‘ARABFUTURISM: BASSEM YOUSRI’

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For our ongoing Arabfuturism program, we invite Mariam Mekiwi and Bassem Yousri online to share their work with us. Art theorist Charlène Dinhut, who works as a curator at the Centre Pompidou, will have a conversation with Bassem Yousri, and visual artist Els Opsomer will have a talk with Mariam Mekiwi. Both the films and conversations will be available for 5 days on the following pages: Bassem Yousri and Mariam Mekiwi.

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The Wardrobe Man, Bassem Yousri (2018, 48’) 
​​​​​​​Bassem Yousri finds himself in the West Jutland area, in Denmark, on a research mission about the life of the peculiar Wardrobe Man. Æ Skawmand (the Wardrobe-Man, Kristian Vandet Jørgensen) was a hermit who lived in his wardrobe by the shore of Oddesund, Denmark, from 1917 until he died in 1956. 
From inside his own wardrobe in Cairo, Yousri tells the story of his research to his friend Shadi. The film combines documentary footage and archival material with fictional scenes. The lines between fact and fiction are blurred. In The Wardrobe Man, Yousri attempts to grasp the relationship between geography, reality, history, and imagination. 

Bassem Yousri was born in Algeria and works in Cairo as an artist, filmmaker and art educator. His work uses humour as a way of connecting to audiences around the world and to critically examine stereotypes and cultural clichés.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Charlène Dinhut has been working at the Centre Pompidou since 2010. There, she first programmed for the film festival ‘Hors Pistes’ and now works with a team dedicated to the Planetarium speech cycle which explores the issues raised by the representation and changing perception of our contemporary space.