ARLES.- Wael Shawky is a leading Egyptian contemporary artist who explores the multiple facets of historical and mythological narratives through diverse media including drawing, painting, performance, music and film. I Am Hymns of the New Temples is a site-specific exhibition that entirely transforms La Grande Halle of LUMA Arles into an immersive experience that blurs the lines between the real and the metaphysical. The site of ancient Pompeii—the legendary city that was buried under ash and volcanic debris for centuries—is key to the display.

Today, its outstanding state of conservation offers a fascinating record of the diversity of cultures that shaped its identity, at the crossroads of civilizations and trade routes. Intertwining history, stories and contemporary narratives, Shawky reinterprets the ancient Greek myth of creation, combining a spectacular choreography of movement, images and sounds, alongside unique sculptural and painterly elements. By revisiting theatrical traditions, Shawky explores timeless forms of storytelling, symbolism and ritual. This dialogue with the past offers a layered cinematic experience, deepening the emotional and philosophical impact of his work while connecting with a shared cultural memory.

The film at the center of the installation recounts the wandering of Gaia, the primordial goddess of Earth and mother of the Titans, according to Greek mythology. In Shawky’s interpretation, Gaia paces through Pompeii, where a host of mythological figures participate in ritualistic processions. Masked characters, divine creatures and priests honor the goddess with offerings and symbolic performances. Through the journey, Gaia encounters a pantheon of illustrious deities.

This heightened reality offers a rich framework for exploring human emotion, moral conflict and transcendence of everyday life. The Temple of Isis, a Roman building dedicated to the Egyptian goddess of magic, motherhood and healing, emerges as a powerful connective thread between ancient Mediterranean faiths. At the crossroads of cultural exchange, where Egyptian religiosity interacted with Roman spiritual life, Isis merges with Io, the Greek nymph that was transformed into a heifer. By showing how myth adapts across civilizations and the fluidity and syncretism of narrative identities through time, Shawky underscores cultural permeability, historical continuity and the power of ancient mythology in shaping shared heritage and cosmology.

In La Grande Halle, under the looming presence of Mount Vesuvius, glass and bronze sculptures feature prominently within the scenery of the ancient city and become potent symbols of fragility, transformation and the suspension of time. Glass evokes the delicate boundary between destruction and preservation.

Within the exhibition, sculptures act as both relics and inventions. They are objects that carry the memory of fire, as Pompeii carries the memory of catastrophe, caught between life and afterlife. A series of drawings and paintings invite viewers to further reflect on the intertwining of stories and the continuous production of narratives.

Inspired by a rich array of theatrical traditions, I Am Hymns of the New Temples becomes a powerful meditation on culture and its survival through cycles of destruction and renewal.

Curators:

Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Artistic Director
Tom Eccles, Senior Advisor
Martin Guinard, Curator