spinVideo, 2007

National Exhibition, modern Art museum, Cairo Opera House, Egypt march 2008

A video showing two plastic bags rolling together, spinning around each other showing the effect of action and reaction. The duality of things is the pure essence of life; an eternal struggle to overcome each other. During this struggle, our lives are defined, but we have to deal with it and believe in what we believe, to survive the spinning.

el ma'amLight Installation, 2005

Light Through Form II Exhibition, Art palace, Cairo Opera House, Egypt October 2005

"El ma'am" is the Pronunciation for an Arabic word which means the grave of a holy man. People seek these graves for blessings. Usually the grave is in a middle of a room and there is a fence around it so that the people can see the grave but cannot approach it.

Installation is based on the power of the concept of the"ma'am" in Islamic culture, so a square is used because it is a very powerful static geometrical form. The square and the light are to reflect the power and spirituality of the "ma'am".

the sphereInstallation, 2005

Salon of Youth, Art Palace, Cairo Opera House, Egypt September 2005

Ugliness took over everything in our life that the space can't bare it any more. Value is lost and became very rare to find.

The installation was built in a space relatively small for the sphere, the sphere is 2.3 meters and the space was 4mx4m. So that gives you the feeling of its power. light is coming out from the cracks flickering and an air source from inside blowing to the outside so you feel the air pressure from the cracks, gives you the feeling that the sphere is about to explode.

The written text on the wall:Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited, but imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution........ Einstein 1929

in-differenceVideo Installation, 2005

Personal Exhibition, El Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt January 2005

Kunstverien, Aschafeunberg, Germany October 2006

Dark room, Light installation on the floor and on the ceiling with normal light bulbs but it is all dimmed to different levels.

I wanted to make a mix between the smashed glass in the video and the glass of the bulbs in the room, same material different feelings.You can see the connection between the real light bulbs and the projected ones.

We are living a life where violence is its basic instinct, humans are not affected anymore by it, and we see the news with dull faces revealing no feeling. The sound of death became as normal as any other sound in our daily life.

the second dimensionVideo Installation, 2004

Group Exhibition, Dar el Hiwar III exhibition, Goethe Institute Cairo, Egypt October 2004

It is a group work with three artists: sameh el tawil (Egypt) haitham nawar (Egypt) isabel hasse (Germany)

A video screen showing a wall of speakers vibrating like they produce a huge amount of sound, but there is no sound in the room. There is a bedroom in the middle of the room where a video is projected on its blanket of a man sleeping. As soon as anyone sites on the chair beside the bed, the video began with random clips about different subjects.

the video clips is a response to the room situation, for example he gets up in panic of the loud noise which is not there and ask the one who sites if he could hear it, if he could feel its power that is deafening him.

hualienVideo Installation, 2004

Hwei Lan International Artist Workshop, Hualien, Triangle Trust workshop, Taiwan November 2004.

Working space showing the construction of the wood hanged on the side walls and showing also the construction of the ceiling.

BedroomVideo Installation, 2002

Dar el Hiwar I Exhibition (house of dialogue), Goethe Institute Cairo, Egypt October 2002

A video projected on white blankets hanging from a balcony overlooking a street. The video is showing a girl in her bedroom acting naturally as any girl would do in her bedroom.

It may be strange to any non eastern cultured, saying so what. But in the east it is a whole different story. You may know girls even go to their homes but never to her bedroom, it is seems like a hidden secret. people reflex to the video was peeking and looking over their shoulder to be sure that there is no one is watching them, after a while seeing nothing but normal human being in her bedroom they get bored and walk away.

FacesVideo Installation, 2002

Kunstverien, Aschafeunberg, Germany October 2006Tahgeen Exhibition, Cairo University, Egypt February 2003Karim Francis Art Gallery, Down Town Cairo, Egypt December 2002Dar el Hiwar I Exhibition (house of dialogue) Goethe institute Cairo, Egypt October 2002

Sheets of white cloth suspended in a wooden tunnel, built in the main entrance of Goethe institute Cairo with rear video projection. The tunnel gives a sudden feeling of the street with all its noise, you have to force your way in to the building by removing the cloth and going against the crowd.The wooden construction built on the entrance door and the staircase - Goethe institute Cairo.People forcing their way through the tunnel, becoming part of the installation as the video is projected on them as well.

minaret of lightLight Installation, Concept

Aslem El Selhadar mosque, Darb El Ahmar, old Cairo, Egypt

The base of the minaret is the original but the top part is added after it was destroyed hundred years ago. The concept is rebuilding the form of the original minaret with steel construction to be covered by light bulbs to make it a landmark of light to be seen from all over Cairo. Estimated light bulbs to be used are 3000 light bulb.

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