AB Gallery devotes a solo exhibition to internationally well-respected Egyptian artist Khaled Hafez featuring works that will be created during his residency at the studio in Lucerne in October 2013. His artistical practice that is characterized by the fusion of Egyptian tradition and contemporary symbols, spans the media of painting, photography, video and installation.

Khaled Hafez's drawings and paintings are loaded with codes, ciphers and emblems. His works are inspired by the "theory of simulation" of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) that differentiates three ages of signs. After living in times of imitation and production our society has reached times of simulation, a social state in which signs and reality increasingly become indistinguishable.

On the one hand Khaled Hafez takes symbols from the contemporary, western dominated media language; bodybuilders or top models, whose perfect bodies are proclaimed in an idealized and glorified form. Collage-like he integrates them into his drawings and paintings: some of them are obviously provocative and critical, others merit closer consideration before becoming accessible to the viewer. They appear as modern angels or as athletic runners, however, both refer to the positive as well as negative meaning of flight, such as escape, emigration or in its metaphorically meaning the retreat from reality.

On the other hand one can find symbols from ancient Egypt representing "What it means to be Egyptian". For instance Hathor, the cow goddess, symbolizing the "space" that brings and keeps people together. According to the mythology she scarificed her own flesh to save human lives. Another one is the Goddess of war Sekhmet, often depicted by the artist in shape of a lion. For him she symbolises the ambiguities between boundless compassion and at the same time capable to war and bloodshed. However also current symbols of Egypt appear in Hafez's works such as the Islamic star that demonstrates the prevalence of the conservative wing or silhouettes of snipers, which the viewer almost automatically connects to the political unrest in Egypt. Although they has been belonging to his image repertoire a long time before and refer to the one-sided reports of western medias about that region.

By melting together these apparently incompatible signs Hafez removes the gap between old and new world, between East and West, between high and trivial culture, creating a mirror of the society, which according to him is situated in a state of metamorphosis.

Image: © Khaled Hafez, AB Gallery